15 Proven YouTube Hacks Marketers DON’T Want You to Know

With more than 2.5+ billion people using the platform to watch videos, it’s no secret that YouTube is a dream for marketers. In terms of engagement and reach, YouTube is one of the best marketing channels for virtually any business—and it’s great for both organic and paid traffic. 

But standing out from others on YouTube can feel like a daunting challenge. Especially if you have a smaller channel or you’re just getting started with video marketing. 

Fortunately, you can hack your way to the top by leveraging these pro tips used by every video marketer on YouTube.

#1 — YouTube Ads Are Cheaper Than Search Ads

Your paid media budget can go a lot further on YouTube compared to search ads. 

YouTube advertisers can pay as low as $0.03 to $0.30 per view.

Whereas a single click in Google’s search ads can typically fall in the $5 to $20 range. For highly competitive keywords (like law firm marketing), advertisers can pay over $200 for a single click.

So if you need to stretch your dollar as far as possible with a limited paid budget, you should definitely be experimenting with YouTube.

#2 — You Can Optimize Your Videos to Appear in Search Results Outside of YouTube

One of my favorite parts about publishing content to YouTube is that it’s discoverable in searches outside of the platform. This isn’t the case for most of the content you’re publishing to other channels.

For example, if you search for something on YouTube, you won’t see results for a recent blog post. And if you search for something on Facebook, you won’t see any of your landing pages (as it only displays results within the platform). 

But YouTube videos appear in Google’s search results. 

They’ll also appear in other search engines—like DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Bing, and more.

Many of you already know this (as I’m sure you’ve seen videos in search results), but now you can use this information to your advantage when you’re optimizing your YouTube videos for searches. Plus, if you embed your YouTube videos on your website the right way, you can even drive traffic straight to your site. 

Read More: YouTube Optimization vs. YouTube Videos to Improve Website SEO

#3 — Your Thumbnail Doesn’t Have to Be a Clip From Your Video

By default, YouTube will take a still image from your video and use it as the thumbnail. Many people change this by using another still image from the video that they think is a better depiction of what’s to expect.

But your thumbnails don’t have to be from your video at all. You can create and upload a custom thumbnail that’s far more engaging in an attempt to get more clicks.

Don’t think this will make a difference? Think again.

90% of top-performing videos on YouTube have a custom thumbnail. 

#4 — Longer Videos (7-15 minutes) Drive the Most Engagement

We can look at ten different case studies from ten different sources and get different answers here. So I won’t bore you too much with the exact statistics and slight variations from one study to the next (or we’ll be here all day).

But the general consensus is that YouTube videos that are 7 to 15 minutes long perform the best. 

I still recommend that you experiment with different video lengths. However, this tends to be the sweet spot for most viewers.

That said, don’t artificially inflate the length just for the sake of hitting the seven-minute mark. If you can get your point across in four or five minutes, that’s fine. The extra fluff will just frustrate viewers. 

#5 — YouTube Shorts Drive More Engagement Than Other Short-Form Video Platforms

YouTube first introduced its “Shorts” feature in 2020, which was a way to compete directly with TikTok and other short-form video platforms. If we look at recent data, we can see that YouTube Shorts edge out TikTok and Instagram Reels in terms of engagement.

Yes—the top three are all in the 5% range.

But don’t dismiss this data. YouTube Shorts get the same or better engagement than platforms that had a significant head start. 

So make sure to include some Shorts in your video marketing strategy. Shorts were previously capped at 60 seconds, but YouTube just raised the limit to three minutes. 

Read More: Long-Form vs Short-Form Video: What Works When

#6 — YouTube Studio Has a Free Keyword Research Tool

Many marketers choose to pay for dedicated keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Semrush, but these can be pricey and tough to justify if you’re on a tighter budget.

Instead, you can just use YouTube’s built-in keyword research tool for free.

From YouTube Studio, just navigate to “Analytics” on the left side of your dashboard and select “Research.”

From here, you can research searches across YouTube and searches made directly by your channel viewers. Then you can save relevant terms to use for brainstorming new content and optimizing your existing content. 

#7 — YouTube Has an AI-Powered Brainstorming Tool

Speaking of brainstorming new ideas, YouTube recently launched a new AI-powered feature that can help you come up with new content. 

This is another free tool that’s available in YouTube Studio. 

You can find it by navigating to the “Content” menu and then clicking the “Inspiration” tab.

From there, just add an idea (I added SEO for podcasts in the example above), and YouTube will automatically generate some ideas for you.

#8 — You Can Edit Your YouTube Videos AFTER They’ve Been Published

If you’ve published a video that’s already getting views and engagement, you probably don’t want to remove and upload a new version to fix mistakes—as you’ll end up starting from scratch in terms of the search algorithm.  

