Transcription
If your videos are not getting views, there's a super simple process you can go through to figure out the exact reasons why. This review is called a content diagnostic. And in this video, I'm going to walk you through the full thing, the process for how to do it, the problems you're probably having, and the tactical solutions for how to solve each one. Once you understand how this diagnostic process works, I guarantee your content will dramatically improve.
By the way, I'm Callaway. I've done billions of views, and content is all I do all day long.
All right. Now, the content diagnostic works like this. There are three main problem areas that your video might be struggling with. Think of them like sections in a funnel. To get a viewer to watch and share, you need to get them through all three sections.
Now, within each of those three sections, there are several specific problems that your video might have. Think of these like funnel blockers. When a viewer hits one or more of these blockers, they get stuck, leave the funnel, and then they never make it to the bottom. The content diagnostic is an organized process to gut check each of those funnel blockers in order to figure out exactly where your video is breaking.
Now, like any funnel, if your viewer gets stuck at the top, well, then nothing else below that point matters. So, your biggest priority is solving the problems in the top section first, then the middle section, and then the bottom. And if you solve all the problems across all three stages, I guarantee your videos will be crushing.
So, we're going to go through each of the three stages from top to bottom. And I'm going to break down the specific problems and how to solve each one.
Now, the first and most important problem area to solve. The top of that funnel is called the click. And specifically, the problem is that the click is not happening. Now, when I say click, it actually has a double meaning because I both mean literally the viewer clicking to watch and figuratively the video clicking or resonating in the viewer's head. So before any hook psychology or fancy video editing, the viewer has to actually want to watch this video. And if you fail here at this first stage, nothing else matters.
Now there's two specific problems that you might be experiencing within this click section. And you got to solve both of these first, no matter what you do or it's not going to work. The first problem is what I call the matching problem. And this means your videos are not being served to the right people. You have a content audience mismatch. So, if you make cooking videos, but the only people that see them are sports fans, well, then nobody's going to watch. No amount of script writing or editing or retention tricks is going to help that.
Now, this matching problem can happen in two ways. It either means your existing audience is made up of the wrong followers or the algorithm is pushing your stuff to the wrong strangers. But either way, your videos are not getting in front of the right people. And when this happens, you never had a chance in the first place.
Okay, so if this audience matching problem is happening to you, how do you solve it? First, if you're making videos on an old account where you used to talk about a different topic or you have a bunch of high school friends following you, you should probably start a fresh account. The way social platforms work is that they build connections between your channel and your followers. Think of it like a spiderweb. Now, the longer those people have followed you or the more they've engaged over the years, the thicker those web strands are going to be. Now, all of a sudden, if you start posting about some other topic, it's going to take the platform a while to unwind those connections. It's literally like you're a hot air balloon trying to fly and there's a bunch of ropes holding you down. It takes time to sever those ropes. So, you're better off starting fresh with a new account.
Now, the next thing you have to do is train the algorithm on who to serve your stuff to. You need to teach the algorithm what the right content audience match actually is. To do this, you need to post 10 to 20 videos specifically about your new topic, knowing that they may not do well, but staying super disciplined and laser focused on just that. Then you're going to comment on as many videos as possible from other creators in your space. This signals to the platform that you're trying to be a part of this niche community both by posting yourself and engaging with others. This dual action will train the algorithm to start pushing your videos to that community.
Okay, so this solves problem number one, the matching problem. If you feel like your audience is misaligned with your content and that match is off, solve this first before doing anything else. Also, by the way, if you want to get better at solving all of these problems, I built a free content community that has over 15,000 entrepreneurs in it. It's called Wavy World. I have a free invite link for you in the description.
Okay. Now, the second specific problem within the click. We're still in that top section is the packaging problem. And this one is pretty straightforward. In this case, the algorithms are successfully putting your videos in front of the right people, but they're just not clicking and choosing to watch.
Now, if you only make short form videos on social media and you don't make long form on YouTube, well then congrats because you're not going to have this problem. You can skip and go right to number three. And that's because short form videos don't have a thumbnail that needs to be clicked on. The algorithms just serve the videos directly in the feed automatically. This is one of the reasons why short form is way easier to win with than long form on YouTube. But if you are making YouTube videos, you have to solve this packaging problem. If people don't click, nothing else in the video matters. And Mr. Beast is famous for saying this.
