The Subscriber Question: Quality over Quantity

[Jack Decker]

I am a new channel and I am facing a marketing question: Do I go for quality subscribers or quantity of subscribers? I would like to know which you think is better.

Let me explain myself as far as this question goes. I am a new little-more-than-a-month-old YouTube channel that covers breaking news from a libertarian perspective, tries to help build the Libertarian Party, and delves into libertarian philosophy. Right now, I have 44 subscribers. I don't think that's bad for being just over a month old. Not fantastic but not horrible.

Now by profession, I'm a marketer. I've been a marketing consultant and marketing executive for three decades. I feel fairly confident that I know my stuff when it comes to marketing. I know how to promote stuff.

So now that I have started a YouTube channel, I have moved from focusing on production for its first month to now focusing on promotion and growing the subscriber base. This presents me a dilemma: Do I make videos that will get lots of views OR do I focus on promoting videos that are solidly on-topic for my channel to just bring in quality subscribers. Yes, yes, I know, I know. I should do both. But, sorry, libertarians are a sub-genre of the political genre and they are rather limited in number. The two most popular libertarian YouTube channels "only" have a half million subscribers each. The rest have something around 10K.

As for what I mean by "quality" subscribers, I mean subscribers who will regularly watch your videos. With quality subscribers, your average views per video are more than your subscriber base. You get them plus the people they share your videos with and what Google/YouTube searches bring your way.

As I am sure you know, there are many YouTube channels with millions of subscribers but only get something like 10K views per video. Many of them got this way by having a viral video that brought in lots of subscribers BUT the topic of their viral video wasn't the normal topic for their channel. Thus these droves of new subscribers don't then watch later videos because they're not like the one that brought them in. These little-watching subscribers are what I'd call "poor" subscribers.

However, there is a school of thought among YouTubers and YouTube experts (like it would appear Darrel Eves is in his latest video on his channel) that you should aim to make these viral videos and be happy when you level off much lower on regular views since your new floor will then be higher. This appears to me to be the quantity argument. Sure your average views per video are fraction of your subscriber base BUT they are a higher floor than you had before. So every so often make a viral video (as if that was just easy as pie) and you can grow your channel that way.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I want quality subscribers over quantity of subscribers. Am I wrong to want this? What do you think? Where to you fall on this question?

 

[The Clark Knight]

Hey Jack, I don't think your wrong for wanting quality over quantity. For the most part most YouTubers want subscribers that are active and adding to the community surrounding your channel. Those subscribers are the ones that really matter.

There is something important about playing the numbers game though. Channels with more subscribers have a higher likelihood of getting more new subscribers, so even if you have a large amount of poor subs, it'll still improve your chances on bringing in more quality subscribers.

When it comes down to it, I think bringing in quantity over quality will still leave you with more of an active community, even though the amount of subs you have doesn't reflect everyone who's active.

 

[Brenden]

I'd rather have a handful of subscribers who care about what we make then 2 million who don't. Obviously the goal is that we can get many subscribers who all care about the channel but is that always the case? No.

It also never hurts to stray away from your main beliefs. Maybe acknowledge conflicting beliefs and stand points and make a video in which you counter it, etc. Controversy is great for luring people in who want to see more controversy. However not too much of it. I guess I can say, balance is important. Always have a good balance of content your subs expect from you, and content that is new, or attracts new subs that may fall in love with your other content.

 

[weeeben]

as you once said, the first 40 subs are family & friends, so technically you haven't gained any

 

[OrbitGuy]

I think it in some ways depends on the goal of your channel. Even if not all of the "quantity" of subscribers are loyal supporters to start with, just exposing people to what you're looking to promote could be a good thing for your channel even if they don't support all of it to start with. Especially if you're looking for people to give your political perspective a fresh look, if they like some of your content it's possible they would give the other stuff a chance. I would assume that if you're looking to build up a political party you would want to bring new people in and they may be more of the quantity variety at first than the quality group. It's possible you could grow some quality supporters from initially people who may be skeptical?

All I'm saying is with quantity you may be able to bring in more new people to your political messages perhaps? This certainly isn't the right strategy for all channels I'm just looking at it from what your channel would be about. Of course like others said you want some balance between videos to bring people and and videos to help people understand your core message. It's a very interesting question.

