YouTube CEO Reveals How To Grow on YouTube!

If you're stuck for growing on YouTube while you see other creators blow up overnight, you're making the same mistake that 99% of creators are making. You're probably out there chasing algorithm hacks or growth tactics while completely ignoring what gets recommended on YouTube. The CEO of YouTube, Neal Mohan, just dropped another bombshell interview revealing the exact 3-step system that separates creators that get millions of views from those that are stuck at zero.

2 pieces of advice that I give to somebody thinking about building a career on YouTube. The first is, um, really think hard about what type of content you're passionate about.

But here's the problem. A lot of people watch Neil's interviews, but they miss the real insights entirely. And I'm about to break down these 3 insights that Neil Mohan talks about because these are the same exact principles that I teach my students, and they've grown from 0 subscribers hundreds of thousands of subscribers within a few months.

The power of YouTube is that it's not just an algorithm of your favorite meme of the week or favorite, you know, what have you. It is about your face, your— you as the creator, and you built that because you talk about something authentically that your fans understand. That's really the most important thing.

These insights are extremely important because without understanding what the actual CEO of YouTube wants you to do, you'll just be wasting a lot of time trying to create content that the algorithm will never promote. From carefully curating strategies to understanding YouTube's algorithm and even revealing the latest trends, I'm about to explain how you can implement these tips into your own content and grow your channel like crazy over the next 90 days. But before we get into these tips, let me tell you the most important thing. You see, Neil isn't just some random guy. He's literally the person who controls the platform, and that platform decides whether your content is gonna get a million views or if it will remain in zero view jail. And so therefore his advice is really the best you can get right now. So that being said, let's get straight into it. So we all know that everybody obsesses with hacking YouTube's algorithms, chasing viral trends, and trying to crack some secret code to becoming a successful creator. But the CEO has just confirmed that the way that most creators think the algorithm works is completely wrong. Completely wrong.

Recommendations, what it really is, is personal preferences of the viewer. And that's really the best way to explain it. So, your experience with YouTube, um, almost by definition is going to be different than mine because you have interests that are different. Um, you, uh, those interests change over time. And the product, the YouTube product should learn that over time and cater what we recommend, what we suggest to you based on those preferences. And so, it's really the product reacting to you as the viewer viewer, as opposed to anything sort of kind of mysterious black box out there.

The algorithm isn't some sort of top secret confidential code that YouTube is keeping in hiding from everyone. It's simply a system that collects your usage patterns, interests, and then recommends you videos that align with those. And so what this means is that you can't necessarily alter the algorithm in your favor because it's different for every user. Let me give you an example. You're watching this video right now. And if you watch any more of my videos or other videos about growing on YouTube, YouTube will see that pattern, which is YouTube strategy. And so the next time you open up YouTube, whether it's on your laptop or phone, you'll be recommended more videos related to this niche. Similarly, if you watch a lot of gaming videos, what's gonna be recommended to you? More gaming videos. So there isn't any method of hacking the algorithm or tilting the scales in your favor by doing something. But that's not all there is to this algorithm talk. I was going through this interview with Neil with CBS, and he gave some really interesting insights into how the YouTube team handles all the preferences of every user and what else goes into the algorithm itself.

We look at 80 billion signals, uh, and we also layer on top of that, raising up authoritative sources, especially when users are looking for news-related information, health-related information. And so it's a combination of those types of things where we live up to our responsibility —as a global platform, but also deliver the personalized experiences that our viewers crave.

