Guide to Structuring YouTube Content with Separate Chapters

How to Add Chapters to YouTube Videos

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Step-by-Step Guide to Elevating Your Channel Brand, Growth in Viewers

How to Brand Your YouTube Channel to Get More Subscribers

Shanoon Cox

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

Epic Meal Time. Michelle Phan. Peter McKinnon. When you think of each of these YouTube creators, what comes to mind? The feelings and thoughts you have are vastly different because each one of these channels has its own unique branding.

Epic Meal Time’s YouTube brand is in-your-face and intense. It pumps you full of adrenaline and increases your heart rate.

Michelle Phan’s YouTube brand is calm, whimsical, and aspirational.

The color palette she chose is pleasing to the eyes and doesn’t evoke any of the stress we get from Epic Meal Time.

They have different branding because they want to reflect different feelings for different audiences.

Bad Branding Causes Mistrust

When a branding element does not align with the message or the tone does not match with the material, then the audience is not going to trust what you offer. Without trust, you won’t be able to get the advocacy that is essential for a YouTube channel to grow.

Imagine Michelle Phan using the aggressive colors of Epic Meal Time or vice versa. Pretty weird, huh?

What is YouTube Branding?

You might think that branding simply comes together while making videos, but that’s not true. Branding takes a bit of preparation and foresight.

YouTube branding is the idea your viewers have in mind and the emotion they get when they think about your channel.

Here are notable elements of your channel’s branding:

- Channel name

- Channel art

- Video thumbnail

- Video title

- Icon

- Watermark

- Catchphrase

- Style of video

How to Start Branding Your YouTube Channel?

Before you start designing thumbnails and coming up with a catchphrase, the first step in branding is understanding the purpose of your channel. Once you have a purpose, you will know how you want your viewers to feel.

Here is a quick exercise to find your channel’s purpose:

Draw a 3 circle Venn diagram.

In circle 1, write down everything you consider yourself an expert in.

- What do your friends know you for?

- What can you give advice on?

- What did you go to school to learn?

In circle 2, write down all the topics you are passionate about.

- What can you talk effortlessly about for hours?

- At a party, where do you lead conversations towards?

In circle 3, write down everything that people will pay for that you can supply. Here is where you find the demand of the audience.

- Can you give me travel advice?

- Can you make people forget about their stressful day?

- Do you have experience in a specialized field?

Understanding what people will pay money for will help guide you in creating content that has true value.

In the center, come up with all the ideas that can be associated with all three circles. This will be the ideal purpose for your YouTube channel as it harnesses your expertise, your passion, and the demand of a viewership.

Examples:

Epic Meal Time

Expertise = Eating

Passion = Fast Food Culture

Demand = Unique Meals

PURPOSE: Showcase a unique combination of fast food people won’t make at home.

Michelle Phan

Expertise = Beauty Products

Passion = Makeup and Fashion

Demand = Beauty School

PURPOSE: Give people more confidence in beauty products.

How Is Your Channel Different From the Others?

Now that you have your purpose, it’s time to separate you from others with similar purposes. YouTube is a crowded space for content creators. If your channel is mimicking another more successful channel, you will be in the shadows.

Good branding allows you to differentiate from others .

Pick a Unique and Memorable Name

If your name is Michelle Phan, and you are not the Michelle Phan, I’m sorry, but you will need to pick another name for your YouTube channel:

If you do have to pick another name or if your channel is an ensemble with multiple members, make sure the name you choose is original, memorable, and short (4 words max).

Picking an Icon

Not every YouTuber needs to design an original logo for their brand. In fact, if the channel is about you — the YouTuber — you are the brand, so using a high-quality picture of yourself as the icon is okay.

However, if your channel has a specific theme or topic and you want your branding to convey it so it sticks in the viewers’ heads, especially if it’s their first time viewing your channel. A clear logo will help in amplifying your message:

Create Video Thumbnails That Stand Out

The power of good branding is that your viewers will be able to spot your brand in a crowded space. On YouTube, the crowded space is the suggested video section.