 

[KiddieToysReview]

Thanks for sharing the link to Derral Eves video, that was a good presentation.

My position on it is that in various stages of your channel's growth, you should focus on quality and quantity. When you're starting out, I recommend focusing on quantity. Minimum stages a channel should reach are 1k and 2k, then 5k and 10k. Each stage gets easier and the algorithm pushes you more.

Once you get to 50k or so, "quality" starts being more important. This is where retention and recommended picks up. Here you want subs who chain watch you and related.

 

[YouTubers United Podcast]

Thanks for sharing the link to Derral Eves video, that was a good presentation.

My position on it is that in various stages of your channel's growth, you should focus on quality and quantity. When you're starting out, I recommend focusing on quantity. Minimum stages a channel should reach are 1k and 2k, then 5k and 10k. Each stage gets easier and the algorithm pushes you more.

Once you get to 50k or so, "quality" starts being more important. This is where retention and recommended picks up. Here you want subs who chain watch you and related.

I feel the complete opposite. On my main channel I posted over a hundred videos of questionable quality and saw very little growth. I jumped from 900 subs to 10k+ with one or two super high quality videos.

 

[Dryve]

Personally, I think quality is a good thing to aim for - not only will quality subscribers regularly view your videos, but they may also spread the word about your channel themselves! Not only that, but new people to your channel will see that you get a lot of views compared to your sub count, which is usually a sign of a good channel good luck!!

 

[KiddieToysReview]

I feel the complete opposite. On my main channel I posted over a hundred videos of questionable quality and saw very little growth. I jumped from 900 subs to 10k+ with one or two super high quality videos.

The qn was subscribers, not video quality.
Of course for videos, one would strive for quality over quantity all the time.

 

[Jack Decker]

I think it in some ways depends...

First, let me say "Thanks!" for such a thoughtful reply! I wish I could do more than just click the "Like" button for your post.

...on the goal of your channel. Even if not all of the "quantity" of subscribers are loyal supporters to start with, just exposing people to what you're looking to promote could be a good thing for your channel even if they don't support all of it to start with. Especially if you're looking for people to give your political perspective a fresh look, if they like some of your content it's possible they would give the other stuff a chance. I would assume that if you're looking to build up a political party you would want to bring new people in and they may be more of the quantity variety at first than the quality group. It's possible you could grow some quality supporters from initially people who may be skeptical

Yes, I understand the "conversion vs. preaching to the choir" issue you're raising. I just don't know if that is something I should consider for such a new channel. Right now, I going the "preaching to the choir" route by promoting my channel on libertarian forums to get views and hopefully subscribers. Not converting but enlisting. Building a base of like-minded people. After Election Day, I will start interviewing state LP chapters to get their take on the last election ... and hopefully snag their state party members in the process.

As for party building, by that I meant from within the party and libertarians in general. Again, not converting but enlisting.

This isn't to say I don't want to do converting BUT that would change how I present things in my views. To convert, I would need to do more education of viewers about libertarianism in every video. I'd have to assume that non-libertarians will not know even the most common libertarian principles, ideas, policies, party history, etc. And if I am always starting from Building Block #1, that will turn off those who are already libertarians. I know it would for me. Hearing the same ground covered over and over again gets old after a while. Now, yes, I guess I could say, "If you already understand this libertarian principle, skip ahead to 5:38 for where I talk about how it applies in the current news event." To be honest, that would eventually wear on me too. I guess I could also say, "If you don't understand the libertarian definition of capitalism, click the above link before proceeding forward." BUT I know from producing and postmortems of online advertisement for clients that VERY few people actually do such clicking and the overwhelming majority will just continue with the video. In my case, these uninformed viewers will then quickly get lost and confused because they don't understand the libertarian foundation upon which I am now speaking.

All I'm saying is with quantity you may be able to bring in more new people to your political messages perhaps?

I get that. As explained above, it would require me to make my videos differently though.

This certainly isn't the right strategy for all channels I'm just looking at it from what your channel would be about. Of course like others said you want some balance between videos to bring people and videos to help people understand your core message. It's a very interesting question.

And yours was a very interesting reply. Again, thanks for giving it!