Matt Ciampa

Article / Updated 08-10-2022

Video reports and audience retention graphs are designed to help you understand how well your viewers are responding to your YouTube channel content. To find out who’s watching your YouTube videos, you have to try a different tack: check out YouTube’s audience reports. Diving into YouTube’s demographics metrics It helps to know who’s watching your YouTube content so that you can make important content-planning decisions. The Audience tab of YouTube Analytics is a fascinating way to analyze your channel demographics, because you can get concrete information about your audience members’ gender, age, and country of residence. Certain audience reports allow you to filter to see results explicitly from your subscriber base. Sometimes, it’s interesting to see whether your subscriber demographics mirror your general audience demographics. To access audience reports, follow these steps: Go to YouTube. Log on to your YouTube account.If you see the blue Sign In button in the top right corner of the YouTube home page, enter your email address and password. Click the Logged-In icon and choose YouTube Studio from the menu that appears.The YouTube Studio navigation menu should appear on the left side of your browser. Choose Analytics from the navigation menu. Click to open the Audience tab on the Reports menu.Here you find summary reports of age and gender. Click the See More link at the bottom of the Age and Gender summary report, and examine the charts and their accompanying details.It’s terrific if your audience is exactly what you thought it would be. If it isn’t, revisit your assumptions. You may find that your content is having wider interest, which may be a good thing. Conversely, if you’re not seeing enough traction, perhaps you’re not engaging enough with key creators and fans in your core demographic to help you get the word out. Refine the report to show only subscribed viewers by choosing Subscription Status from the filter drop-down menu.Look closely at how the graphs change. If you see a big difference, determine whether subscription requests are working more broadly than expected, because your content certainly is appealing to others. Make it a habit to compare your demographic information over time to detect any shifts in your audience. Diving into YouTube subscribers metrics Knowing your YouTube subscribers’ patterns and where they’re doing their subscribing is an important part of your channel management responsibilities. YouTube is well aware of that, which is why it offers a subscription source report as part of YouTube Analytics. Here’s how to access it: Go to YouTube. Log on to your YouTube account.If you see the blue Sign In button in the top right corner of the YouTube home page, enter your email address and password. Click the Logged-In icon and choose YouTube Studio from the menu that appears.The YouTube Studio navigation menu should appear on the left side of your browser. Bring up the Analytics section of YouTube Studio. Click on Advanced Mode from the top right of the screen.Within the Advanced Mode window, click on More from the Reports menu and find the Subscription Source option. Look at the report’s table section to see where on YouTube your audience subscribes to your channel.In addition to subscriber gains, you see the number of subscribers lost, too, which is a normal part of channel activity. Interested in learning more? Check out our YouTube Channels Cheat Sheet.

Article / Updated 08-04-2022

You may already be familiar with the concept of discoverability — helping YouTube get your content in front of the right viewers through recommendations and search so that they watch your content rather than somebody else’s. Though watch time is a critical part of YouTube’s recommendation engine, a video’s metadata — its title, description, and tags — plays an important role in getting the video found in the first place. Video search engine optimization (video SEO, for short) is all about telling YouTube something about your video. For traditional web SEO, search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo! would analyze the content on your site, figure out what was important, and then offer up your content to the most relevant searchers. Over time, these search engines factored in elements such as links, sharing, and clicks to determine how popular particular content ended up being on the web. YouTube doesn’t work like web SEO because it can’t (yet) watch your content to determine what your video is about. Instead, it has to rely on your metadata and how the community reacts by way of watch time, social media shares, and embedded links for the video on external sites. It’s a lot easier to get your video SEO house in order upfront rather than deal with it after you’ve published all your content. What exactly is meant by optimization in search engine optimization? Optimization is about intelligently and systematically putting together a proper description of your video so that YouTube understands what your content is about in order to better offer your video to the most appropriate searchers Search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo! understand