Epic Meal Time thumbnails standing out amongst other loud thumbnails.

Once you have the feeling you want to evoke, test out different thumbnails. Go incognito, search up your videos, and see how the visuals appear beside your competitions. Do they all have the same style or is your far more impressive?

Good branding doesn’t happen in the first try so keep experimenting.

Designing Your Icon, Thumbnail, and Channel Art

There is a lot to consider when designing all the visual elements for your channel. I won’t get into all of it, but here are some tips that you should always keep in mind.

- Less is more: Don’t clutter your icons, thumbnails, or banner.

- Have a single focus: A channel and a video can have a lot of different topics, but the image can’t show everything a video can. Pick one important area and highlight that in the image.

- Quality matters: Your audience is savvier than ever. If they see a pixelated image, they will judge your channel poorly. That’s bad branding. Always use high-quality pictures.

- Make sure the color pops and the text is visible: Use eye-catching colors and visible text. This is a billboard, you have milliseconds to get people’s attention as they scroll past.

Want more resources for creating your channel’s visual elements? Yes? Well, we made this for you:

- How to Make YouTube Video Thumbnail

- How to Make YouTube Icons

- Free Youtube Banners

How to Make Your Visuals Consistent?

When a viewer finds your video and considers it pretty interesting, they will then go into your channel page to learn more. Here is where they make their decision: subscribe or not subscribe?

Consistent branding affirms the viewer that they are in the right place. Peter McKinnon’s brand is built upon his amazing photography, it only makes sense that his visual elements are awesome.

Peter McKinnon is best known for his photography and cinematography, and his branding amplifies that.

But Branding Is Not Designing, It’s A Feeling

Don’t get too caught up with a design.

Look at PewDiePie’s branding. You can argue that it is inconsistent and the design is not professional, but actually, his branding is spot on, because he is making you feel a certain way.

PewDiePie’s brand highlights its upbeat and unpredictable personality.

PewDiePie wants you to laugh. He is not branding his expertise like Peter McKinnon is, he’s branding his personality.

Consistent branding is about making the elements of your channel: channel art, logo, thumbnails, titles, etc. all harmonize together to evoke a sensation.

The humor in PewDiePie’s brand is consistent, even though his thumbnails don’t look like Philip DeFranco’s. It is up to you how you define consistency, and that will happen over time.

Philip DeFranco supplies commentary on current events with a satirical flair. Like a news broadcast, his branding and video format are consistent, while the daily news is different.

Inserting A Watermark

The main point of a watermark is to let the viewers know when they are watching your video that it is in fact your video.

Let’s be honest, YouTube content can all look the same, especially if you are making content that is quite general (like beauty or tech), so a watermark helps differentiate, so when viewers are ready to subscribe, they have an extra branding element connecting them to your channel.

Improvement Pill is a YouTube channel focused on inspiring and motivating its viewer to live a better life.

Above we see an example of a watermark from the YouTube channel Improvement Pill. You can see the watermark in the lower right-hand corner.

Improvement Pill is not the only channel that uses whiteboard animation to illustrate their story, and because of that, they need to set themselves apart. A watermark helps do that.

When a viewer lands on their video, the watermark gives the viewer another way to get more familiar with the channel, and if they are to scroll over the watermark a subscription button pops up.

Want to set up your subscription watermark? Here is a quick tutorial:

Coming Up With A Catchphrase

A catchphrase can be your greeting or sign off, but it doesn’t have to be an original line, it can simply be the way you say “hello.”

Check out some of the popular YouTuber’s catchphrases:

When coming up with a catchphrase that is connected to your channel’s branding remember how you want the viewer to feel. Do you want to leave them with a smile? Or do you want them to take action?

Final Thoughts On YouTube Branding

As you build and grow your YouTube channel, you can expand your purpose while still sticking within the overall theme. You might have started a channel that focused on the topic of nutrition, but as you grow, you will discover that your audience may also be interested in fitness tips or workout accessories as well. Take it slowly and grow with purpose.