Now, breaking down the psychology of titles and thumbnails on YouTube is a whole video in itself, and I promise I'll make that for you guys soon. But I know I said I'd give a solve for every problem in the video. So, here is the TLDDR of how to approach the packaging problem. You need the title plus thumbnail combination to trigger three things. The pain point, the solve, and then ideally proof that your solve is worth watching. Essentially, you need the viewer to think about the pain and then assume or imply that your solve is going to fix it for them.
Now, the way I do this is with direct triggers in the title and indirect triggers in the thumbnail. For example, take a look at the thumbnail and title from this recent video that did pretty well. It was me breaking down the best ways to create viral hooks for videos. Now, my ultimate goal with the thumbnail and title was to trigger this pain point that people struggle to make good hooks. So, I could have done one of two things. I could have targeted the solve, here's how to make great hooks, or the pain, here are the biggest mistakes you're making when you write bad hooks. You can target either the pain or the solve. And usually targeting the pain in the title is best because there's less room for interpretation. For this one, I chose to target the solve because it was easier to communicate. So the title I went with was this. I studied 100 viral hooks and these six will make you go viral. The solve part is that I have six hooks that'll make you go viral. And the proof is that I put in the work to study 100. So you can trust that these six are validated.
Now, in this case, the pain is implied because by me saying I have a solve, you can connect the dots and assume what the pain is, which is that you struggle with hooks. So that's the title psychology. It's the combination of painoint, solve, and proof.
Now, the thumbnail either needs to fill in the remainder of those three variables or complement if you target all three already. So for my thumbnail on this video, it was me with a neutral face, big text that said hook masterass, and then a bunch of little text implying the names of the six hooks that were the answer. This visual is validating that I have a solve and that what you're going to get is a hook masterass, which is what you want to solve the pain. It's literally just a visual representation of this pain plus solve plus proof triangle, and that's what you're after.
Now, thumbnails can come in all shapes and sizes, and there's obviously way deeper design guidance that I'll go in in a future video, but this is basically the nuts and bolts of how to solve the problem. Also, and this is really important, when I started YouTube, I was really bad at understanding the title and thumbnail and ideas. I just didn't get it. My brain didn't work in that way. So, I hired a dedicated ideas team, and I still work with them to this day. I would never be where I am on YouTube without this team. Every month I have a call and they just serve up the ideas with the titles and thumbnails already done for me. So I don't do any of this thinking anymore. I just take those and then make the video. It is amazing. It is so valuable to have this. If you're serious about YouTube and you want to be connected to that team, I have a link below.
Okay, so those are problems one and two. If you're making shorts, you just have to solve the matching problem. And if you're making long form on YouTube, you have to solve both the matching problem and the packaging problem. Again, these are at the top of the funnel for a reason. Nothing else I'm about to say matters if you fail up here because nobody's going to be watching.
Next, we're going to go through the middle section of the funnel, which targets the specific problems you're having once a viewer starts watching the video. So, let's move on. Assuming you have those first two problems already solved.
Okay, the middle section in the viewer funnel is called the opt-in. And the problem here is that the viewer is not opting in to keep watching. They start watching, but then they bounce way too fast. Now, why is this a massive problem? To get views, you need the algorithm to push your video to more people. And it does this based on two metrics, AVD and share rate. AVD stands for average viewer duration. It's the average length of time that a viewer spends watching your video. And then share rate, is the percentage of viewers that share divided by the total number of viewers that watch. These two metrics, AVD and share rate, are really all that matters for getting more views on your videos. And if either of these metrics are low, the algorithm is not going to push your video and it's going to underperform.
So, the middle of the funnel, this opt-in stage, is all about increasing average viewer duration. In other words, how do we get people to watch for longer, so the algorithm pushes it to others. So, in this case, you have the right people getting the video, and on YouTube, they're even clicking the thumbnail, but then they're bouncing way too fast. So, why is this happening? There are four specific problems you need to look at.
The first and most important blocker in this part of the funnel is called the idea problem. And simply put, the problem is that your video idea just isn't valuable enough for the viewer. Now, valuable means interesting, useful, and relevant for your ideal viewer avatar. And this matters a lot because right away, 3 to 5 seconds in, a viewer is able to tell if the video is going to be relevant to them. And 10 seconds in, they'll already know if the video has the potential to be interesting and/or useful. The content world is so noisy that a viewer will not stick around for longer than 10 seconds if they can't determine that your video is going to be both relevant and interesting or useful. So, if you're getting your video in front of the right people and they're clicking, but your views are not high, you first need to look at the quality of the idea.
