Why are people going viral? What can be considered ‘viral’ at all? The unfortunate truth is that the virality is rarely a complete accident. Sometimes, due to luck and other variables, it can be. But most of the time, if we’re talking about serious creators who are here to stay, virality depends on the systems. Here’s what you need to know.
Lesson 0: One-Time Wonders vs Intention
Virality in itself is a very fickle thing. You can gain millions of views from a funny cat video overnight. Because such things attract attention, they can be dissected into reaction pictures or turned into memes. It doesn’t mean that you’ll be a solid creator after that. Thinking the opposite is a trap that many aspiring creators can fall into, which then turns into a career flop.
When creators think about virality and how to achieve it, their minds go to clickbait, a magical hashtag, some setting they forgot to turn on, or a daily production of overly sensational, overly animated (excitable) videos. But it’s not how it works most of the time. Clickbait is discouraged. And while daily uploads of sensational videos can and do work, to make them work for you, you need to stand out among the sea of the very same content. And let us tell you, that’s not an easy task.
The hard truth is that to go viral, you need to make good content and improve from one video to the next. There’s no magic. To quote Kung-Fu Panda, “The secret is you.”
Source: al jokes
You, in the most entertaining version of yourself, are what takes your content from unknown to popular.
Do you remember ‘hawk-tua’ girl? After a single video, her fame soared, and she tried to ride its wave by making a podcast, creating merch, and even going on tour. Did that last? No. Because one-time wonders never do unless they have a strategy in mind.
The first mistake creators could make is to analyze these one-time wonders as a standard. That’s a very surface-level way of thinking that will essentially lead you, as a creator, nowhere. Why? Most of those one-time wonders were in the right time and place. And that’s their ‘secret sauce.’
Remember Nicocado Avocado? That is the prime example of entertainment through shock. He found his niche by being the most chaotic version of himself and kept attention on 5 of the channels that earned him real income. Is it healthy? That’s up for debate. But it’s certainly effective, from the creator’s standpoint.
Lesson 1: How to Analyze Competitors
Let’s say you want to tap into that ‘intentional virality’, what do you start with? With a thorough analysis, of course. You look at several same-sized channels that are in your direct competition line. And we look into their stats.
First thing that we would like to mention is that comparing their most successful video to your channel isn’t what needs to be done. We compare their better-performing videos to their channel’s average.
Let’s say their usual CTR is 6%, and their better-performing video hit 15%. This is a ‘baseline deviation.’ What is different about that video? Did they format their metadata in a different way? Have they added subtitles to that video? What topics were discussed? What formats did they use?
What needs to be done next is a thorough analysis of every deviation you’ve found.
Don’t know how to analyze your competitors best?
Try VidIQ. It can show you all the little things, such as approximate CTR, retention charts, and so much more. Remember that our partners get free access to all the functionality of VidIQ. So don’t wait, drop us a message today!
Lesson 2: How to Analyze Your Content
Now, look into your own channel. If you’re a creator with experience, you already have quite a few videos to analyze. Some of them had performed better than others. Why’s that? Let’s find out using stats.
CTR and the First 30 Seconds
First thing that you’d want to do is to check your average CTR and compare it to your best-performing videos.
Then, you go straight to the first 30-second retention graph. That’s where you look for drops within the first 5 seconds. A comparatively ‘viral’ video on your channel earns the right to be watched. And you need to learn why.
If the first 30 seconds of your video hold unusually well, that’s when you look into those 30 seconds and what you have done differently compared to your normal videos.
Thumbnails
The audience likes good quality visuals. That’s logical. Good quality thumbnails are what are going to attract your audience to your videos in the first place. The trick here is to make that thumbnail visually striking and unmistakably ‘you’.
If you don’t have ideas as to how to achieve that, don’t worry. You can check out some of the AI thumbnail generation tools that can give you a good starting point.
Lesson 3: Reading Comments
While raw numbers help, they aren’t the main driver to reverse-engineer viral videos. Comments are where it’s at. Look into each viral video’s comment section and look closely at what they are saying. Where are the emotional triggers?
Not only do you need to look for emotional triggers, but you also need to look for the reason the audience stayed. What is your audience thinking? How do they respond? What made them click?
- Is it the humor?
- Is it the relatability?
- Does this video help the viewer in some way?
Identify those triggers and write them down. It will come in handy when you try to reverse-engineer successful videos.
Source: TED
Lesson 4: The Topic Timing
Look at the most popular videos on your channel and try to answer these questions:
- Was the topic of the video already trending?
- Was it early in the trend cycle?
- Was it contrarian?
- Did it repackage a familiar theme?
Many viral videos aren’t new ideas. Popular topics get reframed in more compelling ways, and those videos often catch momentum and attention. And analytics confirm this if you pay close enough attention.
Lesson 5: Reversing the Structure
After we gained all the necessary data, we can reconstruct the architecture of viral videos both on your channel and on the channels of your competitors. We look at those videos, their structure, and the common points across all of them. Then, we map out:
Hook → Build → Escalation → Payoff → Reinforcement
Another mistake that creators often make is copying the viral videos’ structure, topic, and everything in between 1-for-1. Remember, if you found an interesting topic in a popular video that you want to add to your channel as well, you can.
However, avoid blatant plagiarism. Because, first of all, YouTube algorithms will not appreciate it at all. The audiences won’t, either, because what’s the point for them to watch a video they’ve watched already on another channel?
Copying topic ≠ copying structure.
Adapting is a different matter entirely. You adapt, but do it under a different angle, because YouTube rewards novelty inside proven frameworks.
If you need ideas for viral topics, check out the following articles:
Tools That Can Help
Many tools on the market are capable of being of great help in reverse engineering popular videos’ structure or looking at the topic from different angles. Let’s look at them a bit closer:
- VidIQ → CTR benchmarks + topic demand
- 1of10 → Identifies outlier performance
- Native YouTube Analytics → Retention, traffic source breakdown
You can find more information on the helpful tools in this article.
Can You Do It Alone?
Since we’ve worked with thousands of YouTube channels, we have a good idea about how to make viral videos that propel your channel’s popularity and aren’t random one-time wonders. It’s all in the patterns, you just have to pay attention to things like:
- High early retention.
- Strong CTR relative to baseline.
- Popularity of the topic.
- Discussion under unexpected angles.
Of course, luck plays a big part in this equation, but it’s not the main determinant of success. It’s all in the structure, in the quality of your videos, and in the ‘you’ part of your content. The latter might be even more important than the regular ol’ luck.
If you treat virality like magic, you’ll stay stuck. You just need to know what to look at.
If you need any help with YouTube-related questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!
AIR Media-Tech is always ready to nudge you toward explosive growth!