your content and are thus in a position to add your videos to search engine results pages along with web content Viewers are more likely to click on your content versus other search results offered These are the goals you want to achieve. SEO tips for YouTube video titles The video title is the most important piece of metadata that you create. As important as the title is to YouTube and the major search engines, you have to also ensure that it works for people. The trouble is that it can’t look as though you’re trying too hard to grab folks’ attention. Exaggerated, inaccurate titles, such as “You won’t believe what happens to the 12 kittens in this video,” may generate more clicks, but the search engines won’t bite and they will likely ignore your content. Also avoid “breathless” wording such as “most epic” or “blow your mind.” Strike a balance between attracting humans and attracting search engines when you create and optimize a title for a video. Your title appears in many places: On the Watch page under the actual video In a YouTube search In Google, Bing, and Yahoo! searches As part of a playlist Under YouTube recommended videos Selecting a title isn’t complicated, but you must be somewhat methodical. Though you can use 100 characters in a video title, only 70 characters show up in search results on a desktop computer, though some mobile devices show only about 40, so you have to make the characters count. Titles on recommended videos are further truncated. You can create a longer title, but it’s visible only on the Watch page. The goal of video SEO is to attract viewers to the video in the first place. Limiting the title is no good either because it may impair search algorithm matching. Use the following approach to pick a title for your YouTube video: Determine the keywords. These are the important words that people search for. Make sure they’re part of your video content as well as the other metadata associated with your video, such as the Tag and Description fields. If you work for Acme Electric and you’re marketing the new Z500 convection oven, your keywords would include Acme Electric, Z500, and convection oven. Add a descriptive phrase to the title. Your keywords alone may not be enough. Determine why your viewers would be searching for your product or your video. They may want installation instructions or product reviews, for example. Terms such as “how to install” and “product review” aid you in both search and views. Move branding keywords to the end of the title. Viewers will search for your brands, but they need to see the descriptive information first. If your YouTube video is part of a series, include an episode number at the end of the title. Even if your videos are part of a playlist, your viewers may end up searching separately, so make it easy and logical for them to find another episode. Include title keywords in the tag and description metadata. Before you even upload anything to YouTube, it’s good practice to rename the video file itself to a title that accurately represents its content. YouTube keeps the original reference file title on the video no matter how many times you end up changing the title. SEO tips for YouTube video descriptions You should make good use of the 5,000-character field that YouTube provides for describing your video. It’s a great place to add details about not only your video but also your channel, along with links for other videos, subscriptions, other channels, and websites. In other words, it’s a goldmine for both metadata and user guidance. The viewers who care about your video will read the description, so make it worth their while. The YouTube video description should Explain in greater detail what your video and your channel are about. Extend the viewer’s experience by providing additional detail around what is shown in the video. For example, if you have a video on cooking, the Description field is a great place to include a copy of the recipe. Trigger the viewer to do something. That might include watching another video, making a purchase, supporting your cause, and more. Entice people to view. The first couple of lines of the description show up in search results, so you have to write compelling — and relevant — content so that the user somehow takes the next step of clicking and viewing. That’s also true on the Watch page, where the first couple of sentences appear under the video, compelling the viewer (you hope!) to watch. Aid in discovery. A great description should include hundreds of keywords that help with search. Be sure to use ones that are relevant to the video. The Description field isn’t the place for a transcript of your video. Be clear and concise, but make it interesting enough that people will want to read it. Always consider what information is visible in search results by being well aware of which devices your audience is using to search. The first few lines of the description show up on a desktop search, whereas no description data is currently exposed in a mobile device search. Two older terms from marketing and advertising are still quite relevant to today’s YouTube Description field: above the fold and below the fold. When