Your branding doesn’t dictate the content you create, but it does affect how you go about making it.

Got more questions about branding your YouTube channel? Let us know in the comments below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

Epic Meal Time. Michelle Phan. Peter McKinnon. When you think of each of these YouTube creators, what comes to mind? The feelings and thoughts you have are vastly different because each one of these channels has its own unique branding.

Epic Meal Time’s YouTube brand is in-your-face and intense. It pumps you full of adrenaline and increases your heart rate.

Michelle Phan’s YouTube brand is calm, whimsical, and aspirational.

The color palette she chose is pleasing to the eyes and doesn’t evoke any of the stress we get from Epic Meal Time.

They have different branding because they want to reflect different feelings for different audiences.

Bad Branding Causes Mistrust

When a branding element does not align with the message or the tone does not match with the material, then the audience is not going to trust what you offer. Without trust, you won’t be able to get the advocacy that is essential for a YouTube channel to grow.

Imagine Michelle Phan using the aggressive colors of Epic Meal Time or vice versa. Pretty weird, huh?

What is YouTube Branding?

You might think that branding simply comes together while making videos, but that’s not true. Branding takes a bit of preparation and foresight.

YouTube branding is the idea your viewers have in mind and the emotion they get when they think about your channel.

Here are notable elements of your channel’s branding:

- Channel name

- Channel art

- Video thumbnail

- Video title

- Icon

- Watermark

- Catchphrase

- Style of video

How to Start Branding Your YouTube Channel?

Before you start designing thumbnails and coming up with a catchphrase, the first step in branding is understanding the purpose of your channel. Once you have a purpose, you will know how you want your viewers to feel.

Here is a quick exercise to find your channel’s purpose:

Draw a 3 circle Venn diagram.

In circle 1, write down everything you consider yourself an expert in.

- What do your friends know you for?

- What can you give advice on?

- What did you go to school to learn?

In circle 2, write down all the topics you are passionate about.

- What can you talk effortlessly about for hours?

- At a party, where do you lead conversations towards?

In circle 3, write down everything that people will pay for that you can supply. Here is where you find the demand of the audience.

- Can you give me travel advice?

- Can you make people forget about their stressful day?

- Do you have experience in a specialized field?

Understanding what people will pay money for will help guide you in creating content that has true value.

In the center, come up with all the ideas that can be associated with all three circles. This will be the ideal purpose for your YouTube channel as it harnesses your expertise, your passion, and the demand of a viewership.

Examples:

Epic Meal Time

Expertise = Eating

Passion = Fast Food Culture

Demand = Unique Meals

PURPOSE: Showcase a unique combination of fast food people won’t make at home.

Michelle Phan

Expertise = Beauty Products

Passion = Makeup and Fashion

Demand = Beauty School

PURPOSE: Give people more confidence in beauty products.

How Is Your Channel Different From the Others?

Now that you have your purpose, it’s time to separate you from others with similar purposes. YouTube is a crowded space for content creators. If your channel is mimicking another more successful channel, you will be in the shadows.

Good branding allows you to differentiate from others .

Pick a Unique and Memorable Name

If your name is Michelle Phan, and you are not the Michelle Phan, I’m sorry, but you will need to pick another name for your YouTube channel:

If you do have to pick another name or if your channel is an ensemble with multiple members, make sure the name you choose is original, memorable, and short (4 words max).

Picking an Icon

Not every YouTuber needs to design an original logo for their brand. In fact, if the channel is about you — the YouTuber — you are the brand, so using a high-quality picture of yourself as the icon is okay.

However, if your channel has a specific theme or topic and you want your branding to convey it so it sticks in the viewers’ heads, especially if it’s their first time viewing your channel. A clear logo will help in amplifying your message:

Create Video Thumbnails That Stand Out

The power of good branding is that your viewers will be able to spot your brand in a crowded space. On YouTube, the crowded space is the suggested video section.

