How to Promote Videos on YouTube + 18 Strategies (2024)

YouTube is a beast of a social media platform, with 2.7 billion monthly active users and people who are making part- or full-time incomes on the platform. Creators flock to YouTube because it offers massive potential.

But you need to know how to promote the videos you upload to your channel.

Of course, your uploads may get views without some of the strategies that we’re going to share, but to maximize these views, you should incorporate each and every strategy below.👇

18 Strategies to Promote YouTube Videos in 2024

1. Add in Search-Friendly Keywords

Search is at the core of YouTube. If you search for videos on the platform, you can be confident that the top results are SEO-optimized. Your optimization will also help your videos show up on Google so that your videos can even get views from Google viewers.

But if you’re not adding in search-friendly keywords and optimization, you’ll miss out on this very valuable organic traffic.

How do you even begin finding keywords?

Start Using Keyword Tools

Keywords are best found using tools with all the keyword data already. You can use tools such as:

Once you have the keywords that you want to optimize your video for, you can begin sprinkling them into your:

Even minor optimization can make a world of difference for your YouTube SEO and help your videos get the exposure they deserve. When you’re confident with your video’s search optimization, it’s time to work on your thumbnails.

2. Work on Your Thumbnails 🌆

Aside from your video title, why would anyone click on your video if they don’t know you or your channel? Your thumbnail. If you don’t have an enticing thumbnail, you’ll lose views. In fact, MrBeast has repeatedly said how important thumbnails are:👇

You can use tools, such as Canva or PicsArt, to create thumbnails, but a few tips💡that can take your thumbnails to the next level are:

Spend time on each thumbnail to create ones that truly resonate with your audience and are enticing enough to make someone stop scrolling and start watching.

3. Optimize Your Descriptions 📈

You create videos and not written content – I get it. Not everyone is a prolific writer and wants to create long descriptions for their videos. But your description has a 5,000-character limit and will contain:

Remember the keywords that you researched earlier? You’ll want to add in any that are a logical fit into your video description, too. I never recommend keyword stuffing because it can do more harm than good, but if you can weave keywords in naturally, that’s what you want to do.

Relevant hashtags at the end of the description are also fine and may even help you get some views.

4. Create Click-Attracting Titles 📝

Title creation, like thumbnail creation, is important yet undervalued by new creators. You want to create titles that are so enticing that people click on them because you pique their interest enough that it’s impossible not to click.

But here’s the problem: you don’t want to create clickbait titles because you can lose viewers.

Clickbait may work now and again but it won’t work over the long-term. If someone lands on your video, you want them to feel like the title delivered on its promise. A few tips💡that can help you create better titles are:

You can also find title analyzers online, but the truth is that they work with varying degrees of effectiveness.

5. Focus on What Matters Most – Your Audience 👥

None of these tips matter as much as your audience. If your audience doesn’t want to see a video, then they won’t watch it. You need to sit down and dissect the competition to learn:

If you don’t know what your audience wants to see, ask people in the YouTube community, on Reddit or through polls on other platforms.

Some of the top creators in the world admit to spending months or years analyzing videos to learn what audiences like and don’t like and attribute this diligence to their overall success. Creators who already have quite a bit of videos uploaded can review their own analytics to see what types of content resonate with their audience the most.

6. Create Videos That People Asked for in the Comments 💬

If you want to win over your subscribers, it’s as easy as creating the videos that they asked for in the comments of your other videos. Browse through all of your videos on occasion, jot down any ideas that people have in the comments and create videos that you feel will be a hit with your subs.

While every idea in the comments may not be perfect for your channel, some will be.

7. Cross-Promote on Other Videos You Upload

It’s very likely that your videos will have overlap somewhere. For example, AthleanX is one of the largest channels for fitness in the world, and if he has a video doing push-ups, he can also promote his other videos inside of the video, such as:

If you have other videos that are a good topical addition to your video, be sure to add a call-to-action for people to watch them.

Cross-promotion can easily leverage the popularity of one video to boost the rest of your videos.

8. Collab With Creators 🤝

Your channel is one of many. Creators are always looking for other people to collaborate with because they’re expanding into each other’s audiences. You might collab with someone else in your niche and if the content is similar, a lot of their subs will have no problem subscribing to your channel.

Collaboration is a win-win for everyone involved.

But how do you even begin?

As your audience grows, it will be easier to convince others to collaborate with you on videos.

9. Create a Channel Trailer 🎥

Trailers can be equally effective for your YouTube channel. In fact, YouTube recommends creating one.

Why?

