TubeAI

YouTube made more in ad revenue last year than Disney, NBC, Paramount, Warner Bros and Discovery combined. It's still the clearest path for sustainable creator growth. That's why we made TubeAI, so you can pull the best insights from millions of videos and apply them quicker.

Finance content is very competitive, but one thumbnail detail keeps showing up in our database: A surprised facial expression. We analyzed millions of finance videos which suggests using this expression in thumbnails can lead to a huge uplift in views.

@MarioJoos This is great! For number 1, I would also add that if you start hooks, such as an announcement or a bold claim, it also increases retention. We have the data 😃

10 YouTube Retention Tips Retention is one of the most important things to focus on if you want your YouTube videos to get more views. Here are 10 tips and tactics to help you improve it: 1. Generally, it's better to go for warm openings where you state the context vocally rather than cold openings, which build the video slower. The reason for this is because cold openings often require more viewer commitment and rely too much on that initial buy-in to get people to watch the whole video. This doesn't work as well because the viewer could easily find so many videos that don't do this and reward the viewer for their attention a lot faster. That's the reason why we often opt for warm openings over cold openings. Now, this doesn't mean that cold openings cannot work. It just means that if you really are set on a cold opening, you still need to match the pacing of information and progression that a warm opening has, aka don't make the viewer wait three minutes before the story gets going. 2. Use comedic relief to break up tense moments. During tense moments, the viewer feels in a state of stress, which is not too bad because it does grab their attention very well. However, having this go on for too long without small mental breaks could make the experience too jarring for them, and therefore, small little bursts of comedic relief can help break the tension and allow viewers to watch for longer without getting bogged down by that tense feeling they may have. Now, I'm not saying to force humor, because that could come across as unnatural, but I am saying to create enough little mental breaks for the viewer to make sure they can go through a tense experience for long enough. 3. Choose your aesthetic design in your videos carefully. Whether it's the way your text looks or how you integrate the visuals on top of your video, poorly selected imagery or font choices that look cheap can make even high-quality content feel too amateuristic for the viewer's preference. Visual appeal is something that is often overlooked, but probably just as important as some of what is said in the video, as it increases perceived quality and increases the likelihood that somebody is going to want to spend a lot of time watching this video. 4. You'll always find some viewers drop off after a segment ends. This drop-off is quite natural because viewers are experiencing early satisfaction. But the problem happens when it takes us too long to introduce a new promise or give the viewer something new to look forward to. Therefore, the advice is to keep transitions between two segments short to avoid segmentation loss. 5. Avoid getting too personal too soon. Early on in the video, viewers haven't had a chance to build an emotional connection yet with the creator. Because of this lack of a personal connection, personal stories could easily lead to early disengagement. The idea is that we always want to first build affinity towards the characters, aka the creator, and then as the video goes on, we can slowly start inserting personal elements, especially emotional personal stories. This also gives the viewers a reason to care about what you're about to share, as they have now built liking towards you. Early in the video, this liking might not be there yet, and this will result in aggressive retention losses. 6. Extend suspenseful moments. Suspense is one of the strongest ways to grab the attention of a viewer, especially in entertainment content, because it tells the brain that something may be wrong, which makes the brain pay more attention. And this is where we often get most of our watch time. During suspenseful moments, viewers are less likely to tune out. During moments that don't have suspense, viewers are more likely to tune out. So extend suspenseful moments and make other moments go faster. 7. Avoid telling viewers to watch until the end. If content is engaging enough, viewers will watch until the end regardless. And just because you tell them to watch until the end doesn't mean they have the necessary information to know why they should watch until the end or if they even care enough to watch until the end. But the real problem is because this phrase is so overly used by creators who don't have great stories or journeys towards the end, and that association alone can make it where people tune out earlier as they associate you with those types of creators. So instead of telling people to watch without a reason, create a sense of curiosity through teasers or highlighting a specific goal that you're going to achieve and make them wonder how that is going to look rather than telling them about it. 8. Avoid repetitive jokes. Often people are trying to turn jokes into inside jokes, but by doing so, they repeat themselves multiple times in the same video. Now the question isn't whether the joke was funny, the question is what happens when people didn't think the joke was funny the first time around? Now they have to listen to it again and again. And this doubling down often makes the experience worse and hurts overall retention. 9. Improving videos increases retention for future videos as well. The most underrated focus and reason for wanting to improve retention is the impact it has on future videos. When a viewer really enjoyed a certain watch experience, they become more likely to return for the next video, even if the packaging isn't as good. So in turn, the way to think about it is that by focusing on retention today, you'll be more likely to have those viewers return for future videos. 10. Analyze your retention charts by focusing not just on the drop. Retention drops don't just happen because you're doing something bad right now. Retention drops could happen because you did something bad before, and it's only now that the viewer feels the dissatisfaction. Or retention could stabilize or drop once a jarring segment is over, or once a segment starts becoming too jarring. The idea is that we want to analyze what happens before and after a drop, as much as analyzing before and after the retention flattens.