Epic Meal Time thumbnails standing out amongst other loud thumbnails.

Once you have the feeling you want to evoke, test out different thumbnails. Go incognito, search up your videos, and see how the visuals appear beside your competitions. Do they all have the same style or is your far more impressive?

Good branding doesn’t happen in the first try so keep experimenting.

Designing Your Icon, Thumbnail, and Channel Art

There is a lot to consider when designing all the visual elements for your channel. I won’t get into all of it, but here are some tips that you should always keep in mind.

- Less is more: Don’t clutter your icons, thumbnails, or banner.

- Have a single focus: A channel and a video can have a lot of different topics, but the image can’t show everything a video can. Pick one important area and highlight that in the image.

- Quality matters: Your audience is savvier than ever. If they see a pixelated image, they will judge your channel poorly. That’s bad branding. Always use high-quality pictures.

- Make sure the color pops and the text is visible: Use eye-catching colors and visible text. This is a billboard, you have milliseconds to get people’s attention as they scroll past.

Want more resources for creating your channel’s visual elements? Yes? Well, we made this for you:

- How to Make YouTube Video Thumbnail

- How to Make YouTube Icons

- Free Youtube Banners

How to Make Your Visuals Consistent?

When a viewer finds your video and considers it pretty interesting, they will then go into your channel page to learn more. Here is where they make their decision: subscribe or not subscribe?

Consistent branding affirms the viewer that they are in the right place. Peter McKinnon’s brand is built upon his amazing photography, it only makes sense that his visual elements are awesome.

Peter McKinnon is best known for his photography and cinematography, and his branding amplifies that.

But Branding Is Not Designing, It’s A Feeling

Don’t get too caught up with a design.

Look at PewDiePie’s branding. You can argue that it is inconsistent and the design is not professional, but actually, his branding is spot on, because he is making you feel a certain way.

PewDiePie’s brand highlights its upbeat and unpredictable personality.

PewDiePie wants you to laugh. He is not branding his expertise like Peter McKinnon is, he’s branding his personality.

Consistent branding is about making the elements of your channel: channel art, logo, thumbnails, titles, etc. all harmonize together to evoke a sensation.

The humor in PewDiePie’s brand is consistent, even though his thumbnails don’t look like Philip DeFranco’s. It is up to you how you define consistency, and that will happen over time.

Philip DeFranco supplies commentary on current events with a satirical flair. Like a news broadcast, his branding and video format are consistent, while the daily news is different.

Inserting A Watermark

The main point of a watermark is to let the viewers know when they are watching your video that it is in fact your video.

Let’s be honest, YouTube content can all look the same, especially if you are making content that is quite general (like beauty or tech), so a watermark helps differentiate, so when viewers are ready to subscribe, they have an extra branding element connecting them to your channel.

Improvement Pill is a YouTube channel focused on inspiring and motivating its viewer to live a better life.

Above we see an example of a watermark from the YouTube channel Improvement Pill. You can see the watermark in the lower right-hand corner.

Improvement Pill is not the only channel that uses whiteboard animation to illustrate their story, and because of that, they need to set themselves apart. A watermark helps do that.

When a viewer lands on their video, the watermark gives the viewer another way to get more familiar with the channel, and if they are to scroll over the watermark a subscription button pops up.

Want to set up your subscription watermark? Here is a quick tutorial:

Coming Up With A Catchphrase

A catchphrase can be your greeting or sign off, but it doesn’t have to be an original line, it can simply be the way you say “hello.”

Check out some of the popular YouTuber’s catchphrases:

When coming up with a catchphrase that is connected to your channel’s branding remember how you want the viewer to feel. Do you want to leave them with a smile? Or do you want them to take action?

Final Thoughts On YouTube Branding

As you build and grow your YouTube channel, you can expand your purpose while still sticking within the overall theme. You might have started a channel that focused on the topic of nutrition, but as you grow, you will discover that your audience may also be interested in fitness tips or workout accessories as well. Take it slowly and grow with purpose.

