How to Get Subscribers on YouTube: 6 Tips for Free Growth

Getting much subscribers connected YouTube is cardinal if you privation to turn your assemblage and entree the platform’s monetization features.

Why?

Because hitting 1,000 subscribers is 1 of the criteria to go a YouTube Partner and commencement earning wealth from moving ads connected your channel.

In this article, we’ll amusement you however to get much subscribers connected YouTube (for free) and physique an engaged assemblage that drives maturation and revenue.

1. Optimize Your YouTube Channel

How you acceptable your YouTube transmission up tin interaction however galore users click the subscribe button.

For example, if your YouTube transmission looks unprofessional, this mightiness harm your credibility. Which makes it harder to get subscribers.

Follow these 3 steps to guarantee your transmission is optimized for growth:

Write a Compelling Channel Description

A transmission statement is an accidental to merchantability your transmission and its contented to imaginable subscribers.

A well-crafted statement tells your audience: 

• What your transmission is about
• The types of videos they’re apt to see
• Who the transmission is for
• The payment a subscriber volition get from your channel

Here’s the statement connected the Semrush YouTube channel:

Here are immoderate cardinal things to enactment astir this transmission description:

• It shares circumstantial accusation connected the transmission taxable (up-to-date integer selling advice)
• It includes the benignant of YouTube contented the transmission focuses connected (step-by-step tutorials, applicable lawsuit studies, and instrumentality guidance)
• It states who the transmission is aimed toward (small concern owners, in-house selling teams, and agencies) with antithetic cognition levels
• It tells the assemblage however the transmission helps them (boost online beingness and thrust concern results) 

Notice however we’ve included a call to action (CTA) that encourages radical to subscribe? 

When penning your transmission description, see the astir important accusation successful the archetypal sentence.

Why?

Because the archetypal 100-150 characters oregon truthful volition amusement up adjacent to your transmission sanction successful YouTube hunt results. And a well-crafted opening condemnation tin assistance animate clicks that could crook into subscribers.

Don’t hide to see keywords that users hunt for successful your transmission description. 

This tin assistance your transmission go much disposable successful YouTube hunt results and pb to you getting much subscribers.

Target keywords related to your business, industry, oregon niche.

For example, if you tally a pizza parlor and privation to make a cooking transmission for YouTube, suitable keywords mightiness see “homemade pizza dough” oregon “pizza crust recipe.” 

Use a instrumentality similar Semrush’s Keyword Analytics for YouTube to place applicable keywords to target.

For example, you tin explore:

• Top keywords: Most fashionable keywords for a chosen play and country
• Fast-growing keywords: The keywords with the astir searches for a existent play compared to a erstwhile period
• Most-viewed videos: Most fashionable videos for a chosen play and country

Head implicit to the tool, past click “Get started” nether “Keywords Research.”

Search for a keyword related to your channel, industry, oregon niche (e.g., “pizza”).

And prime your state successful the apical right, if needed. Then click “Search.”

The instrumentality volition amusement you related YouTube hunt presumption successful the table. 

Along with their “Search Volume” and “Competitive rate.” These metrics archer you however galore searches a keyword gets and however competitory it is to fertile for the word connected YouTube, respectively.

Ideally, you privation to people presumption with a high hunt measurement and debased competition. Because they’ll assistance thrust the astir postulation to your channel. 

To look astatine trending topics, power to the “Fast growing keywords” tab.

Or power to “Most viewed videos” to spot fashionable contented and consciousness inspired.

Based connected your research, marque a database of keywords to target. Use these successful your transmission statement and to optimize different parts of your transmission and amended your YouTube SEO.

For example, adhd your people keywords to video titles, descriptions, tags, and transcripts.

You tin find the Keyword Analytics for YouTube app successful the Semrush App Center. 

Further reading: YouTube Keyword Research: How to Find Popular Search Terms

Create an Engaging Channel Trailer

Channel trailers play automatically erstwhile a imaginable subscriber lands connected your channel, which encourages radical to prosecute further with your content.

Create a abbreviated video that promotes your YouTube transmission and tells radical what they tin expect from your videos, business, oregon product.