So do you hear what he just said? The algorithm doesn't only show you content that you've shown an interest in. They're looking at 80 billion different signals to carefully recommend videos related to, say, news, health, and whatever else that these signals believe you would have an interest in watching. And so what I've learned from this, and honestly I already kind of knew it, but it's great to hear the CEO confirm my knowledge, but what we've all learned is that hacking, altering, or playing with, or doing anything with the algorithm artificially is impossible. What you can, on the other hand, do is discover what actually drives growth and use YouTube's system to help your content be pushed out more. You might be asking at this point, Matt, how do I know what's gonna actually drive growth? And I'll tell you that in a bit. But before I explain that, let me tell you the 3 main things that I noticed Niels keeps emphasizing in his interviews. And the crazy thing is that every single one of my students who's making over 5 figures a month from YouTube is implementing all three of these main principles, whether they know it or not. And so the first thing is creating content tailored to the audience that you're targeting. And I already hear what you're saying, Matt, that's the most obvious thing ever. And you're probably thinking there's no real sauce here because you already know this, right? But what most creators don't know is how to implement this principle to actually drive results. Audience-first creation is the principle that Neil Mohan called his number one piece of advice for creators.

I have two pieces of advice that I give to somebody thinking about building a career on YouTube. The first is, um, really think hard about what type of content you're passionate about. If you don't have passion around that, you're not gonna be your authentic self, and fans will figure that out very, very quickly, and you're not gonna build a fan base.

You're not gonna build a fan base. Just keep those words in mind for a second. The whole idea of building a YouTube channel is based on building a community and a fan base. These are the viewers that are loyal to your content, and they become the subscribers that are 100% going to watch your videos every time. But what most creators do is they try to chase viral trends, copy frameworks of other videos, even ones that don't necessarily align with their personalities, or they try to be someone that they're not. And that's when they fail. The CEO of YouTube literally said that as soon as you stop being authentic, fans will realize that quickly, and that will reflect badly on the algorithm. Just listen to this example that he gave.

You know, we work with all kinds of, you know, athletes on our platform. It comes through really, really quickly when they're talking about something that they're really excited about versus not, right? Like, it's not just about throwing up a piece of content.

The fans, the algorithm, and even the CEO of YouTube instantly realizes when you're not being who you are. And that's why it's extremely important to create content that you genuinely care about. And the best example I can give you for this is of myself. So I personally started YouTube at the age of 14. If you know anything about my story, YouTube completely transformed my life. I had to learn everything through trial and error, and now I'm super passionate about helping others and teaching them the things that I wish I knew in the beginning so they don't have to go through all the challenges that I did. And honestly, I do think that this is the very first step that anybody should go through before uploading a single video to YouTube, because if you're not at least a tiny bit interested in what you're uploading, your chances of growing on YouTube instantly become slimmer. And this also goes for faceless YouTubers YouTube channels as well, which I talk a lot about on this channel. Even if you're outsourcing certain portions of your content, I highly recommend going into niches that you have at least somewhat of an interest in. Now you might be thinking, what if I have a small YouTube channel and I don't get many comments or much engagement? Wouldn't I have no idea about how to make content tailored for my audience? That's a great question. So let me share with you the exact process that tons of my students use, and this works regardless of how many subscribers or views that you have. It goes against everything that you've probably been taught about YouTube. And step number 1 is to mine your existing data. Go through every single comment on your last 20 videos, or however many videos you have if you're just starting out, and look for questions, requests, and problems that people mention. This is pure audience intelligence that most creators completely ignore. But here's the advanced strategy: don't just look at your own comments. This is something you can do even if you don't have a channel yet. Go to the top 5 channels within your niche and analyze their comments too. And you're looking for unmet needs and things that people are asking for that nobody is fully addressing. Step number 2 then is to use YouTube as a focus group. Most YouTube creators, when they're looking at their analytics, they're going to look at things like audience retention and other analytics within their YouTube Studio, but they don't actually read it and they miss out on a ton of critical information. What you should do is go to your YouTube Studio, click on analytics, and then click Audience, and then look at your audience retention graphs and see these spots where people drop off. Those are opportunities for improvements, and the spots where people rewind and watch again, those are spots to include more so in future videos. Step number 3 then is systematic content gap analysis. This is an area where a ton of people get stuck because they don't have a proper method to research their audience at scale. But I have a solution for it. I actually built TubeMagic, which is an extremely powerful AI tool that can analyze trending videos within your niche, extract what's working, and instead of Instead of manually going through hundreds of videos, TubeMagic will automatically do that process for you because you can put in the best videos within your niche as training data for then TubeMagic to extract the best parts of those videos and then also use the frameworks that are currently working on YouTube to generate scripts that will keep people engaged and keep your audience retention as high as possible throughout the whole video because you're using open loops that we programmed into TubeMagic, and we're using advanced psychology. But don't just rely on AI. Like Neil Mohan talks about, make sure to be authentic as well and include some of your own personal experience and your own personal anecdotes in your scripts when you can. But if TubeMagic helps you get 95% of the way there instead of just starting with a blank slate every time, then I definitely recommend using AI at the appropriate times. But the second principle is counterintuitive, and in fact, it probably goes against everything that you've probably been taught about YouTube. I was watching this interview and I noticed one thing that seemed like a very normal sentence, but in reality it explained the true potential of YouTube for creators.

