How to Get More YouTube Subscribers

Let’s clear up the technical terms before jumping in. Platforms like TikTok, X, and Instagram have followers, while YouTube has subscribers. It comes to much the same – if you want to follow a channel, you become a subscriber – so keep that in mind should you notice anyone discussing how to get more followers on YouTube.

1. Optimise your profile.

Viewers may visit your channel page before hitting “Subscribe.” Create the impression that subscribing is worthwhile by putting your top content front and centre, identifying what you’re all about, and laying out playlists. 

Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell (24.6 million subscribers) does an excellent job. Their channel page features:

• A custom banner image with their logo and “Quality>Quantity” motto
• A clear profile picture of their logo
• Themed playlists
• A “best stuff” playlist for new viewers
• A concise bio amusingly outlining what they do (“animation videos explaining things with optimistic nihilism since 12,013”) and who they are, with links to other platforms
• A fun 44-second channel trailer that previews their content with a CTA prompting you to subscribe

Follow their lead by creating a channel page that assures visitors they need more.

2. Match viewer expectations.

Videos that fail to deliver on what they promise may lure in some viewers, but they won’t encourage them to subscribe. Edge into clickbait territory by wilfully misleading browsers and your channel may be terminated altogether.

Viewers subscribe when they find what they want from YouTube on your channel. If your views are solid but your subscriber count isn’t, it could be that your content simply isn’t being seen by the right people. Luckily, YouTube’s algorithm is designed to bring those viewers to you. Help it out by optimizing your hashtags, titles, and thumbnails. 

Hashtags
Hashtags go in video titles and descriptions to help YouTube categorise your video and place it in the right search results. Users can also search hashtags to explore specific topics. 

Sprout Social recommends one or two in your title and three to five in total. Find relevant tags for each video by starting a YouTube search with # and entering relevant keywords.

Titles
“Your title is doing way more heavy lifting than you realise,” says Aprilynne Alter (108,000 subscribers).

Attract the right viewers by making titles accurate; succinct, with the most important words near the beginning; and rich in the keywords potential subscribers are likely to search.

Thumbnails
Grabbing attention by instantly imparting what a video is about (or at least creating intrigue around it), thumbnails should never be an afterthought. Small wonder MrBeast, YouTube’s most subscribed channel at 442 million, reportedly pays around $10,000 (£7,398) per thumbnail. 

Adopt a recognisable style that reflects your content, features your face, and uses a couple of words to summarise what it’s about. Patricia Bright’s YouTube channel (2.7 million subscribers) shows how it’s done. 

3. Boost subscriptions with CTAs.

A CTA (call to action) prompts people to do something. “Smash that ‘Like’ button” and “subscribe for more” are common examples of CTAs, and they work. Videos with embedded CTAs see a 23% higher conversion rate (“conversion” means getting viewers to take an action, such as subscribing).

CTAs can directly ask viewers to subscribe, but you can also strengthen connections with your audience by asking them to comment, like, or share. Charlotte Holdcroft (85,600 subscribers) does an excellent job encouraging viewers to comment at the end of each video.

Here’s some sound advice for crafting CTAs: 

• Avoid CTA overload by using only one or two.
• Make them funny or memorable, such as LegalEagle (3.8 million subscribers) finishing CTAs with “…or I’ll see you in court.”
• Insert CTAs after delivering valuable content, not before.
• Relate each video’s CTA to its content, such as Mrwhosetheboss (21.7 million subscribers) closing a video on tech fails with a prompt to watch a playlist of other tech fails.
• Thank viewers in advance for subscribing and let them know it helps the channel.

4. Include end screens and watermarks.

End screens are added to a video’s final five to 20 seconds, and they also serve as CTAs. You can include four clickable elements for featured videos, playlists, channel promotions, and subscription buttons, or the screen itself can simply tell people what to do. 

Mr Sunday Movies (1.4 million subscribers), for example, features an end screen with links to two recent videos, a subscription button, and social media info, while The Poopie Show (331,000 subscribers) ends with a channel button, video link, and a humorous animation urging viewers to subscribe.

Watermarks appear unobtrusively throughout the video, hovering semitransparent in the bottom-right corner. Simply head to the branding section in Channel Customisation to integrate one into all videos. 

Branded watermarks protect your content, but they also function as subscribe buttons people can click without interrupting your video. When Brian Dean (571,000 subscribers) changed his branded watermark to one that looked like the standard YouTube subscribe button, it generated 70% more subscribers.

5. Analyse what makes viewers subscribe.

YouTube Studio Analytics offers a host of important metrics to help identify what subscribers like and how to target more. You can:

• Identify which videos convert the most subscribers, and then spot patterns in topic, length, tone, and format. 
• Put videos that gain more subscribers in end screens and at the start of playlists. 
• Discover if and when viewers tend to click away before your videos end. Is there something you can eliminate that may be making them leave? 
• Explore click-through rates from end screens to see which actions viewers prefer taking. 
• Find the keywords your audience searches and create content to match. 

Uncovering audience intent could create the spark that makes you go viral. At the very least, it can help you build your channel. It did for Brooklyn Duo (1.5 million subscribers). 

“We realised that our instrumental ballads resonate with people and make a lot of sense for weddings,” Patrick Laird, one half of the duo, told Goldmine magazine. “Sometimes when we decide what we want to play and record, we consider if the song will be a wedding-appropriate release to reach a lot of people.”

6. Engage viewers.

“If you want to build traction and community, post consistently and interact with your followers,” Ashlynne Eaton (338,000 subscribers) told Female First. “Build relationships with them and become friends. That makes more of a difference than you’d ever realise.”

Those relationships are a big part of what makes people subscribe. It’s how they join your community. Here are some top tips for encouraging engagement: 

• Respond promptly to comments (use YouTube Studio’s dedicated comments panel to avoid missing any). 
• Like and “heart” comments. 
• Pin your favourite comment on each video. 
• Use the Community page to post polls, channel updates, and questions. 
• Create a Discord server where your community can interact. 
• Comment on other YouTube videos in your niche. 
• Use YouTube’s new Community feature to create a space for subscribers to discuss videos, share pics, and start polls. 

7. Avoid the temptation to buy them.

Bringing your YouTube channel more subscribers by paying for them is a risky strategy unlikely to bear fruit in the long run. 

Subscriber-buying services use bots to artificially increase subscriber counts and other metrics, such as views and watch time, directly contravening YouTube’s Fake Engagement Policy. Repeat infractions can mean your channel is demonetised or terminated, so you can’t become a YouTube influencer riding the backs of bots. 

They’re also pretty shoddy. VEED Creators (121,000 subscribers) set up a burner channel and bought 1,000 subs. Two weeks later, YouTube had already started removing artificial subscribers and his two videos had a grand total of one view. 

“You’re going to get much more satisfaction from the whole process by growing an audience that’s actually engaged in your content, not by focusing on these hollow fake robots,” said VEED’s Ryan Hall.