The YouTube Algorithm Has Been Tweaked

CTR and audience retention are now taking a back seat.

I keep close tabs on my peers in the YouTube expertise space, in part because a lot of them are my buddies –
​But also because I want to consider the new concepts they're introducing and decide whether I agree or not.

If I agree, and if it aligns with what I'm seeing, I convey that to you. The latest?

It seems that the YouTube algorithm may have been tweaked.

See, several years ago, Mr. Beast blew up, and he very openly shared his findings on how he successfully reverse-engineered the YouTube algorithm.

His core advice was about making eye-catching thumbnails and titles to improve CTR (click-through rate), and then structuring videos so that they compel viewers to watch for as long as possible, thus boosting AVD (average view duration).

Jimmy said, basically, that if you can grab attention with a compelling thumbnail and title, and then get over 75% of your audience to watch beyond the 30-second mark, your views would skyrocket.

And? It worked. (OMG did it work )

Jimmy's techniques were instantly adopted, and they spread like wildfire in the creator community. People started seeing big boosts in views, and Jimmy was seen as an absolute hero.

This 23 year-old kid in North Carolina had cracked the code of the notoriously mysterious YouTube algorithm.

Even my coworkers and I at YouTube became students. When we on the Content Strategy team developed YouTube's original best practices, it was all about coming up the most creative ideas – not decoding the calculation by which the algorithm decides if a video should be promoted. Now everyone had the cheat code for success.

CUT TO: 2023

Clones of Mr. Beast were everywhere, applying his tactics, and even acting like him on camera. It was like Jimmy suddenly had hundreds of obnoxious little brothers.

It also seemed like nearly all the videos that were succeeding on YouTube were of that Mr. Beast style, with the bright colors... the shouting... the spectacle... the hyper-fast edits.

Some people call this "The Beastification of YouTube", and accuse Jimmy of ruining the platform with his loud, frenetic style. Even Jimmy expressed regret about sharing it all –

A platform overly prioritizing one type of content was starting to look bad for YouTube, and both viewers and creators alike began to complain.

And if there's one thing YouTube doesn't like, it's bad press. I don't know this for a fact, but my hunch is that Todd Beaupre's Discovery team at YouTube were pressured to adjust their algorithmic formula once again. They needed to get creators guessing again.

The Tweak

What we're now seeing in the creator community is that videos with excellent CTR (click-through-rate) and AVD (average view duration) don't necessarily take off. It's as if Jimmy's formula doesn't work nearly as well as it once did. Now, it seems that one tactic trumps everything else:

Picking the right topic for your audience.

If you misfire on the actual topic, and create a video that your audience doesn't care to watch, nothing else will matter. No fantastic CTR. No extended 75%+ AVD. There's some other metric - or combination of metrics - that is picking the winners, and no one has quite identified what it is.

So, here we are, left without a clear cheat-sheet again, for better or for worse. One thing we can assume that picking the right topic plus adding some Mr. Beast-style tactics is still an effective way forward.

How to pick hot topics

Here are 3 ways to research picking the right topics for your videos:

1. Look at your top 3 competitors' recent videos. Which topics are popping in views over others?

2. Monitor the chatter in your industry. What are people talking about? What's controversial? Trending? (Using Twitter/X is great for this.)

3. Look at the new "Research" tab in YouTube Studio analytics. What is it suggesting?

At the end of the day, we have to realize that YouTube is more popular and competitive than ever, and viewers have more options than they ever have in the history of time.

That's just the reality we face. So, if we want to maximize views, it's important for us to focus on making content that hits the target of our audiences' interest. Of course... easier said than done! I'm working on that myself.

I hope this is helpful and please do reply if you have any thoughts – I'd love to hear them.

If it’s ever of interest, 3 options:

1. ​Book a quick call or channel deep-dive with me to get a fresh perspective on your channel, from a veteran strategist and former YouTube employee.

2. ​Try VidIQ for $1 through my personal affiliate link. It is a very effective tool, so again, just choose your ideas carefully!

3. Join my free newsletter to get tips and tactics on making your YouTube career stand the test of time.

-Matt