Fortunately, that may not be necessary at all. YouTube lets you edit your content even after it’s been pushed live.

There are some restrictions, but you can essentially modify any part of the existing video, which is great for making minor changes and improvements. 

So if you said something that was incorrect or outdated, you can simply trim that section without having to delete the entire video. 

#9 — You Can Automatically Add Captions to YouTube Videos Without Transcribing Them

Captions are a great way to make your videos more accessible to people who are hearing impaired. They can also let viewers consume your content on mute if they’re watching in places that would be inappropriate to have the volume up.

Rather than paying for a professional transcription service, you can just use YouTube’s automatic captioning feature.

This feature is available from the “Subtitles” menu of your YouTube Studio account. 

The quality is honestly hit or miss, and you may find some errors. But you can quickly edit these yourself if you spot mistakes. 

#10 — Turning Podcast Episodes Into YouTube Videos Kills Two Birds With One Stone

If you’ve been following my site for a while now, you know that I’m a huge fan of podcast marketing and talk marketing as a whole. So I strongly encourage you to create a podcast if you haven’t done so already.

When you’re recording podcast episodes, you should definitely be recording a video version of them as well. This allows you to distribute those episodes on YouTube instead of just through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

You’re already doing all of the hard work that goes into the episode. Why not just record the video? Sure, there are a few extra steps to edit the video and upload to YouTube—but it’s well worth it in the long run.

#11 — Your YouTube Videos Can Get Repurposed Virtually Anywhere Else

YouTube videos are highly shareable. So once you upload something to YouTube, you can easily repurpose that same content on your other marketing channels.

Try embedding the entire video into a relevant blog post or landing page. You can also just take clips of the video to share on social media or blast out to your email subscribers. 

The possibilities here are really endless, just as long as you realize that the lifecycle of that content doesn’t end after you upload it to YouTube. Keep grinding away and trying to squeeze every last drop out of it on other channels. 

#12 — You Can Create Polls to Growth Hack Your Channel

YouTube has some social media-style features that you can leverage to drive engagement and grow your audience. One of which is a polling feature for your community.

Here’s an example of what this looks like:

It’s simple, straightforward, and should take you less than five minutes to create a poll.

What makes this feature so unique is that it encourages people to spend time on your channel, even when they’re not consuming video content. Plus, your audience can like and comment on these posts, similar to something you’d see on Facebook. 

This definitely isn’t one of YouTube’s most popular features. But it’s something all of the video marketers know about and look for ways to exploit.

#13 — It’s Easy (and Cheap) to Turn High-Performing Blog Posts Into YouTube Videos

I’ve heard so many people tell me that they want to create more YouTube content, but they just don’t know where to start.

One of my favorite methods is to look at your highest-performing blog posts for inspiration. 

You’ve already covered the subject once, so it should be fairly easy to replicate the information in a video format. Plus, you know that people are interested in it.

Let’s say you’re running an HVAC company and you have blogs about How to Repair a Furnace or the Differences Between Mini Splits and Central Air. You can just record videos on these topics and upload them to your YouTube channel.

This works especially well for how-to videos, where written descriptions are tough to follow. 

#14 — You Don’t Need to Spend a Fortune on Equipment to Create YouTube Videos

Aside from a halfway decent camera, a microphone or two, and basic editing software, you don’t really need to spend a ton of money on equipment.

If you run a Google search on what types of equipment you need to launch a channel, you’ll quickly see that most of those sites are just promoting a bunch of affiliate products. So it’s in their best interest to tell you need stuff that, in reality, you can live without. 

Do you need something a bit better than an iPhone camera? Yes.

But do you need to spend $10,000 on the latest high-tech camera? Absolutely not.

#15 — Sticking to a Consistent Publishing Schedule With Quality Content Pays Off in the Long Run

At the end of the day, YouTube marketing is just a component of content marketing. And like all content marketing strategies, it takes some time to see results.

Don’t expect to publish a new video today and get instant results tomorrow. That’s now how this works.

But if you can commit to publishing one, two, or maybe even three new videos per week, I promise you’ll see a spike in views and engagement in the next 12 to 24 months. 

There is one slight contingency here. You actually need to produce quality content that people want to watch. 

Fluff and BS don’t rank or perform well. But quality content will move the needle. Just give it some time, and don’t quit after three or six months with no views. Stick to your plan.

Final Thoughts

If you’re still hesitant on how to succeed on YouTube and you need some extra assistance, you can contact my team here at McDougall Interactive for assistance. 

We provide a wide range of video marketing services that help steer you in the right direction or simply handle on your behalf.