YouTube Algorithm Explained In 5 Minutes (2026) — Transcript

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1. 0:00First, look at these channels. How can
2. 0:02someone get so many views and
3. 0:04subscribers with so few videos? There
4. 0:06are many channels that have even
5. 0:07monetized their channels with just one
6. 0:10video. So, let's find out the secret
7. 0:11behind this. Before that, let me tell
8. 0:13you that I currently run two channels.
9. 0:16One has 25,000 subscribers, and the
10. 0:18other has over 50,000. I think that's
11. 0:21enough about me. Now, there's only one
12. 0:24question: How do people make videos go
13. 0:26viral so quickly? The answer lies in
14. 0:28these two magical topics. Now,
15. 0:30understand that YouTube's algorithm,
16. 0:31not YouTube's, works on both the
17. 0:33audience and the creator. This means
18. 0:35that the audience is the algorithm for
19. 0:37the creator. Meaning, the algorithm is
20. 0:39equal to the audience. Let's understand
21. 0:41this clearly. The algorithm collects
22. 0:43data from two sources: first, viewers,
23. 0:45and second, the creators who create
24. 0:46videos. Now, a creator tells the
25. 0:49algorithm what language the video is in
26. 0:51and what country the video is from.
27. 0:53What's an IP address? What's the
28. 0:55video's category? Is the video for kids
29. 0:57or adults? What's the video's title?
30. 0:59What's in the description? And much
31. 1:01more. Now, let's talk about what
32. 1:02YouTube takes from viewers. YouTube's
33. 1:05AI system determines which videos
34. 1:07viewers are watching in full, which
35. 1:09videos they're liking and disliking,
36. 1:11which videos they're commenting on and
37. 1:13sharing, what they're searching for,
38. 1:14and which categories viewers are
39. 1:16watching the most. After collecting
40. 1:19data from both sides, YouTube promotes
41. 1:21the videos that are better than other
42. 1:23videos in that category, and doesn't
43. 1:25recommend the videos that aren't as
44. 1:27good to viewers. Now, it's not that you
45. 1:30can't know whether your video is good
46. 1:32or not. You can, but how? Let's find
47. 1:34out. The algorithm doesn't look at your
48. 1:36video, but at the data. YouTube wants
49. 1:39to show viewers the best videos so they
50. 1:41stay on the platform. Now, listen
51. 1:43carefully. YouTube's algorithm changes
52. 1:46more than 200 times in a year. But CTR
53. 1:49and AR never change. First of all, know
54. 1:52well what CTR and AR are? CTR means
55. 1:55Click Through Rate. CTR tells how many
56. 1:58people clicked on your video when
57. 2:00YouTube showed it to the audience. For
58. 2:03example, suppose you uploaded a video
59. 2:05on YouTube and YouTube sent that video
60. 2:08to 100 people, out of which 10 people
61. 2:10clicked on it and watched it, then your
62. 2:13CTR became 10%. Now suppose YouTube
63. 2:15sent it to 1000 people and out of them
64. 2:1845 people clicked on your video and
65. 2:20watched it. Then a CTR of 4.5%came from
66. 2:23these 1000 people. Now add this up, the
67. 2:26total impressions are 1000 + 100 = 1100
68. 2:30and the total views are 45 + 10 = 55.
69. 2:33Now there is a simple formula to
70. 2:36calculate CTR and that is: Views up
71. 2:39Impressions*by 100 i.e. 55/100*100 = 5%
72. 2:42. So the CTR of this video of yours is
73. 2:455%. Now suppose, someone uploads a
74. 2:48video on YouTube whose CTR is 20%, then
75. 2:51obviously YouTube will recommend the
76. 2:53video with 20%CTR to more audience
77. 2:55because more people are clicking and
78. 2:57watching that video and this is what
79. 2:59YouTube wants. Now a question must be
80. 3:02coming in your mind that how much CTR
81. 3:04should you get on your video so that
82. 3:06YouTube can make our video viral too.
83. 3:09Look, YouTube has not told you anything
84. 3:10exactly like this that if you get this
85. 3:12much CTR then your video will go viral.
86. 3:15But if I were to tell you from my
87. 3:16personal experience, if your video's
88. 3:18CTR is higher than 7%, it gets a good
89. 3:20number of views. And I'm not making
90. 3:22this up out of thin air. Look, this is
91. 3:25the most viral video on my channel, and
92. 3:27its CTR is 7%. It's simple. Make your
93. 3:30thumbnail as attractive as you can.
94. 3:33Because the higher the CTR, the greater
95. 3:35the chance of the video going viral.
96. 3:38Now, the second factor is AR, i.e.,
97. 3:40audience retention. Suppose your video
98. 3:42is 7 minutes long, and three out of 10
99. 3:44people watch it for 5 minutes, and the
100. 3:46remaining seven watch it for 2 minutes
101. 3:48and then skip it. So, for 10 people,
102. 3:51the duration would be audience
103. 3:53multiplied by duration, i.e., 10*7 = 70
104. 3:55minutes. But how long did the audience
105. 3:58watch it? Three people watched for 5
106. 4:01minutes (3*5 = 15 minutes), and six
107. 4:04watched for 2 minutes (7*2 = 14 minutes
108. 4:07). Now the total audience is 10, and
109. 4:11the retention is 15 + 14 = 29 minutes.
110. 4:14To calculate total audience retention,
111. 4:17the formula is minutes plus duration
112. 4:20multiplied by 100, i.e., 29/70*100 =
113. 4:2341.42%. This means your video has 41.42
114. 4:26%audience retention. The scenario is
115. 4:30the same. The higher the audience
116. 4:32retention, the more YouTube will push
117. 4:34your video, and the more views it will
118. 4:37receive. Now, you're probably wondering
119. 4:39how much audience retention you need to
120. 4:41achieve to get more views. This depends
121. 4:44on the length of your video. If your
122. 4:46video is 5 to 6 minutes long, aim for
123. 4:49an audience retention of over 40%.
124. 4:52Similarly, if your video is 15 to 20
125. 4:54minutes long, even an audience
126. 4:56retention of over 30%will generate a
127. 4:58significant number of views. If you've
128. 5:01watched this video up to this point,
129. 5:02you've probably figured out that CTR
130. 5:04and AR are crucial for getting views on
131. 5:06a video. But CTR and AR alone won't
132. 5:09suffice. While these are important,
133. 5:11even more important is the video idea.
134. 5:14This means the topic you choose for
135. 5:16your next video. If your video idea is
136. 5:18boring, no matter how good your video
137. 5:20is, how great the editing is, how great
138. 5:22the voiceover is, it still won't get
139. 5:24views. On the other hand, you've
140. 5:26probably seen videos on YouTube that
141. 5:28don't have a good thumbnail or proper
142. 5:31SEO, yet they still get millions of
143. 5:33views. Do you know why? Because their
144. 5:35video idea is amazing. But the problem
145. 5:38is, finding a viral video idea isn't
146. 5:40that easy. If you want a video on how
147. 5:43to find viral video ideas, please let
148. 5:45us know in the comments. The next video
149. 5:48will be on this topic. That's all for
150. 5:50today. See you in the next video. Bye.