That I think people don't recognize as much is that not only are they amazing creative people, they are true entrepreneurs. Like, they build amazing businesses.

And the CEO of YouTube isn't just describing me and you and other creators as just creators. He literally calls us entrepreneurs who are building amazing businesses. And being an entrepreneur means that sometimes you have to look way outside the box to create content that truly resonates with your audience. I've worked with so many people who are making insane amounts off of YouTube, and the one pattern I see over and over again with all of them is that they aren't trying to be everything to everyone. Instead, they're building genuine authority and identifying real problems that people have and then delivering them the solution. And let me give you an example, because after hearing Neil talk about calling us entrepreneurs, my thoughts about niche selection have actually slightly changed. And so I had this one student who was creating a general productivity channel, a typical work hard, play hard type of channel, and another student focused specifically on productivity systems for remote software developers. And that second niche seems very narrow, doesn't it? And that's because it is, but that can actually be a strength too. The student I'm talking about had actual experience as a software developer, even though he wasn't some huge professional or anything like that, but he was solving problems that other devs like him faced. His audience were guys who were in the exact same boat as him, and because of that, his content naturally felt authentic and informative. The result was much better audience retention, better engagement rates, and an audience that trusts him enough to then buy the product that he's selling. And because of that, because of the fact that we're entrepreneurs on YouTube, he was able to make far more money from his channel and get more views than that general productivity channel that 99% of people would do if they're thinking about doing productivity on YouTube. And now if we go back to Neil's interview, he said that you have to think really, really hard about what you want to create on YouTube.

Um, really think hard about what type of content you're passionate about.

And that's exactly what I teach all of my students. Authentic valuable content that actually solves people's problems almost always performs generic content. Now you might be thinking that, "Matt, I'm not an expert in anything," and that's completely fine. Not everyone who's starting YouTube has to be a world-class expert. You just need to know 1% more than most people on a subject, or you need to think of yourself as an information DJ that's taking information that's already out there on YouTube and then repackaging it in a way where it's actually gonna have the potential of going viral on YouTube and gives more value because you're taking inspiration from multiple different things. And of course, you can use a tool like TubeMagic to do that for you, and then your videos will be the most valuable, and in turn, you can get the most amount of views. And that actually brings me to the third principle, which is so simple yet so powerful that I've been following this since day one. I like to call this the entrepreneur mindset. You see, in YouTube's eyes, creators aren't just content creators anymore. They're businessmen and women. And this is huge because it completely reframes what success on YouTube actually looks like. And so the creators who just got lucky with one viral video or who are just making money from ad revenue do not fall into this category because they're not expanding their horizons. But the ones who are incorporating multiple revenue streams in their channel are the ones that Neil Mohan is talking about. So what does this mean? It means that your videos are not just there to make ad revenue. Yes, YouTube loves ad revenue because they get a percentage of it. So that's great. You're making YouTube money and you're making you money as well. But YouTube also wants you to make money outside of that as well, because if you can build this into a real sustainable business, what are you gonna do with the money you make? You're gonna reinvest it into making more valuable videos on YouTube, which benefits YouTube as well. Now obviously I don't work for YouTube. Those are just my personal thoughts on this. And the one thing that most creators get wrong is that YouTube is a platform created specifically to serve them. YouTube's not out to get you, it's not against anybody, and Neal Mohan confirmed this in an interview where he mentioned that YouTube's job is to give creators a stage, and what they bring to that stage and how they present themselves is completely up to the creator.

