How important are subscriber milestones to YouTube?

[Tiny Tunes]

I was reading a very interesting article the other day from a guy who had built up a music channel on YouTube. He made a fairly confident statement (although not back with any evidence), that when he reached 100 subscribers things really started to take off and he was convinced that YouTube moved his videos up the ratings because of this. Does anyone else have any experience or knowledge of this and whether YouTube treats your content when you reach certain milestones?

 

[zeke morgan]

Clearly the more interaction you are having with your audience, be that gaining more likes, more views or more subscribers it does place you slightly higher on Youtube searches, which can obviously improve your chances of being seen by a wider audience. I'm not entirely sure if this is done by milestones or whether or not its based on your overall presence, and I've seen small channels which have just started rake high views and place pretty high on searches, while a few larger channels with decent views could rate slightly lower.

It does all depend on a load of factors, but as I said it obviously can't hurt your chances of being seen if you have say 100 subscribers, as suppose to say a channel which has 20. Though this doesn't necessarily make the 100 sub channel better it "could" rank it higher on the searches,

 

[MaddyFlahertyTV]

I do believe that the more subscribers you have the more youtube would help but at the same time it's really your audiences that helps you build!

 

[Tiny Tunes]

That was my first thought when I read it, the more you get of anything, whether it's subscribers, likes, interaction, view time, the more you move up the searches. He was also posting new videos regularly so it just seemed like a natural progression. He was just convinced that when he reached 100 there was a marked change in activity. I personally can't believe YouTube is going to treat a channel with 99 subscribers that differently to one with 100!

 

[Koala_Steamed]

The initial views likes and shares you get from your subscribers can really help, a video with no views and no interactions get ranked very low in the Youtube search. Also things like the side bar with recommended videos only show up with videos that have a good amount of views/interactions.

I really don't think the exact number of subs has anything to do with this, if you have 1 million subs and no one watched or liked your videos then it would rank the same as someone who has 0 subs. This is just what I have heard anyway.

 

[Giedre]

The more subscribers you have the easier is gets to get more ( okay.it was one incorrect sentence, but you got my point)
I think in the beginning you should really work on promoting your channel and getting more subscribers and then with the time it will get easier and easier and they will start coming to your channel out of nowhere.

 

[TwilightPrinze]

As for ranking your video the most important part is Watch time, but in a way the more subscribers you have the easier you get noticed. Once i passed the 100 subs i slowly noticed that my channel started growing and now since i'm nearing the 500 it is going at a steady pace

 

[Tiny Tunes]

As for ranking your video the most important part is Watch time, but in a way the more subscribers you have the easier you get noticed. Once i passed the 100 subs i slowly noticed that my channel started growing and now since i'm nearing the 500 it is going at a steady pace

I know that watch time is the most important factor, but do you know whether that takes into account the length of your videos? i.e is it better for someone to watch 100% of a 2 minute video than 20% of a 10 minute video?

 

[ekloo]

milestones doesn't help you to grow. it helps only you to give yourself stronger motivation. for example: you really want the 100 subs? well then do your best to get to the 100 subs. and when you're there. you're happy to be there. then then you go for the 200 or 500 and repeat that whole progress. also you can try to competing yourself with a other youtube who grows a little bit faster than you. to give yourself a better drive.

 

[TwilightPrinze]

I know that watch time is the most important factor, but do you know whether that takes into account the length of your videos? i.e is it better for someone to watch 100% of a 2 minute video than 20% of a 10 minute video?

Hmm that is indeed a tough question. In theory it is the same amount of watch time so in that case it should not matter but i think in the end the video of 2 min could gain more views then the video of 10 min.

 

[DoodlingCats]

Really interesting topic. I enjoyed to read all the answer ! I read everywhere about the magic ''100'' and I'm really curious if it's true or not. Even tho I can't speak for experience, since I'm at only 10 at the moment eheh, I do believe that more sub > more interaction > more views > more ranking could be really true !

 

[Tiny Tunes]

Hmm that is indeed a tough question. In theory it is the same amount of watch time so in that case it should not matter but i think in the end the video of 2 min could gain more views then the video of 10 min.

I know, it would be interesting to know which is best. There seems to be a trend certainly in my genre (kids educational songs) of making incredibly long videos. I guess this is to just keep the viewer watching as long as possible. A lot of them edit loads of videos into one, sort of like a playlist but all in one video. I suppose it's also good for parents to put on one video that will last 45 mins rather than having to find a new one every two minutes. Having said all that the most popular video in my sector is only 3minutes long and has 380million views!

 

[TwilightPrinze]

I know, it would be interesting to know which is best. There seems to be a trend certainly in my genre (kids educational songs) of making incredibly long videos. I guess this is to just keep the viewer watching as long as possible. A lot of them edit loads of videos into one, sort of like a playlist but all in one video. I suppose it's also good for parents to put on one video that will last 45 mins rather than having to find a new one every two minutes. Having said all that the most popular video in my sector is only 3minutes long and has 380million views!

What i mainly notice is that live streaming is coming more up front nowadays wich is also the reason behind longer video's. I myself always live stream my content wich could result in video's becoming an hour or longer. I could download it to my computer and then edit things and put it back on but since it is a livestream that would take away the vibe.

 

[Sayantan Sinha]

I don't think that's true. There is nothing like that in the YouTube algorithm. I'm currently at 5k subs and YouTube doesn't favor me above anyone else lol.