Your branding doesn’t dictate the content you create, but it does affect how you go about making it.

Got more questions about branding your YouTube channel? Let us know in the comments below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

Epic Meal Time. Michelle Phan. Peter McKinnon. When you think of each of these YouTube creators, what comes to mind? The feelings and thoughts you have are vastly different because each one of these channels has its own unique branding.

Epic Meal Time’s YouTube brand is in-your-face and intense. It pumps you full of adrenaline and increases your heart rate.

Michelle Phan’s YouTube brand is calm, whimsical, and aspirational.

The color palette she chose is pleasing to the eyes and doesn’t evoke any of the stress we get from Epic Meal Time.

They have different branding because they want to reflect different feelings for different audiences.

Bad Branding Causes Mistrust

When a branding element does not align with the message or the tone does not match with the material, then the audience is not going to trust what you offer. Without trust, you won’t be able to get the advocacy that is essential for a YouTube channel to grow.

Imagine Michelle Phan using the aggressive colors of Epic Meal Time or vice versa. Pretty weird, huh?

What is YouTube Branding?

You might think that branding simply comes together while making videos, but that’s not true. Branding takes a bit of preparation and foresight.

YouTube branding is the idea your viewers have in mind and the emotion they get when they think about your channel.

Here are notable elements of your channel’s branding:

- Channel name

- Channel art

- Video thumbnail

- Video title

- Icon

- Watermark

- Catchphrase

- Style of video

How to Start Branding Your YouTube Channel?

Before you start designing thumbnails and coming up with a catchphrase, the first step in branding is understanding the purpose of your channel. Once you have a purpose, you will know how you want your viewers to feel.

Here is a quick exercise to find your channel’s purpose:

Draw a 3 circle Venn diagram.

In circle 1, write down everything you consider yourself an expert in.

- What do your friends know you for?

- What can you give advice on?

- What did you go to school to learn?

In circle 2, write down all the topics you are passionate about.

- What can you talk effortlessly about for hours?

- At a party, where do you lead conversations towards?

In circle 3, write down everything that people will pay for that you can supply. Here is where you find the demand of the audience.

- Can you give me travel advice?

- Can you make people forget about their stressful day?

- Do you have experience in a specialized field?

Understanding what people will pay money for will help guide you in creating content that has true value.

In the center, come up with all the ideas that can be associated with all three circles. This will be the ideal purpose for your YouTube channel as it harnesses your expertise, your passion, and the demand of a viewership.

Examples:

Epic Meal Time

Expertise = Eating

Passion = Fast Food Culture

Demand = Unique Meals

PURPOSE: Showcase a unique combination of fast food people won’t make at home.

Michelle Phan

Expertise = Beauty Products

Passion = Makeup and Fashion

Demand = Beauty School

PURPOSE: Give people more confidence in beauty products.

How Is Your Channel Different From the Others?

Now that you have your purpose, it’s time to separate you from others with similar purposes. YouTube is a crowded space for content creators. If your channel is mimicking another more successful channel, you will be in the shadows.

Good branding allows you to differentiate from others .

Pick a Unique and Memorable Name

If your name is Michelle Phan, and you are not the Michelle Phan, I’m sorry, but you will need to pick another name for your YouTube channel:

If you do have to pick another name or if your channel is an ensemble with multiple members, make sure the name you choose is original, memorable, and short (4 words max).

Picking an Icon

Not every YouTuber needs to design an original logo for their brand. In fact, if the channel is about you — the YouTuber — you are the brand, so using a high-quality picture of yourself as the icon is okay.

However, if your channel has a specific theme or topic and you want your branding to convey it so it sticks in the viewers’ heads, especially if it’s their first time viewing your channel. A clear logo will help in amplifying your message:

Create Video Thumbnails That Stand Out

The power of good branding is that your viewers will be able to spot your brand in a crowded space. On YouTube, the crowded space is the suggested video section.

Epic Meal Time thumbnails standing out amongst other loud thumbnails.