Now, the best way to assess idea quality is across these three dimensions: novelty, applicability, and uniqueness. For novelty, on a scale of 1 to 10, how new or novel is the thing you're talking about? Does everyone in your space already know about this or are you one of the first to bring it up? For applicability, on a scale of 1 to 10, how tactically applicable is the thing you're sharing? Is this just highle regurgitation or can someone actually watch your thing and then take away something that can improve their problem? And then for uniqueness, on a scale of 1 to 10, how unique is the presentation of this idea? Are you packaging the framing in the same way as everybody else, or does this feel different and unique to the viewer? I can't stress this enough. Coming up with better ideas is a critical piece of getting more views.
Now, I have a whole system for developing winning ideas, and I'm going to walk through that in another video. Where to find them, how to find them, the filtering criteria, everything you would need. But for now, the easiest solve is to just watch your stuff back before you post it. Ask yourself this, is this actually interesting to you or not? Almost always, the best ideas are inherently super interesting. Just reading a oneline summary of these banger ideas will force you down this consumption rabbit hole. If your ideas don't have that magnetism on the oneliner, they're just not that interesting.
Now, a pro tip if you don't know how to find interesting is to just look at what's already worked for other people in your space and remix off it. When you're new at a craft, don't reinvent the whole wheel. Just remix what's already working. I'm going to link below another video I made on YouTube where I broke down what makes ideas interesting. So, check that out if you want. But expect a lot more on ideas coming in a future video.
All right. Now, if the idea is actually compelling, the next problem to look at is number four, which is the hook problem. And this one's pretty straightforward as well. In this case, your hook was not executed strongly enough, and it didn't hook the viewer. So, your video got to them, they clicked, the idea was compelling, but then the hook just didn't grab them enough.
Now, I've already made a couple massive videos specifically about hooks, and I'll link those below. So, if you want to go really deep, watch those. But just as a quick summary, the hook has to induce a curiosity loop for the viewer. Think of this like a rabbit hole that they have to dive down. And here's the two-step process for the easiest way to create this rabbit hole. First, you want to quickly establish context on what the video is about so the viewer can choose to opt in. Ideally, this includes whatever painoint you're targeting. Second, you want to create some contrast moment, typically by comparing what they already believe on the topic with something else that's the opposite or different or contrarian.
So, for example, let's say I'm making videos for business owners about growing on social media. And maybe this specific video I'm making is about some Instagram hack that lets you grow way faster than normal. For the hook, the first thing I would do is establish the context and reagitate the pain. So, maybe I'd say something like, "This new social media hack will supercharge your growth on Instagram." And then the contrast might be that the embedded belief to grow an account from 0 to 100K takes 12 months, but this new tool can do it in one month. I'm contrasting against that embedded belief. So my second and third lines of the hook could be something like this. Most business owners take 6 to 12 months to grow their account to 100,000 followers. But this new tool lets you do it in just 30 days.
Now this is of course a stupid and silly example, but even me just doing that, doesn't it kind of make you wonder, is there a tool that does that? it does, and that's because the hook psychology is already working. Contrast is all you need to get the hook to stick.
Now, if you feel like you're not great at writing hooks, I actually made a software that will automatically write your hook and the full script for you in 60 seconds. It incorporates all the psychology and different hook formulas that I have, compresses it down, and does it for you automatically. It's called sandcastles.ai. This is personally what I use to automate my hookw writing process every single day. It's like a custom GBT times a million. People have been writing 30 scripts a day using this thing. The link is in the description if you want to try it. And again, if you want a deeper dive on how exactly I think about hooks, I've linked the videos below.
All right, so if you've gotten past those first four big problems, we're starting to get lower in the funnel and things are going to get a little bit more straightforward to solve. If you've got the videos to the right people and they're clicking and the ideas are good and you've hooked them and you're still getting low views, it's because most of your viewers are churning right after the hook is over. And this is problem number five, the comprehension problem.
The secret to getting people to watch your videos longer is to maximize their comprehension. And comprehension is just them understanding what you're actually saying. It's like reading. When you were in elementary school, they would have you read a passage and then ask you questions about what you read. Did you actually understand what you read or would you have to go back to the passage? This is comprehension. It's the same psychology when someone's watching a video. If you're speaking with confusing language, complex words, passive voice, and long-witted run-on sentences, comprehension is just going to go down. And retention charts are essentially just comprehension charts. As more viewers get confused, they'll lose track of why they're watching the video, and they're going to bounce because people just don't like being confused.
So, to detect if this is your problem, you need to objectively watch your video back and just ask yourself, is this confusing to watch or is this straightforward? And if you don't think so, ask a couple of other friends that are unbiased in your target audience. If they think it's confusing, you've got a comprehension problem.