people used to receive folded letters or advertisements, they often first looked at the top, which was “above the fold.” If the content was compelling, they’d read the rest of it “below the fold.” When viewers watch your video, they also see the first part of its description. If the description is compelling, they click the Show More link to see what’s below the fold. Make what’s above the fold in the video description count. The Description field should contain enough shortlinks to answer any questions your viewers might have about your video, your channel, and your business. The About page of your channel should contain links that complement your channel. It’s okay to repeat some of these links in the video description as well. The shortlinks in the description field can point to Your YouTube channel Other videos Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Instagram A website A landing page Include only one link in the first paragraph if you want viewers to ultimately end up somewhere else. Include all relevant social links or product page links in the second or lower paragraphs of the description. Don’t create a fully customized Description field for each video. Put together a consistent framework or template that includes some repeatable information, such as subscription information, social media links, programming schedule, and contact information. Customize only the data in your framework that relates to the video itself. Keep everything else consistent. Your audience will appreciate the consistent layout of your field as well. Everyone hates email spam — unsolicited advertisements filled with overdone and repeated buzzwords. If the description sounds at all “spammy,” you’ll provoke a negative reaction. Instead, try to be informative by using a lot of descriptive words and appropriate shortlinks. SEO tips for tags in your YouTube video Tags are special descriptive keywords or short phrases that indicate what your video is about. They are used by search engines to help potential viewers discover your video. Tags also play an important role in helping YouTube make related video recommendations. (Your Description field also has keywords, but tags are used by YouTube to help categorize your video.) YouTube imposes a limit of 500 characters for the entire Tag field. A tag can contain one or more words, but each individual tag cannot be more than 30 characters long. Without wading too deeply into the math, you may end up with room for 10 to 30 tags. Use as many as you can. What’s the best approach to creating tags for your YouTube videos? Think broadly. Everyone searches differently — some use broad terms like oven, whereas others use Acme Electric Z500 convection oven. Use both. Choose synonyms. Though you may use oven only in the description and video, it’s okay to use the word stove in your tags. Add an action tag. Sure, people may search for video about the “Acme Electric Z500 convection oven.” Think about terms that are relevant, such as product review, how to install, and how to clean. Pick one around the video content. Combine and break up keywords. Language and people are imprecise, so take that into account and use both keywords, as in cook top and Tags can be modified. Just be sure that they reflect the essence of the content. Don’t use tons of irrelevant keywords to attract viewers and improve your search rankings. This will actually hurt your search rankings as YouTube will think it’s spam. Plus viewers may overlook your video if they can’t find it. SEO tips for YouTube thumbnails Thumbnails are visual snapshots of your video, similar to a poster for a movie. They have a tremendous impact on a video’s view rate, so choose a good one. Thumbnails by default are chosen by YouTube — three optional frames from the beginning, middle, and end of your video. You can, however, create a custom thumbnail for each video using Photoshop or any other photo editing program. If you decide to create custom thumbnails, choose a thumbnail that’s illustrative of the content in the video. Thumbnails show up in the following areas: Channel page Watch page Playlists Recommended videos Channel guide Subscriber feed YouTube search Web search Mobile display Mobile search Keep the following key considerations in mind when deciding on a custom thumbnail: Incorporate boldness: You’re competing for viewers, so you need to stand out among the many other thumbnails across YouTube and the web. Color contrast and image quality and visual layout matter. Add personification: Show the close-up view of faces, if possible. Viewers click on faces more than anything else. Strive for accuracy: The thumbnail has to relate to the content of the video. Don’t use the thumbnail as a way to trick viewers into checking out your video. Meet the technical specifications: The image must be 1280x720 pixels and no larger than 2MB. Add branding: Viewers may not look at your thumbnail for more than a few seconds; adding branding is a great way to quickly let people know who you are. Plus, consistently branding your videos creates a cohesive look across your channel. Want to learn more? Check out these tips to improve your YouTube search rankings.