A trailer is a great way to hook viewers in, let them know what your channel is all about and get them to subscribe. Use this as an opportunity to introduce yourself and explain why people should watch your content.

Keep your trailer short and sweet, and make sure it’s visually appealing. Focus on quality and letting your ideas shine.

10. Buy YouTube Shares 💵

Shares are another engagement metric that helps the algorithm understand which videos are worth recommending. The more likes, shares and comments your videos have, the more likely they are to be suggested by YouTube or discovered elsewhere on the platform.

You could do things the old-fashioned way and hope that your audience shares your content, or you can take control over your engagement and buy shares.

Buying shares allows you to boost your engagement rate, and this can ultimately lead to more organic promotion of your content.

Just make sure that you’re buying shares from real people, and don’t lose focus on creating great content your audience really wants to see.

11. Consider Paid Ad Campaigns

If you don’t mind investing money into marketing your YouTube channel, you could run a paid ad campaign.

YouTube offers a wide range of ad formats, including:

If your goal is to promote a specific video, you can use existing content from your video as your ad creative.

12. Create a Series

One great way to promote your channel is to create a series covering a specific topic or theme. For example, if your channel is all about photography, you could create a series of videos on photographing wildlife or landscapes. Each video could cover a different aspect of this area of photography.

Creating a series will keep viewers engaged and eager for the next chapter, but it will also hold you accountable for creating fresh, new content – something the algorithm loves.

13. Start Leveraging the YouTube Community

YouTube may not be like Facebook or Instagram, but at the end of the day, it’s still a social media platform. Make sure that you’re leveraging its community-building aspects to build relationships with your subscribers and viewers.

When people comment on your videos, reply. Ask questions or provide thought-provoking replies. If you can’t reply to everyone, you can at least like their comment.

Make sure that you’re also sharing community posts. This is a great way to get to know your audience better and share moments in your life. You can share polls, quizzes, text posts and more. These posts will show up on your channel’s Community tab, and they’re another great way to engage with your audience.

Having an engaged, tight-knit community is one of the best ways to promote your YouTube videos. Those who are a part of your community will be quick to view your content when it’s uploaded, and they’ll also be more likely to share your videos with other people.

14. Buy YouTube Views 👁️‍

Looking for a quick way to boost your views? Buy them! Having more views will tell the algorithm that people are loving your content and it should be recommended more often.

If you send the right signals to YouTube, the algorithm will promote your video for you by suggesting it to other users or ranking it higher in the search results.

We all know that building a channel from scratch is hard and it’s even harder to get views when you’re competing with so many other YouTubers. Buying views allows you to overcome this hurdle.

But it’s important to make sure that you’re buying views from a reputable seller offering views from real people. YouTube has gotten quite good at detecting bot views, so make sure you’re investing your money wisely.

15. Jump on Hot Trends and Challenges

Videos focused on trends and challenges can easily go viral, so if you want more eyes on your content, this is a great place to start.

But how do you know what’s trending on YouTube? Check out the Explore Page. Here, you can view the latest trends right now as well as what’s trending in music, gaming and movies.

Find trends or challenges that might be appealing to your viewers and use them as inspiration for your content. The great thing about YouTube trends is that they tend to stick around. Some are still going strong more than a decade later.

16. Run Contests

What’s two things people love:

That’s why contests are such a powerful way to promote YouTube videos. You’ll naturally get more views, likes, shares and comments (depending on your rules) because people want to win the contest.

The simplest way to make the most of a contest is to ask people to like, subscribe and comment on a video to be entered to win.

But if you want to take your promotional reach further, you’ll need to do a few things:

You can host contests as often as you want to promote your videos. Just make sure that your prize is attractive enough to motivate people to enter.

17. Create Logical Playlists

How do you create logical playlists?

Playlists are addicting and shareable, but they also make your content more discoverable. Videos in playlists are more likely to show up in YouTube’s Suggested Videos section.

18. Create Shorts to Promote Your Long-form Videos 📢

YouTube Shorts now has over 2.3 billion monthly active users. There’s a huge amount of untapped potential in Shorts if you’re not already using them to promote your long-form videos.

There are a few ways to approach this:

If you want to take your promotion to the next level, you can take these short-form videos and post them on TikTok and Instagram Reels.

Creating and posting short-form videos as teasers can be a highly effective way to promote your YouTube content. In fact, most of the biggest YouTubers use this exact strategy to maximize their reach when posting new long-form videos.

Final Thoughts

There are so many ways to promote YouTube videos in 2025, but these are the most effective strategies used by some of the top YouTubers. Experiment with all of them to see which ones are most effective at driving views and engagement to your content.