Challenge
In September 2022 we were approached by Brendan to work on building his YouTube channel Magnified Money. attempting to create a consistent workflow and build the channel audience in the Credit Card/Personal Finance niche. The channel was averaging around 150,000 monthly views at the time. A major goal of this partnership was for us to take control of Brendans video workflow so that he could focus on other aspects of his business. We also wanted to really develop an authentic and unique production style. We wanted to wow viewers with some cool graphics and sound effects, but we wanted to still relay the info in an easily understandable way.
Results
With the decrease from 2-3 videos per week, through to 1 video per week, the monthly viewership did see a decline, but only slightly, with less than half the videos being posted, the average views per video was way up. Brendan was also really chuffed that the audience retention with our editing is significantly higher than was previous. The Thumbnails have also averaged out at between 5-7% CTR’s, a significant improvement on CTR previously. All in all, when it comes to YouTube production you can to some extent be quite at the mercy of the algorithm and the hit to CPM was a significant obstacle in our partnership, however we’ve been able to maintain and even improve on a number of important metrics despite those obstacles, retention, viewership, and the stability of the channel is still solid even with the changes to CPM. We’ve been able to bring something different to his channel, give him the time he needs to focus on other aspects of his business, and the channel has seen solid, consistent improvements growing from 30k through to 45k subscribers in the time we’ve been partnered.
All of this, leaving for one very happy client (at least when it comes to our side of the equation😉)
Videos Per View was up
Thumbnails, 5-7% CTR’s
Approach
The workflow for MagnifiedMoney’s channel was around 2-3 videos per week originally, and so one of our first goals was to build a consistent workflow to ensure the videos were high-quality, but still being posted frequently. We also wanted to take a look at audience feedback on the editing style (which fortunately was overwhelmingly positive) and incorporate that into our editing process. So the first goals were refining the videos based on how they were performing, make sure that the video hooks, and the first minute was especially engaging. Part of our goals as well was to free up Brendans time, where he was editing beforehand, so that he could give more thought to the content he was creating instead of being constantly stuck in a loop editing videos. One of the ways in which we sought to improve retention right off the bat was too tighten up the videos, really making sure that we weren’t adding in any unnecessary information or rambling on a particular topic too long. Creating a tight rough cut is super helpful in ensuring the videos are engaging. Another focus of ours was with the visuals on videos, we wanted to improve the visuals, but also improve the pacing of videos, one of the way in which we tried to so this was cut from visual to visual, b-roll to b-roll etc much quicker to keep viewers engaged and yet not overwhelmed.
Challenges
One of Brendans goals was to develop a consistent posting schedule, and for the posts to be relatively high in terms of production value etc. Developing consistency was tough on essentially a 3 video per week schedule. It took around a month of adapting our workflows internally to ensure we could safely manage that level of content. Another really major challenge we faced (and still face) is YouTube hitting the channel out of the blue with a massive CPM cut, meaning the videos we’re earning significantly less revenue from advertisers for no apparent reason. This was really difficult, and so one of the things we decided to do in response to this was to cut down on the amount of videos we were making and instead focus on leveling up the videos we were making, so Brendan could focus on better topics, we could focus on higher–production value etc. This was really a difficult challenge to overcome though and it’s still something we’re struggling with, although we’ve adapted in some significant ways too make sure that we can still focus on growing the channel, even if it’s at a somewhat slower rate than what was hoped for.