You know, I always describe it to people on my teams that we build a stage for the world, and our job is to build the technology, this stage metaphor, and it's our creators that are on this stage doing the magic that they do, the creativity, informing the world, educating the world, entertaining the world.

And this fits my own experience as well, in that YouTube typically gives impressions to every single video uploaded on the platform. And if your video does good in those initial impressions to the people that YouTube is testing your content to then it'll get pushed out to a wider and wider audience. And if you upload videos within a single niche, when one video blows up, all your other videos will benefit as well. And what I've gathered from what Neil Mohan is talking about is that you don't need to be a course seller or a product seller to actually build a business on YouTube. All you need to do is think strategically and look at YouTube as your way to network with the right people. Think about monetization from the beginning, because if you solely rely on ad revenue, you're missing out on a lot of the money that's out there. Now I've made a video specifically about how to monetize on YouTube from day one without even being monetized. I know that sounds crazy, but I explain it in that video if you want to go watch it. And now before I end this video, I have two different strategies that Neil Mohan revealed as to how to grow on YouTube. The first one is the multi-format strategy. Neil said that YouTube is becoming a multi-platform content with short-form content and long-form content, and this has presented a very unique opportunity to creators who want to use it strategically. In order to grow exponentially. Instead of treating shorts and long form as competing formats, use them strategically together. I recommend using shorts for awareness and top of the funnel discovery due to the fact that shorts are a lot easier to get views and then link them with your long form content for building deep community connections and monetization. I have tons of students using this same exact strategy where their short form content then leads to a long form video and then in that super long video, they sell something from it. And I go a lot more in depth on this on my video about how to monetize from day one. But basically, you sell something from your channel and you can make a lot more from your channel than if you were just relying on ad revenue. This way you benefit from short-form content, which YouTube is pushing, as well as long-form content, which can continue doing well for a long period of time, especially if it's evergreen. Now the second opportunity is what I'm calling the living room revolution. A lot of users, especially in the United States, watch YouTube on a TV rather than a smartphone or a computer.

Uh, you know, YouTube content is gonna only continue to grow on screens like the living room.

We're just getting started there. And this is the biggest opportunity for creators right now because if you're solely creating videos that are tailored specifically to mobile or computers, then you're missing out on a massive audience. Now here's what this means practically. Consider creating content that works well on a big screen like a TV. This means creating longer formats, 'cause a lot of people, they'll put YouTube on their TV and just let it run for hours, whether it's in the background or whether they're sleeping or anything else. And I've been seeing the growth in so many channels that are tailoring content for TVs, including sleep channels that talk about, for example, history, and these are multiple hour-long videos where someone could just throw it on their TV leave it playing in the background, and just rack up insane amounts of watch time. Now you still need to make sure that you're actually giving value, make sure you're actually interested in your content like Neil Mohan talks about. Don't just upload long videos for the sake of doing it, but just think about the TV revolution and how you can tailor your content for a TV. The cool thing about TVs is that the watch times are higher, content's getting a lot better RPMs, and this is due to the fact that when people watch content on a TV they're likely to sit there and be engaged for longer, and they're less likely to hop from video to video like you're inclined more so to do when you're using a phone. Now you might be thinking, Matt, all of this is great, but where do I actually start? And I get it, a lot of these strategies can be overwhelming, but I've done a ton of research on YouTube over the past 10 years, and I've discovered how to make YouTube potentially an actual business that you can benefit from for years and years into the future. And how to build a real business on YouTube using a new technique that I've never shared online publicly before, that I've decided to put on YouTube for a limited time in this video right here. So feel free to check out this video right here, which will go over this new technique for doing YouTube that nobody's talking about on how to blow up right now and how to make YouTube, specifically faceless channels, into a real business. So if you're at all interested in it, check it out right there. My name is Matt Parr. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.