Once you have the feeling you want to evoke, test out different thumbnails. Go incognito, search up your videos, and see how the visuals appear beside your competitions. Do they all have the same style or is your far more impressive?

Good branding doesn’t happen in the first try so keep experimenting.

Designing Your Icon, Thumbnail, and Channel Art

There is a lot to consider when designing all the visual elements for your channel. I won’t get into all of it, but here are some tips that you should always keep in mind.

- Less is more: Don’t clutter your icons, thumbnails, or banner.

- Have a single focus: A channel and a video can have a lot of different topics, but the image can’t show everything a video can. Pick one important area and highlight that in the image.

- Quality matters: Your audience is savvier than ever. If they see a pixelated image, they will judge your channel poorly. That’s bad branding. Always use high-quality pictures.

- Make sure the color pops and the text is visible: Use eye-catching colors and visible text. This is a billboard, you have milliseconds to get people’s attention as they scroll past.

Want more resources for creating your channel’s visual elements? Yes? Well, we made this for you:

- How to Make YouTube Video Thumbnail

- How to Make YouTube Icons

- Free Youtube Banners

How to Make Your Visuals Consistent?

When a viewer finds your video and considers it pretty interesting, they will then go into your channel page to learn more. Here is where they make their decision: subscribe or not subscribe?

Consistent branding affirms the viewer that they are in the right place. Peter McKinnon’s brand is built upon his amazing photography, it only makes sense that his visual elements are awesome.

Peter McKinnon is best known for his photography and cinematography, and his branding amplifies that.

But Branding Is Not Designing, It’s A Feeling

Don’t get too caught up with a design.

Look at PewDiePie’s branding. You can argue that it is inconsistent and the design is not professional, but actually, his branding is spot on, because he is making you feel a certain way.

PewDiePie’s brand highlights its upbeat and unpredictable personality.

PewDiePie wants you to laugh. He is not branding his expertise like Peter McKinnon is, he’s branding his personality.

Consistent branding is about making the elements of your channel: channel art, logo, thumbnails, titles, etc. all harmonize together to evoke a sensation.

The humor in PewDiePie’s brand is consistent, even though his thumbnails don’t look like Philip DeFranco’s. It is up to you how you define consistency, and that will happen over time.

Philip DeFranco supplies commentary on current events with a satirical flair. Like a news broadcast, his branding and video format are consistent, while the daily news is different.

Inserting A Watermark

The main point of a watermark is to let the viewers know when they are watching your video that it is in fact your video.

Let’s be honest, YouTube content can all look the same, especially if you are making content that is quite general (like beauty or tech), so a watermark helps differentiate, so when viewers are ready to subscribe, they have an extra branding element connecting them to your channel.

Improvement Pill is a YouTube channel focused on inspiring and motivating its viewer to live a better life.

Above we see an example of a watermark from the YouTube channel Improvement Pill. You can see the watermark in the lower right-hand corner.

Improvement Pill is not the only channel that uses whiteboard animation to illustrate their story, and because of that, they need to set themselves apart. A watermark helps do that.

When a viewer lands on their video, the watermark gives the viewer another way to get more familiar with the channel, and if they are to scroll over the watermark a subscription button pops up.

Want to set up your subscription watermark? Here is a quick tutorial:

Coming Up With A Catchphrase

A catchphrase can be your greeting or sign off, but it doesn’t have to be an original line, it can simply be the way you say “hello.”

Check out some of the popular YouTuber’s catchphrases:

When coming up with a catchphrase that is connected to your channel’s branding remember how you want the viewer to feel. Do you want to leave them with a smile? Or do you want them to take action?

Final Thoughts On YouTube Branding

As you build and grow your YouTube channel, you can expand your purpose while still sticking within the overall theme. You might have started a channel that focused on the topic of nutrition, but as you grow, you will discover that your audience may also be interested in fitness tips or workout accessories as well. Take it slowly and grow with purpose.

Your branding doesn’t dictate the content you create, but it does affect how you go about making it.

