1. Choose Google-friendly keywords

A great YouTube channel starts with great SEO.

2. Create custom thumbnails

Thumbnails matter more than titles. That’s because our brains are hardwired to notice visuals first.

3. Cross-promote your channel

Reach out to audiences outside of YouTube to build community around your channel. Incorporate videos into your blog, email newsletter, and other social media accounts.

4. Leverage metadata

Only include tags in the “tags section” of your upload—not the video description. Add one or two categories to help YouTube understand who to recommend your video to.

5. Make playlists

Videos in a playlist are more likely to appear in YouTube’s Suggested Videos column. Plus, playlist titles are a great place to add keywords.

6. Add a call-to-action

YouTube has a call-to-action extension for in-stream ads. But there are also lots of free ways to add CTAs to videos:

• Video Descriptions: Ask viewers to comment, share, or like your video in the description itself.

• End Cards / Screens: Add a customizable screenshots to the beginning, middle, or end of the video.

How to advertise on YouTube

First, your video ad will live on YouTube, so start by uploading the video file to your YouTube channel. Make sure the video is public.

Sign in to your Google Ads account and select New Campaign.

a) Choose your campaign goal, based on your brand’s marketing objectives:

Sales
Leads
Website traffic
Product and brand consideration
Brand awareness and reach
Or: create a campaign without a goal’s guidance

b) Select your campaign type.

These include all forms of Google ads (including search results, text, shopping)

c) Select your bid strategy

(do you want conversions, clicks, or impressions?) & Enter your budget by day or as the total amount

d) Select where your ads will show up:

• Discovery only (i.e., YouTube search results);
• All of YouTube (i.e., search results, but also channel pages, videos and the youTube homepage)
• YouTube Display network (i.e., non-YouTube affiliate websites, etc.)

e) Select your audience’s language, and location

f) Choose how “sensitive” your brand safety guidelines are