Article / Updated 08-04-2022

It’s tough to talk about analytics with YouTubers without hearing supporting terms like metrics and insights. Don’t be put off by all the geeky terms. Once you’ve set goals for your channel, you can access YouTube analytics to work with metrics and insights. Here’s the skinny: Metrics are quantitative measurements, such as the number of views and the click-through rates on your channel. Metrics gauge your goal attainment against your plan. Insights are qualitative and actionable things you learn and do from analyzing metrics — determining whether your YouTube content is working for you, for example, or figuring out whether your interactive cards are well placed in your video. YouTube Analytics shows you how you’re tracking against your goals and also where you may need to make adjustments. Understanding metrics and insights is relatively straightforward, but you need to know where to look in YouTube Analytics to get the data you need. As a channel manager, always think in terms of metrics and insights. You must act on those insights, though. For example, if the view count and number of likes (metrics) for your new video are only 25 percent of your target, your video may not be resonating with your audience or maybe you released it at the wrong time (insights). Take the time to fix what may be immediately wrong (such as poor metadata), or change future content or programming. You should monitor the video metrics again over time. As you become more sophisticated in your use of YouTube Analytics, you realize that certain metrics may depend on other metrics. For example, your earnings metrics may be impacted by view metrics, which may be impacted by engagement metrics. Don’t sweat the details — the relationship among all metrics comes together quickly. Reading YouTube Analytics reports Your go-to place for all aspects of YouTube Analytics is the Analytics section of YouTube Studio. To make your way there, do the following: Go to YouTube. Log on to your YouTube account.If you see a blue Sign In button in the top right corner of the YouTube home page, enter your email address and password. Click the Logged-In icon and choose YouTube Studio from the menu that appears.The YouTube Studio navigation menu should appear on the left side of your browser. Choose Analytics from the navigation menu.By default, you should go directly to the Overview tab. You can also bypass these report-reading steps in YouTube's Analytics. YouTube Analytics is divided into five subsections, indicated by the five tabs running across the top of the screen. They’re described, from left to right, in this list: Overview: Presents a high-level view of your channel’s overall performance. It includes the following summary reports: Main graph: Data on views, watch time, and subscribers over a specified period. If your channel is monetized, you also see estimated revenue data in this graph. Top videos: A list of your top videos for the selected period, ranked by watch time. Realtime: Displays your video views and top viewed videos over the past 48 hours. Latest Videos: Shows an embedded video of the latest videos you have uploaded, as well as its views, average view duration, and watch time. Reach: Displays the overall reach — how many people watched the content on your channel categorized by your different traffic sources, in other words. This section is composed of several summary reports: Main graph: Displays the number of impressions, click-throughs, views, and unique viewers your videos have generated over a selected period. Impressions and how they led to watch time: A funnel chart displaying how your video impressions led to views and, ultimately, watch time. This report also shows how often, on average, YouTube has recommended your videos to users. Traffic source types: Provides a breakdown of where and how often users found your videos on YouTube, such as YouTube Search, suggested videos, channel pages, and more. Traffic source: External: Displays a list of websites and apps outside of YouTube that link to or have embedded your video, as well as the percentage of times these sources led to views. Traffic source: Playlists: Shows the total percentage of views you accumulated from playlists containing your video and the names of those playlists that led to the most views. Traffic source: Suggested videos: Shows the total percentage of views you accumulated from other videos suggesting your content and the names of the videos that led to the most views. Traffic source: YouTube Search: Shows the total percentage of views you accumulated from the YouTube Search results and the keywords that led to the most views. Engagement: Presents a summary of what your YouTube audience is watching on your channel. It includes these summary reports: Main graph: Displays the total watch time and average view duration of videos on your channel over a specified period Top videos: Displays a list of your top videos ordered by their watch time in hours Top videos by end screen: Shows a list of your top videos, ordered by the number of end screen element clicks Top playlists: Provides a breakdown of your playlists ordered by the percentage of watch time attributed to each one Top end screen element types: Shows a list of clicks per each type of end screen element type you use Top cards: Shows a list of end screen cards, ordered by the highest number of clicks Audience: Describes who is watching your channel. It contains these summary reports: Main graph: Displays the number of unique viewers, average number of views per viewers, and subscriber growth over a specified period. When your viewers are on YouTube: Shows the times of day and days of the week your viewers watch YouTube so that you can determine when to publish your videos or launch a live stream. Age and gender: Provides a breakdown of your audience by gender and age bracket based on a percentage of views. Subscriber bell notifications: Shows the percentage of your audience that has turned on all notifications for your channel. Also displays a typical channel benchmark range for this action on other YouTube channels. Top countries: Shows what countries your audience is located in, based