When you're writing titles you really Need to know who your audience is you Know I tried to shorten it up I tried to Take it to the extreme don't do that This is their one big desire almost all Viral videos have these three click Triggers and the easiest way to do that Is to just you gotta just press record I'm Jake Thomas I help people write Better YouTube titles Creator hooks Every Monday morning I send out five Video ideas that did well on YouTube They kind of break down why those did Well and then how you can use those Strategies for your channel I know Recently you tested 103 different YouTube videos first can you share what Are some of those things that you found Really worked what can we do to get more Views one of the more interesting ones I Ran this test three different times it Was a how-to title versus a list title And in all three tests the list actually Had a higher CTR I think it probably Depends on where your traffic is coming From if your traffic is coming from Browse or suggested you're probably People are going to be attracted by that Number if it's like a how-to video maybe People think they're boring I was kind Of a surprise that list videos beat How-to videos every single time that is Super interesting what were some of the Other takeaways that you found when
Testing that seemed to help the videos Perform better so one of the strategies That worked really well was writing Titles for a broader audience so here's One of the one of the tests that we ran This is for a basketball Channel title A Was what happened to Shabazz Muhammad Title B was the most overhyped MBA Prospect this is interesting because Shabazz Muhammad like you've got to be a Pretty big NBA fan to know who he is no Offense to Shabazz it's not like what Happened to LeBron James everybody knows Who LeBron James is but I felt like the Title was a little bit too Niche so Instead of talking about Shabazz Muhammad we talked about we gave him a Label the most over-hyped MBA Prospect And and that increased the CTR by 26 Percent one time where it did not work The title was Sim swapping explained Plus how you can easily avoid it title B Was stop using text message verification To log into your accounts Sim swapping I Thought was like a little kind of in the Weeds you know text message verification Was I thought it was a little bit more Broader but this title was raking in Search for Sim swapping that was that Was a term I had never heard of so you Know maybe I'm just not uh not a Technical guy we were talking about like The Shabazz Muhammad you know that People weren't actually searching
Shabazz Muhammad but it was the opposite For this Sim swapping video where people Were searching for that keyword um so in That case taking the keyword out of the Title decrease the CTR so when you're Writing titles you really need to know Who your audience is why are they on YouTube are they searching for something Like what are they searching for versus Are they just like trying to scroll and Be entertained yeah a major tip for People out there is to actually title Your videos before you make your video Think about is this for search or is my Goal for YouTube to just suggest this to A bunch of people if you are using a Very specific name of a person or a Specific product you know it might not Perform well if there's not a lot of Search around it and you're wondering Why you're not getting views you still Might be ranking for that search term But there's just not an enough traffic Coming in yeah definitely another Strategy that I found that worked well Was calling out beginners so here's an Example the best camera for Content Creators in 2022 versus the best camera For beginners in 2022 the best camera For beginners increase the CTR by 26 his Audience was content creator so I wanted To call them out specifically but for Some reason they resonated more with Beginners calling out beginners is is a
Great strategy because they're like kind Of the biggest subset of any audience Right like everybody starts out as a Beginner only a few become intermediate And then only a few become kind of Expert it's a big broad subset of the Audience they're hungry they're hungry To learn so calling out beginners is Another great strategy that you can use So another thing that worked that not a Lot of people are going to love is Negativity worked really well you know I Don't want to use negativity I don't Want to be a fear-monger and there are Ways that you can make it a little bit Less aggressive right you could say you Know my mistakes versus like your Mistakes right here was an example of Where turning up the negativity aisle Did well title A how billionaire Jeff Bezos spends all his money right that's Pretty neutral dumb things that Jeff Bezos wastes his billions on the second Title the negative title had an increase Of 36 percent I love using negativity in Titles you know it's not for everybody But it is a it is a great tool to have That you can kind of use when you need It when you want it using negativity is Not a great way to rank and search this Would definitely want to be something That you want to pair with a title that You're trying to trying to go viral Right like trying to try to reach as big
Of an audience as possible negativity is Just one that uh that often works well I Really love that and what's cool about Your book the 103 a B test that you did Inside of that book you break down which Ones performed well which ones you know Didn't perform well and the best part is It's only seven dollars and you get a Ton of titles that are gonna help you Get more views on YouTube so check the Link in the description well a couple Other things that we saw like some power Words so like the word habit people just Love have it so here's one example uh This is killing your golf swing versus This habit is killing your golf swing And just throwing in the word habit Increased the CTR by 10 I think that People love habits because they're so Tangible right like you can just like Everybody knows exactly what a habit is You know one of the best books was James Clear's book Atomic habits so it was Like the best-selling book on all of Amazon recently and almost any channel Can use habits another kind of Paraphrase was using like the word Change so either like change forever or Like change my life this is the key to Awesome photos versus this will change The way you take photos forever and that Increases ETR by nine percent those Could be some easy easy ones that you Can just kind of plug into your titles
One of the cool things that I love about Mr Beast is when people are asking Questions about how to hack the Algorithm oftentimes he just tells People to replace the word algorithm With audience and when it comes to Understanding your audience you need to Understand what makes them actually Click I know you have looked at Thousands of YouTube titles but what Have you found to be like the top click Triggers that really typically are Brie In the most amount of views yeah so There are three click triggers almost All those viral videos have these three Click triggers their curiosity fear and Desire I mean it's usually curiosity Plus fear or curiosity plus desire Curiosity it's kind of like a mosquito Bite for your brain like if you get bit By a mosquito you don't want to scratch That itch right you feel like you need To scratch that itch so when you build Curiosity in your audience's mind they Feel like they have to watch your video And the easiest way to do that is to Just use the word this but not specify What this is so here's an example six Ways to create remarkable photos versus I stopped taking boring photos once I Learned this you know once I learned This like you read that title and say oh Like what is it like what did he learn And the second title increase the CTR by
29 and then when you pair that up with Their Desire with like their hopes their Dreams they have no choice but to click They definitely want to know how to Achieve all their dreams and then also If you pair curiosity up with fear hey They want to avoid their mistake they Want to avoid regrets but tearing up Curiosity and Theory curiosity and Desire is the best way to write YouTube Titles wow that's really cool and that's One of the things that we've been Experimenting with on think media and so We're always trying to find the balance Too of like when do we need to be kind Of vague so that we can actually get the Click and a lot of people feel like this Is clickbait but at the end of the day What I love to tell people is the Chocolate covered carrots you need to Show them the sweet stuff because if no One clicks on your video no one's Actually going to get into the good Stuff that you have to say or that you Want to show them use that chocolate for Your video yes definitely yeah so this Was a mistake that I made title A was The beach so good that I quit my job to Travel the world title B was the most Beautiful beach in the world the Audience is for a travel channel they Want to quit their job they want to Travel the world right this is their one Big desire and I took that out of the
Title you know I tried to shorten it up I tried to be uh take it to the extreme The main thing that people watch this Channel for I took that out of the title Don't do that know why your audience Watches your videos and use those Desires use those hopes and dreams to Get more people to click
