Why Is it Important To Know Your Target Audience

Do you spend hours filming, editing, promoting your video, but it only results in a few views?

You’re probably targeting the wrong audience because the YouTube algorithm helps viewers find the videos that they want to watch based upon their browsing behavior.

If you deliver the content your viewers want to watch, they’ll keep coming back for more, which results in the growth of your channel.

In the video below, you’ll learn how the YouTube algorithm works, how to quickly identify your target audience and the mistakes to avoid.

Click here to get my video course. You’ll discover how to hook your viewers, get them to spend more time on each video and motivate them to watch more videos from your channel, so YouTube will recommend your content to a wider audience.

How does the YouTube algorithm work?

YouTube says, “Our algorithm doesn’t pay attention to videos. It pays attention to viewers. So rather than trying to make videos that make the algorithm happy, focus on making videos that make your viewers happy.”

Keep in mind the YouTube algorithm follows the audience, what they watch, what they don’t watch, how long they keep watching, and if they return to watch more.

So your goal should be to help viewers find the videos that they want to watch keep viewers on the YouTube platform as long as possible, then get viewers to keep coming back for more of your content.

If people love your content, the YouTube algorithm will surface your content to a wider audience resulting in more views.

How do you identify your target audience on YouTube?

One of the biggest mistakes YouTubers make is trying to appeal to everyone. If you try to appeal to everyone, you’ll appeal to no one. It’s like throwing mud at the wall, hoping some of it will stick.

Avoid uploading content that you want to make without considering the interests of your audience. Your audience consists of an individual viewer, which is sometimes called an Avatar, which represents your target audience. Ideally, you want to create content that you love to make and your audience will love to watch.

How do you identify your ideal subscriber that reflects the audience you wish to reach?

Look at this Venn diagram to identify the personality of your ideal viewer. I call him Steve. Demographics refers to the age and gender of your ideal viewer.

Here’s how to find the demographics of the audience in YouTube analytics.

Click on analytics in YouTube studio
Click on the audience tab.
Under top geographies, you’ll see the top countries where most of your audience watches your videos. You’ll also see the top languages and the age and gender of your audience.

According to my demographics, Steve is a male 34 years old that resides in the United States and speaks English.

Here’s how to get more insights about your target audience from YouTube analytics.

Click on the audience tab in YouTube analytics.
Look at videos, growing your audience channels your audience watches,. what your audience watches, formats your viewers watch on YouTube, when your viewers are on YouTube

You can also use the Research Tab to discover the top searches of viewers on your channel.

Click on your research tab,
Click on searches across YouTube.
The research tab explores what viewers are searching for on YouTube.
Use this tool to research some of the top searches from viewers on your channel and across YouTube in the last 28 days.
Click on your viewers searches.
Here are the search terms my audience is searching for on YouTube.
If I click on all searches, then click on content gaps only and click apply, it shows the content gaps on my channel.
If I click saved, then it shows the Keyword phrases that people are entering into the search engines. This gives me a clear idea what kind of content my audience is interested in.

After demographics, look at your viewers psychographics. While demographics are the external traits of a person, psychographics refers to the internal traits. This refers to the beliefs, values, attitudes, motivations, lifestyle choices, fears and vulnerabilities.

It’s what they’re most passionate about and drives them.

For example, Steve is passionate about growing his channel, impacting others, and generating revenue from his channel. His hobbies include traveling and spending time in nature.

One of the ways you can discover the psychographics of your ideal viewer is to survey your audience. You can add a poll or quiz to your community tab, study the recurring questions in your comments or in the comments of your competitors’ videos, or study the most popular videos of your competitors’ channels.

For example, you create a list of 10 different channels that are in the same niche as your own niche.
Go to the first channel click on the videos tab to sort the videos by the most popular.
Watch, the most popular videos that were uploaded to that channel over the past year.
Study their titles, thumbnails, hooks, how they present their content, call to actions, and how many views and subscribers they were able to get.
Do the same for all the other channels.

What you’re looking for are patterns in the content creation and in the audience’s behavior. This will help you to see what is currently working in your niche so you can create the right content on your own channel. If you have an email list, survey your list, or if you have a Facebook group, you can also add a poll. If you’re just starting out, just use yourself as your own target audience, what are your values, beliefs, burning questions, et cetera. You also want to write down the offline and online behavior of your ideal viewer, like where do they hang out online in other social media sites.

How To Use ChatGPT (AI) To Identify Your Ideal Viewer

For example, if I go to Chat GPT at Chat.OpenAI.com, I enter…

“My YouTube channel is about growing your audience on YouTube. Write a viewer persona for a male 34 named Steve that lives in the USA.” ChatGPT spits out the answers in a few seconds.

For example, ChatGPT gives me the background, demographics, interests and hobbies, goals and challenges, and the preferred content. This will give you a great starting point if you don’t know your ideal subscriber.

As your channel grows, you can refine your audience profile to make it more detailed. After you’ve researched all the characteristics of your ideal viewer, it’ll be easier to create the right content for your target audience. Every time you create a new video, look at the audience profile you’ve created so you know you’re targeting the right audience.

Mistakes To Avoid

Your niche is too broad.
If you try to appeal to everyone, you won’t attract your target audience.

For example, instead of having a general fitness niche, you could specialize in functional fitness for seniors. Instead of having a general travel niche, you could focus on adventure travel for families. When you narrow your niche, it’ll be easier to attract a target audience.

Lack of Patience
Sometimes a video doesn’t gain many views in the first few hours or days after you’ve uploaded it. This may mean that your video topic or content is not a perfect fit for your dedicated viewers, but is a good fit for new viewers.

For example, this video only received 200 views and one subscriber in the first 24 hours of uploading it in September 19th, 2019. If I select September 19th to October 19th, 2019, and click apply, it only received 326 views and 3 subscribers in a one month period.

If I select since uploaded or lifetime views, it says this video has gotten over 161,000 views since it was uploaded, It has accumulated one and a half thousand subscribers and generated revenue of over $1,000.

This is primarily due to the video ranking number 1 on YouTube search. It may take a while for the YouTube algorithm to match the new content with a new audience, so be patient.

Not tracking your traffic in YouTube analytics.
The 2 top metrics to keep an eye on is clickthrough rate and audience retention. To find the Clickthrough Rate for a specific video, click on the content tab in YouTube studio, then click on analytics for that specific video. Click on the reach tab and look under impressions and how they’re led to watch time. This video has a 9.1% click rate.

If you have a low click rate, it means that viewers are not motivated to click and watch your video because of your titles and thumbnails. If you have a low audience retention, it means that viewers are not remaining engaged throughout your video.

How To view Audience Retention

Click on the engagement tab
Look under audience retention.
You’ll be able to see the intro top moments.. This is the part that kept your viewers watching for longer than usual.
Dips mean viewers are abandoning or skipping certain parts of your video.

It could be that the content you’re presenting is not what was promised in your title and thumbnail. When you make your next video, try to improve your click through rate and audience retention.

Do you want to know the secrets to audience engagement on YouTube?

Why Is it Important To Know Your Target Audience (IDEAL VIEWER)

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