on a percentage of views. Top subtitle/CC languages: Displays your audience’s usage of subtitles as well as which languages are most frequently being used based on a percentage of views. YouTube reports demographics data for users who are signed in to Google. Because of this, the data you see may not completely reflect all traffic visiting your channel. Revenue: Displays a summary of earnings from your channel. It includes these summary reports: Main graph: Shows your estimated revenue, estimated monetized playbacks, and playback-based CPM (cost-per thousand impression) for a specified period. Monthly estimated revenue: Displays your estimated revenue for the past six months. Top earning videos: Shows you which of your videos are generating the most money and how much money they have earned. Revenue sources: Provides a breakdown of where your channel revenue is coming from, from sources like advertisements and YouTube Premium. Ad types: Shows the types of ads (such as skippable ads, non-skippable ads, bumper ads, and display ads) that are running on your videos, ordered by the percentage of revenue they provide. The Revenue tab is accessible only to YouTube creators who have been accepted into the YouTube Partner Program. If you want to see deeper analytics on any summary report described in the preceding list, you can click the See More link at the bottom of the report to open Advanced Mode, which provides access to additional metrics. Similarly, you can launch Advanced Mode by clicking the Advanced Mode link above the Date drop-down menu in the upper right corner of the page at any time to see more granular reporting details. To learn more about the main reporting tabs of YouTube Analytics as well as the summary reports just described, visit https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9002587. Breaking down YouTube’s Analytics report components Beyond the summary reports available within the main pages of YouTube Analytics, YouTube provides a richer set of reporting options within Advanced Mode that may seem overwhelming at first. You quickly discover, however, that navigating this comprehensive reporting module is quite easy because it consists of these four distinct sections: Filters: Over time, you do a lot different things with your channel, including adding video content, constructing playlists, engaging subscribers, and so much more. You’ll definitely want to set up dynamic filters that are meant to show you only the information associated with each of these aspects of your channel. The Advanced Mode filter section lets you do that. Reports: Advanced Mode reports provide greater detail than the summary reports that are available on the main pages of YouTube Analytics. You can also access some additional reports that aren’t available on the main YouTube Analytics pages and add additional metrics to all reports. You can access this feature from the menu beneath the filters and above the chart within Advanced Mode, or by clicking the See More link at the bottom of any summary report. Chart: After you’ve determined which report you want to analyze, you can get lots of information with some fairly flexible graphical representations (charts, in other words) to guide your understanding. This helps you assess the performance of your channel, your content, and your community. Table: Shows itemized details that correspond to the particular YouTube Analytics report. For example, in the Videos report, you can create a detailed, organized list of your top 50 videos, including name, views, percentage growth in view, estimated minutes watched, and average view duration. Want to learn more? Check out our YouTube Channels Cheat Sheet.

Article / Updated 08-04-2022

Coming up with a mission for your YouTube channel is important, as is defining your audience and planning how your channel could best serve your target audience’s needs, but at some point you have to define the content that brings it all together. Well, there’s no time like the present, so get ready to tackle that task and develop your YouTube Channel content strategy. Recognizing that YouTube content includes video and more When establishing a content strategy plan, consider these factors that influence how your audience discovers your content and what action viewers take as a result of watching: Video: The channel trailer is the first video visitors see when viewing your YouTube channel. This is where you need to captivate your new viewers and get them to subscribe to your channel. It is important to make a compelling channel trailer to drive subscriptions; you never know where a new subscriber is coming from. Viewers can click your channel icon from any of your videos' watch pages and jump to your channel. Intros and outros: Create consistent intro and outro styles for your videos. Think of intros and outros as what you see at the beginning and end of your favorite television show. In the first five seconds, a viewer should know that this is one of your videos; this consistency can be something as simple as the way you say hello and greet your viewers or as complex as an animated logo. Outros should be similar across your channel as well — a goodbye ritual or recommendations for what they should watch next from your channel, and maybe end screens. (End screens are screen overlays that allow you to direct your viewers to another video or playlist, ask them to subscribe, visit other YouTube channels, or visit an approved website.) Metadata: Metadata are the words you use to describe your video —the video title, your keyword tags, and the video description, for example. The more specific and precise your metadata, the better. The goal is to help viewers find the exact content they are looking for. Keep in mind that, if you stuff non-relevant keywords into your metadata, it's not going to help anyone. You'll only end up losing viewers when they realize the content you’re showing them is not what they wanted. Metadata is important for discovery and YouTube Search. Viewers can also find more information about the video or links back to your website if they want more information. Thumbnails: Thumbnails need to be descriptive of the content that viewers