How Do I Get More Views on YouTube?

You get more views on YouTube by doing two jobs well: earning the click with a topic, title and thumbnail that make a specific promise, and then keeping the people who click satisfied enough to watch, so YouTube's recommendations keep showing the video to new viewers. Most channels work hard on the first job and neglect the second. Nobody can guarantee a number of views, but you can fix the parts you control, one upload at a time.

Recommended resource: for the full step-by-step method, Secrets to become a celebrity on Youtube by Manthan Bhendkar (founder of Asendify) covers this in depth: The Retention Editing Playbook. PDF, £304.50, instant download.

How YouTube decides who sees your video

YouTube says its recommendations draw on viewing behaviour, likes, dislikes, subscriptions and feedback, including satisfaction surveys, along with the quality of the channel (How YouTube Works: recommendations). In plain terms: the platform watches what real viewers do after they click.

The Retention Editing Playbook puts it this way: clicks get you an audition, retention gets you the part. Two videos with the same click-through rate can grow very differently if one keeps viewers and the other loses them in the first 30 seconds. The book focuses on three numbers in YouTube Studio:

• Average view duration: how many minutes the average viewer watched.
• Average percentage viewed: what share of the video they watched, which makes videos of different lengths comparable.
• Viewers still watching at 0:30: the clearest early sign of whether the click was satisfied, and the one you control most.

Step 1: Pick a topic with a clear promise

A view starts with a question someone already has. Before filming, write the exact question your audience would type into a search box. If you cannot state the outcome the viewer gets in one sentence, the title and thumbnail will be vague too, and vague titles don't get clicked.

A useful test: could a stranger tell from the title alone what they will know or be able to do after watching? If not, sharpen it.

Step 2: Make the title, thumbnail and first seconds match

The title and thumbnail open the viewer's first question. The opening has to answer to it immediately. The book's checklist:

• the thing in the thumbnail appears on screen within the first 10 seconds,
• the spoken promise matches the title, stated by about 0:08,
• something visual backs the promise up by about 0:20.

A mismatch here is the most common reason for what the book calls the Cliff: a steep drop in the first 30 seconds where 30 to 50% of viewers leave before anything has been said.

Step 3: Rebuild your first 30 seconds

Use the Promise, Proof, Path structure:

1. Promise (0 to 8 seconds): the specific outcome, matching the title.
2. Proof (8 to 20 seconds): show evidence it's real: a screenshot, a result, a quick demonstration.
3. Path (20 to 30 seconds): one sentence on how you'll get there, ending on an open loop about something later.

Pick an opener from the five hook types: the specific number, the contradiction, the mistake, the reveal in progress, or the question they've already asked. Rotating between them stops your audience predicting your intros.

Cut the usual intro killers: logos and stings, "hey guys, welcome back", "in today's video", subscribe requests, and long static shots with no text.

Step 4: Give viewers reasons to stay to the end

Once the intro holds, the next leaks are in the middle. The book's rules of thumb:

• nothing on screen or in the audio stays the same for more than about 3 seconds,
• every 20 to 40 seconds the viewer gets a fresh reason to keep watching: an open loop, a tease, a partial payoff,
• the best payoff comes last, broken into stages so it is always still ahead,
• around 40% of the runtime, a deliberate re-hook restates why the viewer is here and raises the stakes,
• the ending ramps into another video instead of announcing "that's it for today".

Step 5: Diagnose before you change anything

Open YouTube Studio, choose a video that has been up at least a week, and go to Analytics, then Engagement. YouTube's key moments report labels the intro, spikes and dips for you (YouTube Help). Read the shape:

• Cliff: the intro is the leak.
• Slow Bleed: steady decline; pacing and re-hooks are the leak.
• Step: a sudden drop at one timestamp; watch the 15 seconds before it and name the cause.
• Spike: people rewound; do more of whatever happened there, earlier.

Do this on your last five videos. Most channels find the same leak five times, and fixing that one thing is the highest-value change available.

A simple four-week plan

• Week 1: diagnose your last five videos and choose the single leak to fix first.
• Week 2: on the next upload, film the intro last using Promise, Proof, Path.
• Week 3: plan the structure before cutting: loops, payoff order, the 40% re-hook.
• Week 4: compare the 0:30, halfway and final-30-seconds figures with your Week 1 average.

Keep uploading on a schedule you can sustain; consistency gives you enough videos to learn from.

Key takeaways

• Views depend on earning the click and then satisfying the viewer who clicked.
• Write the exact question your video answers before you film.
• Match the thumbnail, title and first 10 seconds.
• Use Promise, Proof, Path and one of five hook types for the first 30 seconds.
• Diagnose your retention graph shape before changing how you edit.

FAQ

Should I buy views or use view exchanges?

No. YouTube's policies prohibit artificially inflating views, and fake views tell you nothing about what real viewers want. Spend that effort on the parts above.

Do longer videos get more views?

Not by length alone. A shorter video that people watch most of can do better than a long one they abandon. Make the video as long as the content honestly needs.

How long until changes show up?

Look at each video's figures after about seven days, once your subscribers are no longer most of the audience. Compare against your own average, not other channels.

Are Shorts a good way to get views?

They can bring new viewers, and the same principles apply in miniature: deliver the promise in the first second or two and give a reason to stay to the end.

The full system behind this, including the diagnosis worksheet and the pre-export checklist, is in The Retention Editing Playbook; creators who want feedback on their edits can join the 6-week Retention Editing Accelerator (10 seats a round, next round 16 Nov 2026, £2,023.91 including a 45% service fee, book included). Before your next upload, test the opening line with the free hook checker.

More playbooks on other topics: https://www.asendify.co/books/

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