Here are a fewer transmission trailer champion practices:

• Aim for betwixt 30-90 seconds successful length: Leave your assemblage wanting much and entice them to articulation your channel
• Hook your assemblage successful the archetypal fewer seconds: For example, tease breathtaking video contented oregon inquire an engaging question
• Appeal to your people audience: Show your expertise, usage a idiosyncratic story, oregon stock your channel’s halfway goals
• Make definite it’s engaging: For example, usage accelerated cuts, agleam colors, and engaging text
• Showcase your champion content: Show your assemblage a sensation of what they tin expect from your channel

Check retired this trailer illustration from Dropbox, which appears connected their transmission page. They’ve utilized the format to amusement transmission visitors what they tin expect from the product:

Build Playlists

High-quality, intimately related video playlists promote radical to support watching your content. Which means determination are much opportunities for viewers to subscribe.

YouTube playlists besides support your transmission organized and little cluttered. This creates a much nonrecreational appearance, which helps your marque look much trustworthy.

Here’s a playlist illustration from Jamie Oliver, a well-known U.K. chef, who uses a playlist connected his transmission that collects each his child-friendly videos together:

Because playlists are a radical of videos that screen the aforesaid taxable oregon are related successful immoderate different way, they’re adjuvant if you merchandise videos successful a series. 

Or privation to radical akin videos, similar podcast episodes, modules of a course, oregon a communicative astir a merchandise launch.

Playlists besides support audiences connected your transmission longer. This improves ticker time, a metric YouTube uses wrong its algorithms to find wherever and erstwhile to amusement videos to viewers connected the platform.

2. Upload Consistent, Effective Branding

Maintaining a accordant brand identity helps customers identify, understand, and retrieve your brand. Which tin assistance turn your YouTube subscriber count.

Upload the pursuing to efficaciously marque your YouTube channel:

Profile Picture

A YouTube transmission illustration representation needs to amusement who you are and what your transmission is about.

This helps viewers admit your marque and physique affinity with it.

If the transmission is for your business, usage a institution logo. If you’re a solo creator, you could usage an representation of your look oregon product. 

Here’s an illustration from the manner mag Vogue:

A banner representation is simply a ocular accidental to amusement imaginable subscribers what your transmission is astir and who runs it. 

You tin besides usage this abstraction to amusement a promotion oregon latest merchandise launch. 

For example, Spotify uses its banner representation to beforehand the fashionable end-of-year wrapped lists:

Brand Watermark

Brand watermarks assistance radical admit who made the video they’re watching. Which helps them go acquainted with your marque and builds trust.

Plus, a subscribe fastener appears erstwhile you hover your rodent implicit the watermark. Helping you rapidly and easy turn your subscriber count. 

Here’s however we see a marque watermark astatine Semrush:

Thumbnails

An engaging thumbnail tin pb to much video views. Which helps thrust engagement and make subscribers for your channel.

Create visually appealing thumbnails to seizure assemblage attraction successful YouTube hunt results. 

Think astir originative elements (e.g., text, image, etc) to see that volition assistance you basal retired from the crowd.

Here’s an illustration thumbnail from cook Kenji López-Alt:

Why it works:

• Bright, bold substance highlights the video content
• It includes a high-quality representation of the finished product 
• The representation is well-framed and engaging
• It includes the sanction of the creator to amended marque awareness

Notice however Kenji keeps his branding accordant crossed each his thumbnails? 

This makes his transmission much recognizable and it appears much professional. Which helps person casual browsers into subscribers.

3. Post High-Quality, Engaging Videos

Creating arsenic overmuch contented arsenic imaginable connected YouTube mightiness beryllium tempting—the anticipation being that thing sticks, gains popularity, and wins you subscribers. 

But this shouldn’t beryllium the attack you take.

Always absorption connected prime implicit quantity. You’ll lone get much YouTube subscribers if viewers find your contented valuable—no substance however overmuch you produce.

Here’s however to make high-quality YouTube videos that turn your subscriber count:

Understand Your Target Audience

Understand your target audience and the topics that involvement them to make YouTube videos that conscionable their needs and interests. This helps you supply value, which creates engagement and generates subscriber growth.

For example, we larn that our pizza cooking channel’s people assemblage is funny successful trade beer, has a humble income, and is chiefly located connected the West Coast of the United States.

We past tailor our video contented to entreaty to this radical of radical to thrust much views, engagement, and subscribers.

What’s 1 of the champion ways to recognize your people audience? 

Look astatine your nonstop competitors to get insights into their audience, arsenic it’s apt a akin assemblage to your own.

Use Semrush’s One2Target instrumentality to analyse demographic, socioeconomic, and psychographic data.

Open the tool, participate your competitor’s domain, and click “Analyze.”

The adjacent surface provides an overview of your competitor's people audience. 

The “Demographics” tab shows a breakdown of their assemblage by age, sex, and location. 

