Why CTR matters, but not for what you think...

When I first started on YouTube, I obsessed over CTR. Boy, was I wrong. Well, in today's day and age of YouTube at least. Let me explain..

A ton has changed over the past twelve years on YouTube, but back when I started CTR was seen as one of the major factors in creating a viral video. Back in the day, it did hold a much bigger weight in the algorithm for pushing the video to broader audiences. Although nowadays, through harvesting twelve years' worth of data, I figured out it has little to no merit, with more and more experts in the space saying the same thing.

High CTR does not automatically guarantee a high chance of virality. But it does for something else, and I realized this later than I care to admit.

Obsess over CTR to ensure you build a solid audience, not to gauge potential virality.

If you think a higher CTR will mean your video keeps getting pushed, you are in for a rude awakening.

Almost daily, I am confronted with the following question:

''My CTR is 5% higher than normal, but my video flatlined? How can this be!?''

Let's visualize what happens when you upload a video on a channel with a small core audience:

As you can see, this video keeps getting pushed to broader viewer profiles. In other words: you'll see your impressions in YT Studio go up and up.

But what do you think happens when YouTube is testing with less similar audiences vs your core?

Yep. The CTR will drop.

But does that mean your video will stop getting recommended to less similar audiences versus your core and casual audiences?

No. And here's why:

If your video idea (and execution) has a lot of demand, YouTube will keep serving it up to new viewers. To put it simply:

Demand for your video trumps any other metric.

So if viral videos are your main objective, do not worry too much about CTR. Worry about how remarkable your idea is and what amount of new viewers you can keep getting into your video.

But, if you want to make YouTube a career, and build channels that last, there are a few reasons why you want to focus on CTR.

#1. Keep an eye on CTR in the first 24 hours after uploading.

If you have a small core audience already, the CTR in the first day or so will tell you one very important thing:

Do my core viewers like this idea and how I packaged it?

A ton of creators tend to make videos that appeal to different subsets of viewers, leaving the channel with thousands of ''dead'' subscribers over the years.

The best way to combat this? Filter your video ideas:

• Does my core audience like this?

• Does my casual audience like this?

• Does this video have a broader appeal beyond that?

If you do this successfully each time, you'll zero in on an ideal viewer faster than you can say hippopotamus.

#2. Look for a stabilized CTR, not a high one.

Once you see your CTR stabilize, it mostly means YouTube found an audience for your video, and it is not testing with different types of viewers as heavily any more. Let me show you this visually:

Beginning months of this video's life it got tested with tons of different viewer profiles, showing a very spiky CTR graph. This normally tells me YouTube is trying to zone in on what viewer will enjoy this content most.

As you can see, in the middle part of the graph, it becomes way more stable, showing me that YouTube has found an audience for this video. Lately, the CTR percentage has started fluctuating way more again, and that tells me YouTube is testing it with more dynamic viewer profiles again.

#3. Create content with demand

As always, CTR and AVD are great to tell you if the audience YouTube found for you likes your packaging and execution. But ultimately, there is one way to ensure you keep growing your channel(s):

Creating content packaged in a way that people need to watch it.

See you next week, and if this is helpful to you, let me know and share it with like-minded people! 🙋‍♂️