Now, to solve this, just use simpler words, shorter sentences, active, more direct voice, punchy tone. We actually have a button in the script tab of Sandcastle.ai where you can just press it and it will automatically rewrite your full script in this way. Direct, punchy, easier to digest. Just remember, if a viewer is confused or they don't know what they watched, they're going to stop watching.
All right. Now, the last specific problem in this opt-in part of the funnel, that middle part, is the boredom problem. But this isn't what you think. It's not that the topic or the idea is boring, because we already solve for that in the idea problem much earlier. The boredom problem just means that the speed to value or the speed of delivery is just too slow and the viewer gets bored while they're watching.
So, what does this mean? Speed to value is the time it takes to actually get to the valuable meat of the video. Inevitably, most videos have a hook, some setup, and then some valuable part that's kind of like the haymaker punch, the reason for watching. Speed to value is just cutting that fluff out, and then compressing the time it takes to get to that meat. And when you increase speed to value, viewers have a tendency to watch for longer because they're intrigued much sooner.
Now, speed of delivery is simply just the speed you're speaking with plus the visual changes in the edit. If the pace is too slow, coupled with a long speed of value, the viewer is going to get bored and they'll bounce. The easiest way to improve this is to speak faster, be harsher with cuts between sentences, and add a little bit more switching in the visuals.
All right, we've now moved all the way to the bottom section of the funnel. And this is problem area number three, the share. At this point, we've gotten the video to the right person. They have clicked. The idea is validated. We have hooked them. We have delivered with clarity. And we have made sure they are not bored and gotten to the end. If you do all those things, you should at least have a medium performing video. But if you want to have a banger outlier with crazy views, you have to finish the job in this bottom section. And this means driving more shares.
Now, there's only two remaining problems standing between you and the share. The first one is called the takeaway problem. People share things because they believe they're going to get some form of social or professional credit from the person they share with. If I share something with you and you think I'm funny because of it, well, then I win. But if I see something that you won't find funny, well then I'm not going to share it with you because you won't associate the funny guy with me. So the takeaway is the payoff of the video. It's either some tactical or actionable nugget or it's an invisible emotional feeling that I'm left with. And this is the reason I'm going to share the video with others. If you don't make it obvious what that takeaway is for me, well then I'm going to share it less often. Maybe that tactical nugget you shared is directly implementable and so if I share it, I'll get professional credit. or maybe it's just a small laugh and people will think I'm funny. Your video needs some payoff that the viewer can take away.
Now, the tactical solve for how to remove this blocker if you have this problem is to just ask yourself, is it clear what the tactical takeaway is going to be for the viewer? And if it's not clear, you need to rework the back half of the script so that you either say it directly or imply it more closely.
All right, the final problem in the funnel is the uniqueness problem. After everything has been optimized and we get somebody all the way to the bottom, how unique is the final video as a complete package? If your differentiation is the idea, well, how unique was it? If your differentiation was the way you explain things, well, how distilled did you deliver it? If your differentiation is the edit or visuals, well, how much sauce did you put in the visual packaging? The last piece is this wow factor. It's the icing on top that really makes the video stand out. And the better this is, in addition to everything else mentioned, the more shareworthy the video will be.
Now, of course, the reason this is at the bottom of the funnel is because this should be the last thing that you focus on optimizing. If you fail at any of the blockers before this, well, then this does not matter. But if you've solved the other seven and you feel like the only thing missing is your signature style or that invisible sauce layer, what I can tell you is that the best way to close the gap on that is just more reps. This right here was my 248th video. And to be honest, I don't like the setup. I don't think the signature style is there. The sauce is kind of missing. But by this time, I already had 600,000 followers and had done hundreds of millions of views. So, it just shows you don't actually need this last 1% the way you think you do. You can win big if you just solve the other seven first.
All right, that is it. That's the full path through the viewer funnel. That is the full content diagnostic. I want you to think of this like a checklist that you run every video through. If you can make sure that all eight of those blockers are unblocked, I guarantee your content will crush. And again, the reason I presented those three stages in that order is because that is the priority they matter. Do not go to number three if number one is not solved. Do not go to number five if number three is not solved. You have to solve them in this order or nothing else matters. First, you need the click, then you need the opt-in, and then finally, you try to get the share.
And remember, if you like this, but you want more tactics, more depth on each one and how to solve it, I've got so much free stuff linked below. I'll put all the videos I've made about each of the components organized below for you. And of course, make sure to drop a comment on what you want to see from me next. Until then, we'll see you guys on the next one. Peace.