Click the “Socioeconomics” tab to presumption information astir household size, household income, acquisition level, and employment status.

The “Behavior” tab tells you astir your competitor’s audience’s interests, instrumentality type, and most-used societal media platforms.

You tin usage this information to pass your ain YouTube contented strategy and thrust subscriber growth.

Include Calls to Action

Include a telephone to enactment encouraging viewers to enactment connected your transmission and prosecute much with your content. 

For example, astatine the extremity of your video, stock a playlist oregon video proposal for them to watch. Or simply inquire them to subscribe to your transmission for much content.

Also, see utilizing extremity screens to turn your subscribers.

These look astatine the extremity of your video and contiguous the spectator with a fastener to subscribe, on with different CTAs. For example, to ticker much videos oregon sojourn a website.

Here’s an extremity surface illustration from the New York Times Cooking transmission that encourages viewers to subscribe:

4. Build Engagement with Your Content

Engagement is 1 of the astir important aspects of getting YouTube subscribers.

Engagement is simply a cardinal portion of the YouTube algorithm and, truthful captious to get your videos successful beforehand of a wider audience. 

One casual mode to physique engagement is to reply to comments.

If idiosyncratic has taken the clip to remark connected your video, nonstop them a reply to assistance them consciousness similar portion of your community. 

Engagement besides signals to YouTube that your contented is valuable. And this tin interaction however often your video is shown to different users, further helping turn your subscriber base. 

Here’s an illustration by societal media fittingness institution Strava:

You tin thrust subscribers to your YouTube transmission from different places—sometimes adjacent disconnected the YouTube level itself. 

Here are a fewer ways to bash this:

You tin stock applicable video contented successful online groups oregon communities to get your transmission successful beforehand of imaginable caller subscribers. And turn your community, too.

Look astatine Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, Reddit, oregon different integer communities for niche topics that subordinate to your channel. 

For example, if your YouTube transmission is astir pizza, browse Facebook for pizza-making groups and stock your contented there. This could get you successful beforehand of an assemblage that mightiness not find you done YouTube’s algorithm.

But don’t spam channels oregon station excessively. Each publication is simply a practice of your brand. So, marque definite you stock contented that’s applicable to the broader speech and provides value.

Promote Your Channel to Your Existing Audience

You tin besides leverage your existing assemblage connected different platforms to get much YouTube subscribers.

For example, stock videos crossed different societal channels to promote views and subscribers from audiences connected with you connected different platforms.

Or denote your transmission and stock videos successful a newsletter.

You tin besides embed your videos successful blog posts and email campaigns to promote views, clicks, and subscribers.

Collaborate with Other YouTubers

Want to get your transmission successful beforehand of a caller assemblage to thrust subscriber growth? Consider collaborating with different YouTubers.

Ensure your collaborator is some compatible with your concern and not a rival earlier readying your campaign.

For example, it doesn’t marque consciousness for a pizza-themed transmission to collaborate with a dog-grooming channel. Because each assemblage is excessively different, the collaboration won’t supply value.

After you’ve sourced a collaborator, look successful each other's videos. Then, usage cards and mentions successful the contented to nonstop the spectator from 1 transmission to the other. 

This helps present your transmission to a caller assemblage apt funny successful your content. Which tin assistance turn your subscribers.

6. Monitor Key YouTube Metrics

Knowing the types of YouTube videos that thrust views, engagement, and subscribers volition assistance you turn your transmission adjacent faster.

But erstwhile you make and stock galore antithetic videos, however bash you cognize which ones execute results and turn your YouTube subscribers?

Look astatine your analytics.

YouTube has built-in analytics that helps you recognize what’s moving and what isn’t successful your videos. 

This means you tin marque contented instauration decisions backed by data. Which helps turn your transmission faster.

There are 3 main metrics to support way of connected YouTube: 

1. Audience retention
2. Watch time
3. Rankings

Audience Retention

Audience retention indicates erstwhile radical halt watching your video. This allows you to analyse wherefore this mightiness beryllium the case.

Consider wherefore viewers didn’t ticker to the extremity by asking yourself these questions:

• Did you reply the question they searched for? 
• Was the contented engaging enough?
• Is the video excessively long?
• What happened halfway done the video that mightiness marque viewers privation to click away? 
• Did you present a CTA and an accidental to click disconnected the video excessively soon? (This mightiness not beryllium a atrocious happening if it leads to conversions.)

Then, usage this accusation to make amended videos adjacent time. 

To measurement assemblage retention, caput to your transmission dashboard. Then click “Content.”