Got more questions about branding your YouTube channel? Let us know in the comments below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

Epic Meal Time. Michelle Phan. Peter McKinnon. When you think of each of these YouTube creators, what comes to mind? The feelings and thoughts you have are vastly different because each one of these channels has its own unique branding.

Epic Meal Time’s YouTube brand is in-your-face and intense. It pumps you full of adrenaline and increases your heart rate.

Michelle Phan’s YouTube brand is calm, whimsical, and aspirational.

The color palette she chose is pleasing to the eyes and doesn’t evoke any of the stress we get from Epic Meal Time.

They have different branding because they want to reflect different feelings for different audiences.

Bad Branding Causes Mistrust

When a branding element does not align with the message or the tone does not match with the material, then the audience is not going to trust what you offer. Without trust, you won’t be able to get the advocacy that is essential for a YouTube channel to grow.

Imagine Michelle Phan using the aggressive colors of Epic Meal Time or vice versa. Pretty weird, huh?

What is YouTube Branding?

You might think that branding simply comes together while making videos, but that’s not true. Branding takes a bit of preparation and foresight.

YouTube branding is the idea your viewers have in mind and the emotion they get when they think about your channel.

Here are notable elements of your channel’s branding:

- Channel name

- Channel art

- Video thumbnail

- Video title

- Icon

- Watermark

- Catchphrase

- Style of video

How to Start Branding Your YouTube Channel?

Before you start designing thumbnails and coming up with a catchphrase, the first step in branding is understanding the purpose of your channel. Once you have a purpose, you will know how you want your viewers to feel.

Here is a quick exercise to find your channel’s purpose:

Draw a 3 circle Venn diagram.

In circle 1, write down everything you consider yourself an expert in.

- What do your friends know you for?

- What can you give advice on?

- What did you go to school to learn?

In circle 2, write down all the topics you are passionate about.

- What can you talk effortlessly about for hours?

- At a party, where do you lead conversations towards?

In circle 3, write down everything that people will pay for that you can supply. Here is where you find the demand of the audience.

- Can you give me travel advice?

- Can you make people forget about their stressful day?

- Do you have experience in a specialized field?

Understanding what people will pay money for will help guide you in creating content that has true value.

In the center, come up with all the ideas that can be associated with all three circles. This will be the ideal purpose for your YouTube channel as it harnesses your expertise, your passion, and the demand of a viewership.

Examples:

Epic Meal Time

Expertise = Eating

Passion = Fast Food Culture

Demand = Unique Meals

PURPOSE: Showcase a unique combination of fast food people won’t make at home.

Michelle Phan

Expertise = Beauty Products

Passion = Makeup and Fashion

Demand = Beauty School

PURPOSE: Give people more confidence in beauty products.

How Is Your Channel Different From the Others?

Now that you have your purpose, it’s time to separate you from others with similar purposes. YouTube is a crowded space for content creators. If your channel is mimicking another more successful channel, you will be in the shadows.

Good branding allows you to differentiate from others .

Pick a Unique and Memorable Name

If your name is Michelle Phan, and you are not the Michelle Phan, I’m sorry, but you will need to pick another name for your YouTube channel:

If you do have to pick another name or if your channel is an ensemble with multiple members, make sure the name you choose is original, memorable, and short (4 words max).

Picking an Icon

Not every YouTuber needs to design an original logo for their brand. In fact, if the channel is about you — the YouTuber — you are the brand, so using a high-quality picture of yourself as the icon is okay.

However, if your channel has a specific theme or topic and you want your branding to convey it so it sticks in the viewers’ heads, especially if it’s their first time viewing your channel. A clear logo will help in amplifying your message:

Create Video Thumbnails That Stand Out

The power of good branding is that your viewers will be able to spot your brand in a crowded space. On YouTube, the crowded space is the suggested video section.

Epic Meal Time thumbnails standing out amongst other loud thumbnails.