I scanned 212 million YouTube thumbnails with TubeAI. Here are the top performing colours: Cyan: 42,700 views Green: 33,800 views Red: 31,800 views Black: 21,800 views Bright colours stand out because 82% of YouTube is watched in dark mode. Stop using dark thumbnails.

Why we made our outlier feature FREE. We we're frustrated with generic outlier tools and web based trackers. That’s what pushed us to create our outlier feature, focused purely on real YouTube performance data.

Need help getting views? You need to watch this 👇

One of our clients just got a 1 of 10 using TubeAI. @AdventureCrews hit 57,800 views in 3 days on a rattlesnake video. This is one example of many. If you want similar results, DM me "TUBEAI".

You can see our script generator here: tubeai.app

YouTube have increased thumbnail size limits and rolled out longer unskippable ads when you watch on TV. It's a clear signal on what kind of content they want more of this year. Using our script generator will assist you with long form content.

Try our outlier database here: tubeai.app

TubeAI outlier database is FREE Here are 4 things you can do with it: - Discover high performing video ideas in any niche by finding outlier videos that beat their channel averages. - Our runner score feature highlights videos from smaller channels that punch way above their weight for more inspiration. - Generate spin off video ideas: Ask our very own LLM Hugo to create unique video ideas based on that winning video. - Save and organize videos into folders: Drag & click videos into custom folders. You can come back later, review them, and brainstorm around them.

Your niche decides your income more than your view count. Gaming: $2-4 RPM. 4.5M views = $9,000/month. Finance: $8-15 RPM. 4.5M views = $36,000/month. Most creators pick their niche based on what they enjoy. That's why they're broke.

Check for yourself: tubeai.app & Join the TubeAI Discord: discord.gg/REcXN885Y3

3. Scripting that sounds like you: Select your chosen topic and let HUGO prep it for you in our script generator. You can set the exact length and ensure the script sticks to how you speak. So the final draft feels natural, not robotic.

These 3 tips will help you pick easy viral YouTube ideas With our very own LLM HUGO

We scanned 212 million thumbnails so you don’t have to. According to our latest data: - Cyan: 42.7K avg views (+64% lift) - Green: 33.8K avg views (+30% lift) - Black/Purple: 21K avg views (-16% lift) The "dark mode" aesthetic looks great on your profile, but it’s killing your reach on the home page. See the top performing colors👇

@mws We agree, you have to make time for your community Engage with them & help them

The YouTubers who don’t appreciate their audience are complete losers I’ve seen so many people fall off cause they forget their audience is everything You’re nothing without them bro Even if its only 100, 1000, 10000, etc. That’s REAL people supporting you Be grateful

@TubeAIYT Here's a guide on how to pick the best niches 👇 youtube.com/watch?v=Z4y01q…

"Why can't I retain my audience?" Because you're making content for the wrong people. I make finance content for people in their late 30s and 40s because I understand them. Want to retain an audience? Make content for your generation.