How to Generate Leads Effectively with YouTube: 10 Tips from a Digital Marketer

The primary need of any business is leads. Cheap leads are a dream come true for businesses: the cheaper they are, the higher the margin. One platform that allows you to attract such leads is the beloved YouTube, favored by arbitrage marketers.

Why is YouTube Important?

In the quest to promote themselves or their businesses, many experts simply ignore YouTube—thinking it's too obvious a platform with too much competition.

This is a big mistake. Today, YouTube is the second most visited site in the world. It can not only drive virtually free traffic to your site but also pre-warm this traffic through the Hunt's Ladder.

Hunt's Ladder looks like this:

1. No Problem: The person doesn't know they have a problem; your video will make them aware.
2. Problem Awareness: They realize they have a problem.
3. Problem-Solving: They start searching for a solution.
4. Choosing a Solution: They choose a specific solution.
5. Selecting a Provider: They select a provider for this solution.
6. Purchase: The final step on Hunt's Ladder ends with a purchase.

One downside of YouTube is the geographic limitation of your business. An online English learning school has much higher chances of getting targeted leads compared to a local car service in a small town.

Tip #1 — Start Filming Your Videos Today

"If you're not ready because you lack equipment, skills, and expertise—start anyway. Start somehow. Film your first dozens of unsuccessful videos, and then hide them. Just start practicing."

Tip #2 — Sound is More Important than Video

Sound is much more important than the picture. Many YouTube users listen to videos in podcast mode, so sound quality is far more critical than video quality. In a bad room, even a studio microphone won't produce good sound, but in a prepared room, you can record good audio even with a simple Chinese microphone. Therefore, try to record in a prepared room: books, sofas, curtains, and carpets reduce the number of reflections that hit the microphone, reducing echo.

Tip #3 — Don't Chase Subscribers

Often, subscribers don't see your videos in recommendations—they're subscribed to dozens of other channels. There's nothing you can do about this: just focus on the quality of your content, not the number of subscribers. The ultimate goal of your YouTube activity is leads. Place links to your site not only in the video description but also in the pinned comment. By the way, the average conversion rate from view to subscription on YouTube is 1-3%. This means that out of 100 viewers of your video, 1-3 will subscribe.

Tip #4 — Don't Use Fake Views

Today, there are plenty of services for boosting views, but it's better not to use them. Here's why: when you release a new video, YouTube shows it to the people it considers the core of your target audience. If the core audience responds well—high CTR and watch time—the platform will start recommending it to more people, increasing the potential viewer count. When you boost views, YouTube gets incorrect data about your audience and starts showing the video to the wrong people, gathering untargeted traffic. As a result, CTR and watch time will drop, and the platform will recommend your videos less often, leading to fewer views. Paid Google ads on YouTube are also not recommended for the same reason.

Tip #5 — Your Shorts Can Kill Your Channel

Your Shorts can kill your channel. Channels that publish main "long" videos along with Shorts are at risk. Users who like your short videos will fall into the core audience, and their reaction to long videos will be negative: this will reduce CTR and watch time. This will inevitably affect the number of views and, consequently, leads.

To avoid this, the speaker suggests creating two channels: the main one for long videos and an additional one for Shorts. This way, views won't be cut, and it's easy to funnel the audience from the entertainment channel to the main one.

Tip #6 — Increase CTR Effectively

The main factors for success on YouTube are high CTR (click-through rate) and high retention time. CTR measures how clickable your "thumbnail" is: the more attractive the thumbnail and video title, the higher the CTR.

Here are some simple and effective triggers to boost your video's CTR:

• Curiosity: mystery, intrigue, surprise, admiration. Example: "This Fruit Will Shorten Your Life by 10 Years! Find Out Why".
• Life Hack Simplicity: "Just 1 Simple Step", "Do This", "The Easiest Method", "Simple Cheap Way".
• Greed and Profit: "The Most Profitable", "The Most Lucrative", "Wild Growth".
• Fear/Panic: "Everything is Lost", "Where to Run", "What to Do".
• Anger: "What's Going On".
• Featuring a Celebrity: having a famous person on the thumbnail and in the frame.

These triggers should not only be in the preview but also seamlessly integrated into the video's content.

A good CTR is considered to be:

• Views from search — 10-15%.
• Views from the homepage recommendations — at least 10%.
• Views from recommendations in other videos — 1-2%.

Tip #7 — Capture Attention in 30 Seconds

How do you ensure both CTR and retention time? Start with an effective introduction. There are two working methods for this:

• Hook Questions.
• Problem — Solution — Result — Motivation.

One of these methods should be squeezed into the first 30 seconds of the video. This short period is crucial as the viewer decides whether to continue watching the video or not.

For instance, a good retention rate for a long video is 60%. This means that after the first 30 seconds, 6 out of 10 people who clicked on the preview should continue watching. For other videos, the retention rates look like this:

• 3-minute videos — 55%.
• 5-minute videos — 45%.
• 10-minute videos — 35%.
• 20-minute videos — 30%.

Tip #8 — Cut the "Fluff"

Remove all unnecessary parts from your videos. A YouTube video is not a text from a beginner copywriter who adds "fluff" hoping to earn more money. A short and non-boring video is much better than a long and tedious one, significantly increasing its chances for good retention. On the other hand, storytelling on YouTube also works: you don't have to cut an actually interesting story.

Tip #9 — Pay Attention to Content That Engages Your Viewers

If some videos on your channel start getting more views than usual, latch onto that topic and work only with it. The speaker recalls how on one of his channels, he started publishing videos about various Soviet technology, which garnered tens of thousands of views. But success came when he released a video about a motorcycle — the video got over a million views. This prompted the author to continue making videos about Soviet motorcycles: they began to bring in hundreds of thousands of views each.

Tip #10 — Spy on Competitors

Let's assume all the information above is clear to you. But where do you get topics for videos? "Spy on your competitors!" To understand which video is likely to "catch on," find several channels of your competitors and see which videos have gained more views in the last six months to a year than the average for the channel. If you see that a particular topic has done well for one or more competitors, start making videos on the same topic.

To gather additional video ideas, analyze the queries in your semantic core, study the pain points of your target audience, and the latent needs according to Hunt's Ladder.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that with the right approach, YouTube can become a gold mine for attracting leads, remember: it takes time to gain momentum. You will have to wait about six months for the first results — this is perhaps the only downside of YouTube.