Once you have the feeling you want to evoke, test out different thumbnails. Go incognito, search up your videos, and see how the visuals appear beside your competitions. Do they all have the same style or is your far more impressive?

Good branding doesn’t happen in the first try so keep experimenting.

Designing Your Icon, Thumbnail, and Channel Art

There is a lot to consider when designing all the visual elements for your channel. I won’t get into all of it, but here are some tips that you should always keep in mind.

- Less is more: Don’t clutter your icons, thumbnails, or banner.

- Have a single focus: A channel and a video can have a lot of different topics, but the image can’t show everything a video can. Pick one important area and highlight that in the image.

- Quality matters: Your audience is savvier than ever. If they see a pixelated image, they will judge your channel poorly. That’s bad branding. Always use high-quality pictures.

- Make sure the color pops and the text is visible: Use eye-catching colors and visible text. This is a billboard, you have milliseconds to get people’s attention as they scroll past.

Want more resources for creating your channel’s visual elements? Yes? Well, we made this for you:

- How to Make YouTube Video Thumbnail

- How to Make YouTube Icons

- Free Youtube Banners

How to Make Your Visuals Consistent?

When a viewer finds your video and considers it pretty interesting, they will then go into your channel page to learn more. Here is where they make their decision: subscribe or not subscribe?

Consistent branding affirms the viewer that they are in the right place. Peter McKinnon’s brand is built upon his amazing photography, it only makes sense that his visual elements are awesome.

Peter McKinnon is best known for his photography and cinematography, and his branding amplifies that.

But Branding Is Not Designing, It’s A Feeling

Don’t get too caught up with a design.

Look at PewDiePie’s branding. You can argue that it is inconsistent and the design is not professional, but actually, his branding is spot on, because he is making you feel a certain way.

PewDiePie’s brand highlights its upbeat and unpredictable personality.

PewDiePie wants you to laugh. He is not branding his expertise like Peter McKinnon is, he’s branding his personality.

Consistent branding is about making the elements of your channel: channel art, logo, thumbnails, titles, etc. all harmonize together to evoke a sensation.

The humor in PewDiePie’s brand is consistent, even though his thumbnails don’t look like Philip DeFranco’s. It is up to you how you define consistency, and that will happen over time.

Philip DeFranco supplies commentary on current events with a satirical flair. Like a news broadcast, his branding and video format are consistent, while the daily news is different.

Inserting A Watermark

The main point of a watermark is to let the viewers know when they are watching your video that it is in fact your video.

Let’s be honest, YouTube content can all look the same, especially if you are making content that is quite general (like beauty or tech), so a watermark helps differentiate, so when viewers are ready to subscribe, they have an extra branding element connecting them to your channel.

Improvement Pill is a YouTube channel focused on inspiring and motivating its viewer to live a better life.

Above we see an example of a watermark from the YouTube channel Improvement Pill. You can see the watermark in the lower right-hand corner.

Improvement Pill is not the only channel that uses whiteboard animation to illustrate their story, and because of that, they need to set themselves apart. A watermark helps do that.

When a viewer lands on their video, the watermark gives the viewer another way to get more familiar with the channel, and if they are to scroll over the watermark a subscription button pops up.

Want to set up your subscription watermark? Here is a quick tutorial:

Coming Up With A Catchphrase

A catchphrase can be your greeting or sign off, but it doesn’t have to be an original line, it can simply be the way you say “hello.”

Check out some of the popular YouTuber’s catchphrases:

When coming up with a catchphrase that is connected to your channel’s branding remember how you want the viewer to feel. Do you want to leave them with a smile? Or do you want them to take action?

Final Thoughts On YouTube Branding

As you build and grow your YouTube channel, you can expand your purpose while still sticking within the overall theme. You might have started a channel that focused on the topic of nutrition, but as you grow, you will discover that your audience may also be interested in fitness tips or workout accessories as well. Take it slowly and grow with purpose.

Your branding doesn’t dictate the content you create, but it does affect how you go about making it.

Got more questions about branding your YouTube channel? Let us know in the comments below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox