- Passionate Income
- Posts
- Why YouTube is a Money Printer
In partnership with
892 Words | 3 Min 43 Sec Read
Today we’ll be discussing why YouTube is by far the #1 social media platform for building an audience.
Let’s dive in.
We scour 100+ sources daily
Read by CEOs, scientists, business owners and more
3.5 million subscribers
If you put a gun to my head and said I could only build a following on ONE social media platform for the next 10 years, it would be YouTube.
Hands down, no questions asked.
Why?
Well, there's a short answer and a long answer.
The short answer is because, in general, YouTube users will be worth more to your business than an equal number of followers on most any other platform.
But that doesn't tell the full story...
See, the core argument boils down to understanding social media followers are not created equal.
While it's true every fan is a human being (ignoring bots), the likelihood of that person contributing to your bottom line can vary greatly by platform.
While the following rankings have not been proven scientifically, online marketing veterans tend to rank social media platforms as follows (starting with the most valuable and dropping to the least):
YouTube
LinkedIn
Twitch
Facebook
X / Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
TikTok
SnapChat
What's interesting are the patterns among the top ranked platform.
For example, LinkedIn and Facebook rank near the top. Why?
Because their primary users are people who have disposable income.
In the case of LinkedIn, it's executives, entrepreneurs and career professionals. In the case of Facebook, it's Gen X'ers and Boomers (with Boomers in particular controlling the largest portion of wealth in the US).
In the case of YouTube and Twitch, both platforms lend themselves to long-form video. Which as you may or may not know, is an incredible trust builder.
And that ability to build trust can help you drive boat loads of sales.
The problem is, unless you're a gamer - or your industry lends itself to live streaming - you're probably not going to build an audience on Twitch.
But whether you talk about finance, fitness or fly fishing, odds are there's a large group of people sucking up YT videos related to your niche.
And if you can be the one who supplies those videos, your business can benefit from YouTube's trust building effects.
To be clear, this doesn't mean becoming a YouTuber.
In fact, with stories coming out showing YouTube is rewarding big channels while punishing small ones, now is not a good time to start a YouTube channel if your goal is to monetize via ad revenue.
However, if you have some kind of information or service business - where you sell coaching, consulting, courses or DFY services - adding YouTube to your current marketing mix could be a money printer.
And here's why:
Over the years, multiple anecdotes have come out regarding how much _____ prospects have to engage with before they'll buy from you:
Seven hours of consuming your content
6 to 8 ad impressions
And so on
Admittedly, none of these have ever been proven with research. But they highlight an important point:
Very few people purchase something the very first time they come into contact with a brand-new business.
Instead, it usually takes a couple exposures before the company even breaks into our psyche. And once it hits our brain waves, it usually takes some more seduction before we even think about buying something from them.
So what does this have to do with YouTube?
If you think about it, YouTube is the perfect marketing relationship builder.
First, it's opt-in / permission-based.
Meaning, when you subscribe to someone's channel, you're giving them permission to push out their videos to you.
Second, it allows for high frequency.
Whether you publish multiple times per day or once per week, YouTube allows you to stay in front of your audience on a consistent, long-term basis.
Third, it allows for long-form video.
Imagine you're publishing 15 or 30 second videos to TikTok.
And let's pretend the "7 hours before someone will buy from you" anecdote actually plays out in the real world.
Even if you're publishing 30 second vids, you would need someone to watch 840 before they would consume seven hours of your content.
On the flip side, if you're publishing 30 minute videos to YouTube, a follower only has to watch 14 to arrive to that same seven hours.
And the crazy part?
It's actually easier to film a 30 minute video than it is 30 second ones.
Combine these three factors and it's easy to see why YouTube can be such a money printer when bolted onto an existing business.
When a prospect gives you permission to send them long-form videos on a frequent basis, they're basically handing you their trust on a silver platter.
As they say:
"People do business with people they Know, Like and Trust."
And in our opinion, when it comes to getting people to "Know, Like and Trust" you, YouTube blows every other platform out of the water.
💡 Takeaway: Growing on YouTube can be hard. But because of how relationships are built online, YouTube followers are likely to generate a higher Revenue per Follower than most any other social media platform.
🎁 Resources:
FREE COURSE: Build a Faceless IG Page (from a guy with 10M+ followers)
