Why YouTube is a Waste of Your Time (For Most Marketing Departments)

YouTube accounts for about 15% of internet traffic. If you’re in a marketing team, you’ve most likely heard “We should be on YouTube." Or if your team is already on YouTube, perhaps you’ve noticed that you are barely getting any views.

If that's the case then I have good news… it’s not your fault. YouTube is just the wrong strategy to begin with and I’m here to make the case as to why focusing on YouTube for your business is likely a waste of time.

The Algorithm Doesn’t Like You

You’ve probably heard the term algorithm thrown around and at a basic level it refers to the computer program that decides whether your video is shown to people and to which people.

YouTube’s algorithm is good. In fact it’s incredible. Anybody who uses YouTube regularly knows that as soon as they arrive on the site, enticing videos are already displayed. The algorithm recommends videos based on watch history and other factors largely kept secret by Google. Gone are the days of searching for an exact video, or subscribing to a channel as a large majority of videos watched are served through these recommendations.

So you might be thinking; isn't this is a good thing? If I post a video showcasing our new Lawn Mower Supreme 3000 then isn't its more likely to be shown to the right potential customers?

Wrong. YouTube doesn’t care whether or not people are finding your incredibly sleek, top-of-the-line lawnmower (unless you pay for an ad). YouTube primarily cares about optimizing watch time. It wants to give people videos that keep them hooked and on the site. This means that the algorithm likes videos that appeal to a significant part of YouTube’s user base. This is why entertaining content and general education can do very well on YouTube. This type of content can more easily appeal to a wider group, gain traction, and subsequently keep people on YouTube longer. The more addicting the better.

When you are selling a product or service it is rare that your videos can appeal to such a wide audience. And even if it does, you’re competing with full-time video creators who's entire job involves figuring out how to beat the algorithm.

At the end of the day the algorithm NEEDS to like your video for it to be effective and reach a significant number of people. For successful videos there is a snowball effect where the views and watch time of a video result in it getting recommended to more people, which means more views and more watch time.

The Competition

When children are asked "What do you want to be when you grow up" the most common answer in 2020 is YouTuber. Sometimes the job of YouTuber is considered by older generations to be a joke. In fact, I would argue that it is one of the most difficult jobs in this day and age. There are hundreds of thousands of young people that make videos regularly on the platform. These people grew up on YouTube and they know how it works on a subconscious level. They are frankly obsessed and have unlimited energy.

And you think that by focusing on YouTube as ¼ of your media publishing strategy you can compete? Think again. 

There’s a reason why some of the top brands have only a few thousand views per video, even hundreds. Take a look at Gatorade's YouTube Channel.

You might see the occasional videos reaching millions of views but keep in mind those videos are funded by massive adverting campaigns.

These brands have reverted to basically dumping the videos that they make for other purposes onto YouTube without spending much effort on building their presence. They too realize that its not worth much of their time or focus.

Conclusion

YouTube has massive user numbers. However, despite these insane numbers YouTube as a media publishing strategy may not be worth it for most companies. This is a result of the difficulty to be seen through the algorithm and the unique competition on the platform. There are other reasons as well.

• The algorithm favors existing creators despite the rare unicorn case.

• The morality of having an algorithm that's literal only goal is to get you to watch more hours of YouTube - questionable.

Thanks for reading and as always I hope that I achieved my goal of providing something useful, different, or even plain old interesting in your life.