How to get traffic after ads failed
This Q comes from Maryam, from Quora:
I spent more than $100 on YouTube promotion and gained around 1,500 subscribers, but there was no long-term retention and no views on non-promoted videos. How can I get organic traffic back to my channel?
Hi Maryam,
That’s a tough situation to be in.
I want to be upfront: I’m not a youtube guy.
But I’ve worked with over 100 brands on their blog strategies over the last four years, and organic traffic is the bread and butter of blogging.
Since blogs exist outside of social media algorithms, getting found naturally is the entire focus.
My advice comes from that world.
It might not apply 100% to Youtube, but you can probably borrow these same principles and see results.
A few thoughts on why the views stopped:
Your content is actually good. The fact that you got 1,500 subscribers from those promotions tells me that when your videos are put in front of the right people, they find them valuable.
The "One-Hit Wonder" trap. If those subscribers didn't come back for more, I have to wonder about your topic focus. If you’re covering a broad range of things, you might have hit on a spicy trend that people liked once, but they didn't see a reason to stick around for the rest of your channel.
If they were your core topics, it’s time to double down on them. If they weren't, you might have attracted an audience that wants one specific thing you don't usually do.
Think like a library, not a series. To get people to stay, you need to be seen as an expert. This doesn’t mean having a PhD; it just means being the person who can help someone else who is a few steps behind you.
Some people judge how one or two videos perform, but organic growth usually happens when you’ve built an entire library of videos that answer every question a person has about a topic.
Some questions to help you figure out what to do next:
- Are you clear about exactly who you’re trying to reach?
- Do you know all the questions they’re asking about your topic?
- Do you have enough videos so that once someone finds you, they can binge-watch others because they’re all related?
- When you make a video, do you show proof that you actually know what you’re talking about?
- Are your visuals what your audience expects, or are they a bit distracting?
If the answer to any of these is no, it’s a good sign that your strategy just needs a little bit of tweaking.
ready to work together?