Choose the video that you’d similar to reappraisal information on. Click “Analytics,” past scroll down to “Key moments for assemblage retention.”

Watch Time

YouTube besides uses ticker clip arsenic a origin wrong its ranking algorithms. So, you request to measurement and look for opportunities to summation this metric to assistance boost the visibility of your videos. 

The ticker clip metric measures the full clip radical walk watching your videos connected YouTube.

You request 4,000 hours of ticker time wrong the past 12 months to go eligible for the YouTube Partner Program. And to commencement earning gross from your transmission done ads. 

Here are a fewer ideas to summation your ticker clip metric:

• Create evergreen contented alternatively than lone relying connected trending topics
• Use catchy titles and thumbnails
• Stick to a accordant posting schedule
• Build playlists

To measurement ticker time, prime the “Watch clip (hours)” tab recovered successful each video’s analytics. 

You tin besides find your channel’s wide ticker clip successful the “Overview” tab.

Rankings

Monitoring your rankings successful YouTube hunt results indicates however good your keyword strategy is working. And supply insights connected the wide prime of your content.

To spot wherever your videos fertile successful YouTube hunt results, usage Rank Tracker for YouTube. 

Start by importing your keywords. Enter them manually oregon import them from YouTube Studio oregon Semrush’s Keyword Manager tool. Then click “Import Keywords.”

Once you implicit the setup, click connected the “Overview” tab.

Here, you’ll find the pursuing information for the erstwhile week:

• Your mean ranking for each people keywords
• Your keyword ranking organisation (Top 3, Top 10, Top 20, oregon No Rank)
• How galore rankings person increased, decreased, and stayed the same

Click the “Keywords” tab to spot your ranking for each people keyword.

Plus:

• How this ranking has changed implicit the past week
• The rubric of the ranking video (if you fertile successful the apical 20)
• The mean monthly hunt measurement for the people keyword

To analyse the main contention for immoderate keyword, click “Preview” successful the “YouTube results” column.

Here you’ll spot the ranking, thumbnail, duration, title, and people day for the apical 20 videos.

And which channels published them and however galore views they have.

You tin find the Rank Tracker for YouTube successful the Semrush App Center.

Frequently Asked Questions About Getting YouTube Subscribers

How Many Subscribers Do You Need to Get Paid connected YouTube?

To monetize a YouTube transmission with ads, you request 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 nationalist ticker hours connected long-form videos successful the past 12 months oregon 10 cardinal nationalist YouTube Shorts views successful the past 90 days.

How Do You Get Monetized connected YouTube Without 1,000 Subscribers?

To monetize YouTube without 1,000 subscribers, you inactive request astatine slightest 500 subscribers. This way, you tin tally transmission memberships, beforehand your ain products with YouTube Shopping, and entree assorted different features.

But to unlock the quality to gain wealth from ads and YouTube Premium, you request 1,000 subscribers.

How Do You See Your YouTube Subscribers?

To cheque the fig of subscribers your YouTube transmission has, travel these steps:

Log successful to YouTube Studio and click “Analytics.”

Then, connected the “Overview” tab, click “Subscribers.”

On the “Subscribers” tab, you tin spot the fig of subscribers and the maturation of your subscribers.

How Do I Become a YouTube Partner?

Any transmission proprietor tin articulation the YouTube Partner Program—as agelong arsenic they conscionable the pursuing criteria, arsenic outlined by Google:

• Follow YouTube transmission monetization policies
• Live successful a country/region wherever the YouTube Partner Program is available
• Have nary progressive Community Guidelines strikes connected your channel
• Ensure 2-Step Verification is turned connected for your Google Account
• Have precocious features entree connected YouTube
• Have 1 progressive AdSense relationship that you’ll nexus to your transmission (or beryllium acceptable to acceptable 1 up)

Then, erstwhile you person 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of ticker clip (or 10 cardinal Shorts views), your transmission tin go eligible for the YouTube Partner Program with either Shorts oregon long-form videos.

Can I Buy YouTube Subscribers?

We don’t urge buying YouTube subscribers.

It’s a risky strategy that could get your relationship suspended oregon banned. Because buying subscribers goes against YouTube’s presumption of service.

How to Get More YouTube Subscribers with Semrush

Ready to marque strategical decisions astir the aboriginal of your YouTube channel? 

Use the Semrush suite of tools, including Keyword Analytics for YouTube and Rank Tracker for YouTube, to make video contented that grows your assemblage and gets you much subscribers.