can find in your video. Make custom thumbnails to help viewers discover your content above the rest, and don’t hesitate to update thumbnails whenever a video’s performance is lacking. You can change a video’s thumbnail at any time — it doesn’t have to be a new video. End screens: An end screen is the best way to keep a viewer engaged after watching your video. If your video is longer than 25 seconds, you can customize an interactive screen where viewers can click on videos you want to promote, subscribe to your YouTube channel, and more. You can even reference the end screen when you’re shooting the video, to encourage viewers to take action. Links: Use clickable links in your video description to drive viewers to a specific location on the web or somewhere within YouTube. Your planning process should consider the viewer who wants more information from a specific video. Providing links in the video description or end screens is a helpful way to give the audience more information when they want it. Looking at content formats for your YouTube channel If you’ve been mulling over jumping into the YouTube world for a while, you’ve probably spent a lot of time wrestling with how to produce all that content you need to keep your channel fresh and active. With YouTube, you have several options for your content strategy: Creation: Regularly produce your own content. You can certainly build a channel without a stitch of your own content, but if you’re going to stand out, your viewers need to see your genuine stuff. Curation: Mine the YouTube universe for content that complements your YouTube channel, and organize it in a logical way, using sections and playlists for the viewer. Think of curation in terms of what a museum does: Collect all this great art (content), and then pull it together into a themed exhibit. The YouTube playlist serves as the museum’s exhibit. That’s why museums place French Impressionist paintings together: It’s all about the viewer/visitor experience. Would you want to see an impressionist painting together with contemporary pottery? Probably not. Channel owners generally love having their videos included in playlists, because it helps promote their channels and attracts viewers to watch their content. Done right, your curation favor will be returned many times over. Collaboration: You don’t have to do everything yourself! Team up with other channel owners and create joint content. It’s a popular and effective way to grow an audience and gain subscribers. A YouTube video can be associated with only one channel, so your collaboration planning should take into account content that you’ll own (create) and content that you’ll help share (collaborate). Here are some examples of different types of content you can add to your channel: Episodic content: The idea here is to have reoccurring content that creates a series or a body of work on a specific topic. This is great content to produce for your channel because it’s highly attractive to channel subscribers. Subscribers can choose to be notified every time you release a video. Short- and long-form content: Creating a mixture of short- and long-form content can help you understand the sweet spot for your viewers. YouTube Analytics helps you plan your channel better by identifying the optimal total runtime for your videos. If you’re creating 10-minute videos with short watch times, consider making an alternative video cut that is shorter to see whether watch times improve. Create new edits, and recycle footage: Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when it comes to content creation. Reuse video outtakes, behind-the-scenes shots, and additional footage (called B-roll) to make new edits. Recycle your content when it makes sense for your viewers. Playlists: Reengage viewers with old videos in new playlists. Highlight videos that are still relevant on your channel page and in new playlists. You can include your playlist updates in your custom channel sections to update your fans. Plan for mobile: Mobile viewership accounts for 70 percent of global YouTube video consumption. Make your content easy to consume on mobile devices. Easy-to-see thumbnails and text onscreen are important for your mobile audience. Shorter titles are easier to read and understand on mobile as well. You can use YouTube Analytics to check your channel traffic sources and understand what percentage of views are from mobile. Just because viewers are watching video on their mobile phones doesn’t mean that they want shorter clips. Create both long- and short-form content whenever you can, and watch your channel analytics closely to develop a strategy that is right for your audience. Curation recycling for your YouTube Channel A multichannel network (MCN) aggregates many similarly themed YouTube channels and personalities and then makes them available in one place. Frequently, they help promote their managed channels’ content on a single primary channel. To see what this means, check out Tastemade, which is a great example of an MCN curating its channels’ content — it groups videos from different channels into a unified theme and makes it much easier for viewers to watch them. You don’t have to own or be affiliated with a YouTube video to include it in your own channel playlist lineup. If you really like hunting down recipes, for example, you can collect and curate them from your audience. There are no limits to what you can curate, although some content will resonate better with your audience. Create sections and playlists on your channel that include videos from other creators. As long as it makes sense for your channel to include outside content, curating content is an excellent way to expand your channel’s appeal and keep it active even if you aren’t creating unique content. Adidas, for example, has a ton of channels. Company leaders made a conscious decision to link many of its subchannels to sections and playlists on its primary channel. Adidas has also subscribed to its own channels, to highlight even more of its content. Doing so encourages cross-promotion of its other assets and channels. Ready to launch your YouTube channel? This guide will talk you through the process.

Article / Updated 07-13-2022

You may wonder why music is even necessary in a YouTube video that isn’t destined to sell a pop singer’s latest album. Music determines a lot about the perception of your message because viewers make split-second, subconscious judgments about the content of your YouTube video depending on the type of music you choose. In contrast to music videos, the music in your marketing video is meant to complement the message you’re trying to convey. Music isn't the focus of a video — it’s there simply to add color. You must understand the difference between music you pay royalties to use and royalty-free music. Most of the music you hear on the radio or buy online is copyrighted and can be used in videos only if you pay royalties to its record label — often an expensive strategy because you must pay for every use of a copyrighted music track. Record labels sometimes even charge more, depending on how many views your video attracts. And, “borrowing” music and hoping that you won’t get caught is not an option. Videos containing copyrighted music can be detected and banned automatically from sites such as YouTube. Check out this article to learn more about YouTube and copyright. The easiest way to save time and expense is to use only royalty-free music tracks — they’re sold specifically for use in YouTube videos or presentations. After you pay a fixed price per song, you can usually use it however you want, as long as you stay within the boundaries specified by the music publishing contract. For example, some royalty-free tracks may be available for use in online videos but not in TV commercials. To choose music for your YouTube video, follow these steps: Determine which emotion you want to convey.For example, you may want viewers to feel happy, sad, or uplifted — or neutral. Watch a rough edit of your YouTube video several times.Or, if you’re still in the planning stage, simply review the video’s storyline in your mind. Do you need fast, aggressive cuts? Are your graphics clean and simple or more elaborate and flowery? The music you choose must match the video’s storyline, aesthetic value, and editing style. Choose an appropriate genre.You may want to use a rock-and-roll track or a country track, for example, or perhaps electronic music more closely suits your style. Set the mood.The mood of the music you choose has to match the emotion you want to convey. To judge, determine how the music makes you feel when you listen to it. If it matches the emotion you chose in Step 1, you’re on the right track. Control the pace of the video by controlling its musical tempo.A song’s tempo refers to its speed or pace. The pace of the video also has to fit the emotion you’re trying to convey and the overall storyline. For example, should viewers be relaxed or breathless after watching your video? Choose a tempo between these two extremes that creates the impression you want. Search for a song.After you choose the genre, mood, and tempo of the music in your video, search for a song. (You’ll find out more about music to purchase in the following sections. Or, if you’re truly talented, compose one yourself.) You’ll likely stick with royalty-free music. Drop in the music.After you finish creating the video, you can drop the music into your editing timeline and edit the piece to mirror the pacing of the footage. Adding built-in music to your YouTube video in editing tools Many video editing software programs royalty-free song tracks, such as in these two examples: Apple Final Cut Pro X: Has over 1,300 royalty-free sound effects and music tracks Vegas Movie Studio: Contains 400 royalty-free music soundtracks Some of the songs you can use from video editing software are so popular and overused (because they’re free) that you risk triggering unwanted reactions from your audience. For example, a YouTuber once complained that his video reminded him of a late-night TV ad containing questionable content. It turned out that his video editor had used a free, built-in music track that’s often chosen by these low-cost advertisers. Incorporating stock music libraries If you have only a small budget and you want to sound different from the standard music libraries that come with many editing programs, you can find a good selection of royalty-free stock music to download online. This list describes some good options: PremiumBeat: This one has a huge selection of audio tracks and sound effects. These folks, who work closely with composers from around the world, are selective, so it’s easier to search the libraries for what you need. Audiojungle: It’s less expensive than Shockwave-Sound, the major player in the stock music and sound effects derby, but its selection isn’t as large. Songs cost between $10 and $20 apiece. Audioblocks: A subscription-based, royalty free library, Audioblocks has a great selection of sound effects, music, and handy looped tracks for easy editing. If you want to use an iconic song such as Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and you have a limited budget or limited time to secure the rights, you can often find inexpensive but similar-sounding songs on stock music sites. If you can’t find a song that matches the length of your video, don’t worry: Viewers don’t focus on songs — songs simply enhance the pacing and mood. Therefore, a repetitive song, or looping a song to fit the length of the video, usually works well. Putting music in your YouTube video After you have selected your music, it’s time to insert it in your YouTube video. The mechanical aspect of this task is easy to complete. Follow these steps in your editing software: Gather all the music you want to use into one folder on your computer.Using one folder helps you find files easily and helps you back them up after editing. If you store your music on a CD, import the necessary tracks to your computer first by using a program such as iTunes. Import the music files into your video editing software.Most editing programs can process MP3 files and most other commonly used music file formats. Add an additional audio track to your editing project.Certain simpler programs, such as iMovie, have predetermined tracks for background music. Drag-and-drop your music piece to the new audio track. Then shift its position until it fits the timing you want. Watch the part of the video that now has background music in context.Fine-tune the timing of the music, if necessary. If you aren’t sure which piece of music will work best with your YouTube video, simply import into your editing program multiple music tracks that you’re considering. Drop one after the other on the audio timeline, watching the video with every piece of music, to quickly find which track you like best. Adding emotional impact to your YouTube Video The main purpose of your music selection is to enhance the emotional impact of your video. Even the specific way in which you use music in your edit affects the video’s emotional impact. Try these simple tricks to give your music more emotional impact: Work with the volume level. Music in a video shouldn’t always play at the same volume level. It should be softer and drop into the background whenever it supports dialogue or a voiceover narration, and it should be fairly loud when it stands on its own and drives home an emotional point. Most editing programs let you change the volume of a particular track over time. Dramatically increasing the volume of the music track in a key video scene adds quite a powerful effect — Hollywood movies and TV shows do it all the time. Determine the proper timing. A music track doesn’t have to start at its beginning when you insert it in your video. Match the music to the video’s visual content. Most musical selections have hooks — particularly remarkable and recognizable parts. For example, the hook of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is the famous “Ta-ta-ta-daaa.” Try to match musical hooks with important moments in the video. Cutting your YouTube video to music When you have a piece of music that matches well the emotional purpose of your video, fine-tune your edit to maximize the effect of the music. For example, you can extend a scene slightly to fit the most dramatic moment with a remarkable hook in the music. Most editing programs let you lock your music tracks to avoid their being affected by other changes in your video. Follow these steps: Put your musical piece on its own audio track. Time the music so that the music begins exactly where you want. Lock the music track.Most editing programs use a tiny Padlock icon to indicate locking. Watch the video and determine how to adapt the timing to best fit the music.For example, cut or extend certain shots slightly. Make your editing changes. Unlock the audio track. Precisely matching cuts in a video with beats in the music can create quite a pleasing effect because the picture and music then seem to move in perfect harmony. Avoid overdoing it, though, because an exact match can quickly bore viewers. The best approach is to match a couple of cuts with the music and then purposely skip the next few cuts before matching again. Alternating makes the final product less predictable and maintains viewer interest. Cutting your music to your YouTube video You may not want to alter an edit just to better fit the music. In this case, cut the music to match your video instead. Another important reason to cut music is to omit parts that may not fit well with the visual side of your video. For example, the piece of music you selected may have a bridge section that has a slightly different mood from the rest of the track, which can be distracting in a video. Eliminate the unwanted section by cutting precisely at the end of the previous part and at the end of the bridge section. Almost all video editing programs let you cut audio tracks, which is good enough for completing the basic editing of your music tracks, such as cutting off to the millisecond any unwanted intros or endings. An alternative is to cut your music tracks in advance by using an audio program such as Garage Band or Pro Tools. They let you edit audio precisely, and they provide a wealth of audio effects to help you enhance your music tracks for video use. Want to learn more? Check out our YouTube Channels Cheat Sheet.