Is YouTube a Marketing Dumpster?

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I saw a kid on YouTube yesterday who was eating ketchup. And that’s it. YouTube’s sophisticated algorithms have suggested me to watch a 10-minute video about a sauce-consuming child. They either don’t work as they were intended or they have a really poor opinion regarding my video content taste.

Ok, YouTube’s vision regarding me as a person aside, I noticed a couple hundred likes under the video. I also noticed that the kid has many other videos where he simply eats awkward stuff. The fun part – he had his fair share of subscribers.

I hate kids like that on social media. Not because of the stupidity of the content – let his parents be the grudge of an unhealthy appetite for garbage. I hate them for a series of other reasons.

For starters, they make a false impression about the complexity of content generation. Film whatever you want, upload it and the viewers will come.

Sadly, this never happens with good content. You either have to do something batshit crazy in order to land a couple hundred or even couple thousand views or you have to work hard for years to generate a steady increase of a relevant audience.

The second reason is that useless content like the ketchup-eating child simply overflows the feeds with garbage. There might have been an interesting video that I‘ve missed because the spot was occupied by a trending spice consumer.

Just think about it – people upload 90 Petabytes of content into the platform on a daily basis. Doesn’t seem like a lot does it? Well, imagine an HD recorder that is filming a video for 3.5 years nonstop. That, my friends, is 1 petabyte. YouTube gets 90 on a daily basis!

All the wrong reasons

Volumes of fluff noted, marketers still tend to claim that YouTube is one of the best marketing channels ever. And, while that may be true to an extent, we believe that YouTube works well for all the wrong reasons.

Don’t believe me? Just google “why use YouTube” for marketing. I give you an arm and a leg that all of the articles from the first few pages of search results will state the same things:

• There are more than 1 Billion users on YouTube
• The amount of users grows by 50% annually
• It, as a property of Google, boosts your Search Engine rankings
• It is a media platform with worldwide accessibility

And you know what I say to all of those points. So, fricken, what?

I mean, for real, do you expect to target a billion people in your marketing strategy? Do you, as an entrepreneur, plan to distribute your services to an audience in Guatemala or Georgia (The country, not the state. Yes, there is one).

Didn’t thinks so.

How to compete with madness?

Here is the thing – you can’t compete with insanity. It simply doesn’t follow any rules. And 90% of the uploads on YouTube are composed of sheer, unfiltered madness like that ketchup kid or some dudes jumping off a cliff in a burning truck tire or whatnot.

These kinds of videos will always beat decently crafted content in views unless you are a let’s player or a beauty blogger.

The scavenger hunt

The modern-day YouTube audience is participating in a complex jigsaw puzzle of a scavenger hunt where the prize is actually worthwhile content. The fact that the prize is so rare and few in between makes the hunt even more thrilling.

The audience of YouTube has an unhealthy appetite for this kind of stuff. And this, my dear reader, should be your number one reason why even bother with the video media giant.

Just think about all of the attention you can grab by shining a light in the realm of darkness! Your beacon will be visible for miles and miles and it will attract viewers like a flame attracts moth.

All you have to do is raise your channel off the ground and keep shining the light.