With the recent rollout of their One Channel design, YouTube is aiming to evolve from – in Google’s own words – “a video-based site to a channels-based site, where subscriptions rule.”
Essentially, YouTube is working to help advertisers better engage their target customer base by encouraging and emphasizing channel subscriptions, allowing advertisers to cultivate a community on .
In addition, there are plenty of core benefits to the One Channel design, such as the ability to scale the design and branding across different devices and screen sizes, having channels be only one click away for subscribers, and streamlined channel management, wherein updating content for desktop will automatically allow the change to scale across all devices. One Channel’s new features also allow for increased opportunities to optimize your video PPC campaigns.
Timeline for Migration.Google’s current migration timeline for One Channel allows until mid-May for most users to complete the migration, with a little additional time allotted to advertisers with gadgets or those in the pharmaceutical industry. By June 5, any advertisers who haven’t yet migrated will automatically be transitioned to the new design.So don’t wait, the sooner you can test the waters with One Channel, the more time you will have to resolve any issues before you are forced to make the transition.
Top 3 Success Tips. Before getting started, keep in mind the following top tips to set yourself up for maximum success.
1. Optimizing the Basics. To give your channel more prominence and appeal to users of the site, take advantage of the following:
Channel Metadata
Just like with SEO, having strong channel titles and descriptions will serve to increase the likelihood of your channel being found, both in searches and via YouTube’s recommendations. Since only the first 45 characters of your channel description will appear next to your avatar across YouTube, make sure you are concise in summing up what the channel is about, and use calls to action to encourage users to subscribe.
YouTube will now use the channel title as opposed to your user name in searches and recommendations, so ensure you do some searches of your channel name to see how your channel is being presented, and modify as needed.
Channel Avatar
This serves as your main marketing image on the site, branding you more effectively to your audience. It is also used in search, suggestions and recommendations as well as in comments. Since it can also appear in different sizes based both on where it shows up as well as on screen size, ensure that it is clear in both larger and smaller sizes.
