5 Ways To Drive Traffic To A Video

6 Oct 2016

We get it – you’ve got an awesome video that you want to share with the world. But it’s not getting the traction you feel it rightly deserves. Find our handy tips below to help drive traffic to your video.

1. The thumbnail

The most important factor in making people watch and share your video is the thumbnail.

Whats a thumbnail?

The thumbnail is the little image that encourages the user to commit the next few minutes watching your video. The thumbnail is your shop window.

Some YouTubers use a tactic called ‘click baiting’, where they give you a misleading image that is different to the video content. We don’t advise you do this, because it can lead to a high number of bounces, and you’re likely to encounter viewers that won’t watch or engage with another one of your videos in the future. Thinking carefully about what the video is, and what value it provides the viewer is a good place to start!

2. The duration

Our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.

To increase traffic around your video, design your video to work for your target audience. For some audiences it is okay to have a 10 minute video, for others 45 seconds is too much. You have to know what is right for your audience. If you get this right and hit the sweet spot of duration then your video will perform well. Get the basics right and the rest should follow.

3. Content

The third basic element is the content. ‘Content is king’, as they say in TV, content is everything. If your video has great content then your viewers will share the content. If your video gets watered down with corporate messages then it is less likely to be shared.

4. Good descriptions

If you are hosting your video on YouTube, or on your website, make sure the text is written in a way that encourages traffic. On YouTube it is unlikely that the description will ever be read, but, the YouTube search tool picks up all the words in your description.

5. Video keywords

Finally the keywords. These are only specific to YouTube. Keywords are important search words that your user is looking for, include as many as you can think of. Make them relevant and think about what people search for.