How Mark Rober is Beating the YouTube Algorithm (Genius Strategy)

[00:02] his content is both entertaining and educational so when i procrastinate and i can at least say to myself that i'm learning something new three learning something new three two one

[00:17] [Laughter] however what i find most fascinating about him is his growth here on youtube he averages a ridiculous 27 million and even when he's not uploading he still has a consistent stream of viewers

[00:30] i mean in the last 30 days he hasn't uploaded a single video but he has 36 million views that's in the region of a hundred thousand dollars in ad revenue how come one guy who uploads just 12 videos a year be growing so fast

[00:44] maybe mark robert knows something that in this video we're going to break down how he is beating the algorithm to reach every day if you're a smaller creator who wants to grow your own channel

[00:57] a mark rover youtube masterclass on this channel i like to youtubers and get to the bottom of how they have built their audiences now if you were to ask mark himself about the secret to his success he would

[01:12] like this your videos get 27 million views on is this true this is true it's actually the most on all of youtube what is the secret i do like wholesome

[01:25] stuff i like doing things that are big and crazy you know world's largest nerf gun world's largest super soaker but let's be real for a minute top works they know what sort of content to make

[01:37] millions of views do you think a guy who helped for the robot on mars just makes wholesome content and hopes for the best through my research i've broken down the three steps mark rober uses with every

[01:50] going viral and i don't even want to hype this up is doing will make you realize just how much thought goes into every upload anyone can learn from to make better videos and get more views

[02:04] videos and get more views let's get straight into things

[02:16] to what mark rober is doing it's about giving the algorithm exactly what it youtube uses their algorithm to help surface videos that people will click on and watch because at the end of the day they want people to stay on their site

[02:29] content goes viral let's take this video here as an example to a certain number of people let's call this group of people the have recently watched mark's videos before and a high percentage will be

[02:44] if the video performs well in the data here it'll be shown to more of this the viral moment comes when youtube starts to show this video to a wider and it still performs really well this tells youtube that the video appeals to

[02:58] not only fans of matt rober so they start to recommend it to more and more content this is often called the algorithm it keeps being recommended until it eventually begins to plateau and decline

[03:12] robert has the head start of having a big subscriber base but it's pretty much the same idea no matter how small the channel is decide if a video is performing well

[03:24] if you've watched this channel before you already know what i'm going to say click-through rate watch time and audience retention when it comes to and you can bet your ass that mark robert is dominating these metrics

[03:40] it varies a lot but if you can get over 4 minutes of watch time with a 50 or above audience retention and a 10 to 20 ctr you have a really good chance of going viral the last time i hit those figures

[03:52] myself this happened so what is mark doing to make sure that every video he makes smashes each of these metrics fascinating ideas and having a big budget helps

[04:04] but lots of people try and copy this and never see a fraction of the results let's first look at step one how he structures his videos using retention has anyone ever noticed that when you click on a mark rover video

[04:16] 10 minutes goes by in the blink of an eye you might just think it's because he makes awesome videos which is true but he also uses techniques which makes there's actually a science to making someone feel fully immersed in your

[04:29] let's investigate the tactics mark is using to keep you watching gives you a hook context and setup i like to look at this as the what section of a video mark explains very quickly what the video is about

[04:43] gives context to why he is doing it and then tells you how it's going to go down understanding of what they're going to experience with the video let's look at this in action this is a bird feeder and everything to my left

[04:56] is my attempt at making it squirrel proof if they want the birdseed what is basically an eight-part ninja warrior obstacle course for squirrels is not for the timid of heart but out of the

[05:10] gate i will admit that in hindsight that i completely underestimated my adversary through all this trouble when did you go back eight weeks ago when i found myself stuck at home and very bored next is the fact that

[05:23] i genuinely think this is what separates good youtubers from great youtubers you need to realize the attention span of a youtube viewer is pretty low no offense so macro relieves no dull moments in his videos

[05:36] showing everyone how he built the obstacle course but he instead made a many youtubers would have just kept this part in but do people really need to see we are here to see the squirrel version of total wipeout not a carpentry lesson

[05:51] and finally mark makes us wait for the result you need to carry people along which in mark's case is seeing whether the squirrels beat his course or not correctly so the climax builds as you near the end

[06:05] second until the conclusion smart rick was the first one to enter after about a week of effort it was fitting he was the one to make it to the and he's so stoked he apparently wants to run the whole course in reverse in

[06:20] the jackpot a little quieter so when mark combines these retention storytelling the viewer has no choice but to stick the result is retention graphs that look like this and let me tell you youtube

[06:34] retention curve alright so that's how mark makes people watch time and retention place which brings us on to step number two

[06:47] mark uses killer metadata metadata on youtube is essentially the main four types are titles thumbnails tags and descriptions tags were very important but in 2020 they're pretty irrelevant i

[07:03] and search terms but using my youtube tool tubebuddy i can see that neither mark rober or mrbeast used any tags in the last upload and they both keep their descriptions pretty short i think this is a good sign

[07:15] anymore with one exception try use your first teaser to your video because this is displayed in search things worth noting first of all they are often under 50

[07:29] characters this means that when viewed on mobile in your recommended feed none this also leads to his titles being super pragmatic they're kind of yep just testing if sharks can smell a drop of blood nothing much

[07:43] rewarded on youtube if you confuse someone with your title they're not but it's mark's thumbnails that really make him stand out now from looking at amateurish but this is the point i talked about this in my first mr beast

[07:58] video people love youtube for the homemade feel of it it's why we watch polished thumbnails with great graphic design might look more aesthetic but that doesn't always mean it's better whenever mark does use text it's kept to

[08:12] important part of the thumbnail is always the demonstration of what is sometimes it's completely staged such as this shark one but he finds the balance delivering on his promise thumbnails can make or break a youtube

[08:26] thumbnail with my david dobrik video and it got 10k views in a week blew up to 200k views there's very little difference between much more interesting one little change made me an extra six

[08:40] hundred dollars and brought him 1 900 subscribers while mark's thomas might look simple i guarantee you he spends ages trying to get them just i recommend making multiple thumbnails and comparing them if you are really

[08:52] trying to invest in your youtube channel you can use a tool like tubebuddy which testing you basically can load two different thumbnails into their software automatically on your video and measure the ctr for each one

[09:05] with that one you can install the software using my link below most important youtube metrics it all seems pretty simple right but the beauty is in executing it to perfection don't go anywhere just yet though

[09:20] taking that i think is so important to keep in mind he gives his videos breathing room mark uploads just once per month or even although i have heard he's got a pretty cool video with dude perfect coming soon

[09:33] so watch out for that you see youtube is no longer a place right now to stand out you need to provide ten times the quality you did if mark uploaded weekly videos i'm sure they would be good but if he takes all

[09:47] month it's going to be an insane video from an algorithm perspective creating banger video after banger video means each upload continues to ride the wave of success of the previous video

[10:00] less might seem like pretty terrible to channel but the truth is right now you might have a quality problem and not a quantity problem i really enjoyed making this video on mark and i hope you

[10:13] learned as much from him as i did myself please smash the subscribe and turn the 99 of you aren't subscribed which is definitely a record post a lot of youtube related content over there including how much i'm making

[10:27] like for now though i'll see you in the next for now though i'll see you in the next one