How do you optimize YouTube videos to get leads?

Find where the funnel breaks and fix that step. No clicks means repackage the title and thumbnail. Clicks but early exits means study YouTube analytics. Watching but no leads means fix the targeting and the calls to action. Leads but no pipeline means read your sales transcripts and website data.

Quick Answer

Not clicking: test other titles and thumbnails.
Clicking but bouncing early: use YouTube analytics to find why people leave, then restructure.
Watching but no leads: check who you target and the CTAs that drive people to the website for a demo.
Demos not turning into pipeline: look at sales transcripts and website data.

This fits inside a bigger picture. If you want the full view first, here's the bigger picture.

Where is your video funnel breaking?

Work through the funnel in order and fix the first step that is failing.

They are not clicking. That is usually the title and the thumbnail. Repackage and test other options.
They click but bounce early. Look at YouTube analytics to see why they are leaving, then structure the video so they watch more fully.
They watch but do not become leads. Look at who you are targeting and at the calls to action. You may need to do a better job of driving people to your website to book a demo.
Demos or leads do not turn into pipeline. Look at your sales transcripts and your website data to find where the conversion is breaking down.

"If they are not clicking on those videos, that's usually about the titles and the thumbnails." — Dane Frederiksen

Doing the thing is the easy part. The hard part is knowing where you're already winning and where you're invisible. That's exactly what our free AI Visibility Snapshot shows you, before you spend a dollar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are people not clicking on your YouTube videos?

Usually the title and the thumbnail. Repackage the video and test other options.

What if viewers leave early?

Use YouTube analytics to find why they leave, then restructure the video so more people watch it.

What if viewers watch but do not become leads?

Check who the video targets and whether the calls to action actually drive people to the website for a demo.

What if leads do not become pipeline?

Look at your sales call transcripts and website data to find where the conversion breaks.

Want the full breakdown? Watch the full video, or read the full article.

Most teams don't get this right on the first try. Here's how we approached it for a real team. Curious what it'd look like for you? Let's talk it through.

Full Clip Transcript

If they are not clicking on those videos, that's usually about the titles and the thumbnails. So we're going to look at repackaging those, doing a testing some other titles, other thumbnails. Then if they're clicking, but they're not watching fully, like if they're bouncing early, we're going to look at the YouTube analytics and find out, okay, why are they leaving? We'll analyze a little bit about what's going on there and see if we can basically structure this in a way that they're going to watch more fully. If they are watching the videos, but then they're not translating into leads, well, then we'll look at who we're targeting with these videos, and then what sort of CTAs or call to actions are on these videos that are not working. And we need to do a better job of actually driving people to the website to do a demo. And then if those demos are not converting or the website leads are not converting to pipeline, then you can look at your sales transcripts, you can look at your website data and find out where that conversion is breaking down.

Full Transcript

Here's what would happen if our video plan doesn't work. It's actually built into the process. So I want to walk you through exactly what a plan would look like and then what would happen if things weren't going the way that we intended. So let's say we're looking at a B2B SaaS company with the goal of increasing sales and an average buyer is worth like 50k a year. And their current acquisition costs are like 100k per client. So our plan is to make weekly videos answering buyer questions and we're going to budget 5k a month to do that. So that's going to get us one video a week. So over time we're going to start to build a library that is going to answer these buyer questions. So when we first start we have a bunch of unanswered buyer questions. Then we're going to start making video content intended to answer these questions so well that they understand and don't have any more questions about that topic. Then they're able to move on to the next step in their buyer journey and we have video content for that step as well. So if that wasn't working what would happen is they are... Let's just start actually the four different steps here. So the things we're going to measure here about our plan is we want to show up in AI search. That's like the number one goal. So if we're showing up in search that means we're part of the buying consideration set, we're part of the conversation, and then they have content that they can start to consume and move down their buyer journey. So if they are consuming the content and getting educated and that turns into qualified inquiries on your website and then that turns into demos or conversations that turn into pipeline that's the process working correctly. Now if it's not working, here's what we would do. So if you're not showing up in AI search that means that we need to do a better job of answering that question. Normally what's going to happen is AI is going to surface the best answers that most specifically answers specific buyer questions deeply and well. So if we're not showing up that's a telltale sign that we're basically not the best answer. So we're going to revise the video and do another version that answers this better and we'll keep doing that until we show up. If they are not clicking on those videos, that's usually about the titles and the thumbnails. So we're going to look at repackaging those, doing a testing some other titles, other thumbnails. Then if they're clicking but they're not watching fully, like if they're bouncing early, we're going to look at the YouTube analytics and find out, okay, why are they leaving? We'll analyze a little bit about what's going on there and see if we can basically structure this in a way that they're going to watch more fully. If they are watching the videos but then they're not translating into leads, well then we'll look at who we're targeting with these videos and then what sort of CTA's or call to actions are on these videos that are not working and we need to do a better job of actually driving people to the website to do a demo. And then if those demos are not converting or the website leads are not converting to pipeline, then you can look at your sales transcripts, you can look at your website data and find out where that conversion is breaking down. So baked into this entire process is revisions. So just to generalize, we'll come up with a plan and we'll launch the plan but we're talking about as we're going, this is what happens. We're going to start with our buyer questions, then we're going to make videos about them, we're going to post them out there and then this is the revision part. We're going to analyze what's working and what's not like we just covered over here, right? And we know what we're going to do when it's not working and then we revise. So at no point are we unaware of what's working and not, it might take a little time to get the data but it's built into the system to make sure that this works. And so our goal was to get, you know, increased sales. So at a 50k a year value of a customer, spending 5k a month as a customer acquisition cost is a pretty good use your money because once we create this library of videos, right, we're basically every week making a video and these are answering the buyer questions, do we believe that this library of videos can help us get two more customers in a year? Because at that point it basically pays for itself. And the good news is this is going to make sales easier. So when people are having their questions out here and they're getting answered with videos, when they finally consume this concept content and they show up, these are going to convert like three times better. And so you're not just buying a library of videos, right, you're buying a process that learns and adjusts as we go. So this is basically the process. If you want to learn more about it, just reach out and I'll show you what this would look like for you. Okay, good luck.