fbpx

The Easy Way To Get More Views On YouTube

Getting more views on YouTube is a great way to promote your current film projects and grow your audience.

In addition to being the second largest search engine on earth, YouTube has a built-in community of viewers who can comment, share, and link to your videos.

So taking time to plan your YouTube strategy as part of your overarching movie marketing plan can pay dividends.

When it comes to getting more views on YouTube, the name of the game is “search” and “discovery.”

In short, people find your videos when they search for specific keywords or when YouTube shows them as a “suggested video,” which factors viewer preferences and history.

How To Get More Views On YouTube
How To Get More Views On YouTube!

Get More Views On YouTube

While there is no guarantee how many views your video will get on YouTube, there are several things you can do to optimize your video for maximum exposure. Here are some tips you can quickly implement:

1. Include The Title Of Your Film: The goal of movie marketing is to make your movie memorable. As your film builds buzz, you increase the odds that someone will remember your movie and search for it online.

For example, if you are promoting your trailer on YouTube, including your film title as part of your YouTube video title can improve people’s chances of finding your work.

2. Include The Genre Of Your Film: People who randomly search for movies online often use generic terms. You could anticipate this by including additional info about your genre.

Let’s say you made a horror movie called Trauma Therapy. You might test a video title like this: “Trauma Therapy Horror Movie.”

3. Include Names Of Recognizable Cast: If your film features a celebrity, a well-known director, or a social media influencer, you might consider adding their name to your YouTube title.

Using the previous example, if Trauma Therapy features Tom Malloy, you might test a title like “Trauma Therapy Horror Movie With Tom Malloy.”

get more views on youtube

4. Change The File Name: Before uploading your video to YouTube, change the file name to match the title.

While we don’t know if this helps, many internet marketing nerds will tell you it’s an essential best practice for getting more views. So it can’t hurt.

SELL. YOUR. MOVIE.
Get Your Free Movie Distribution Checklist
Discover FIVE Ways To Maximize Your Profits
Featured Image

5. Keep Your Title Short: Search results only allow roughly 70 characters. These limitations require that you find creative ways to make your title compelling. You can always add more detail about your video in the YouTube tags and description sections.

6. Write A Compelling Description: When you describe your video on YouTube, it’s best to get straight to the point as quickly as possible. This is because the first few words of your description are visible in search results.

Everything after that requires the viewer to click the “show more” link. Ask people to comment and share your work at the end of the video description.

7. Optimize Your Tags: We all know it’s not 1999 anymore. So just because YouTube allows you to add a gazillion tags to your video, doing a bunch of “tag stuffing” will not help you get more views.

Use only 5-8 RELEVANT tags. For example, you might use a trauma therapy movie, Tom Malloy, a horror movie, Brian Krause, Luciana Faulhaber, movie trailer.

8. Choose The Right Thumbnail: This is where many filmmakers screw up. You spend all this time crafting an excellent video title, finding the proper tags, and editing your description, only to neglect the video thumbnail completely.

Don’t do that. The purpose of the YouTube thumbnail is to promote a click. Make sure you create a thumbnail that will attract clicks.

9. Add Closed Captioning: Besides helping people with hearing impairments, many prefer watching videos without sound. So adding closed captions is a good move. And because both Google and YouTube recognize CC data, adding captions is like adding searchable keywords to your video.

10. Share your video: YouTube is highly competitive. So, in addition to everything mentioned, you will want to share your video with friends, family, and supporters.

Ask these folks to leave comments and share the video with their friends. This will “prime the pump,” which could signal to YouTube that your video is worth recommending.

get more views on youtube

One filmmaking tool you can use to get more views is TubeBuddy. While they pay us to promote (as an affiliate), we love this solution.

Boost Your Films Reach

It’s easy to use and provides feedback on optimizing each YouTube video, including descriptions, tagging, and keyword competition. Depending on the tier of service you choose, they even offer an easy way to add cards and end screens in bulk! Find out more about TubeBuddy here.

While it will take some planning, getting more views on YouTube is a valuable strategy for promoting your film. And if you successfully get your video to rank in search engines, free traffic is always a plus. With enough views and subscribers, you might even catch the attention of prospective film distributors.

Photo of author

ARTICLE BY Jason Brubaker

If you'd like more tactics like the article you just read, make sure to grab a copy of the filmmaker checklist. You'll get 65 useful steps you can employ to produce your next feature film.