Getting Dealership Youtube Subscribers in 2021
If your dealership is finding it difficult to gain followers/subscribers for your YouTube channel, trust me, you aren’t alone. Below I’ve outlined some of the ways I’ve seen success for my client’s accounts and some best practices to get your YouTube channel looking and performing better.
- First and foremost, focus on search engine optimization. SEO is key to your dealership’s website and the same goes for your YouTube channel. SEO on YouTube is similar in many ways to what you might be doing on your website. Creating searchable titles with relevant keywords really does help. You can use AdWords to see what people are searching for and go from there. Pro Tip: Keep your title under 50 characters. Secondly, your video descriptions cannot and should not be packed with keywords. Make descriptions robust, informative, and use critical keywords when appropriate. Last but certainly not least – do not forget about those meta tags. My best suggestion here is to look at your competition and see what meta tags they are using that are working and go from there. Don’t over-do it, but don’t skip them by any means.
- Secondly – and this is a big one – promote your YouTube channel to relevant and online groups and communities. If your dealership is primarily about lifted trucks and cool customs – go after those people and let them know your account exists. Growing followers really is as simple as capturing the attention of people that like the things you’re posting about. We all know that Facebook is the pinnacle of advertising at the moment, but promoting your channel on unique places like Reddit groups, Twitter chats, and even automotive focused LinkedIn groups have worked for me. This is a trial and error step – but once you find your dealership’s secret sauce, run with it!
- Keep your videos at a reasonable length. Studies have shown that top-performing automotive videos are around 3 to 5 minutes long. 20% of your viewers drop off within the first 10 seconds. So make your intro attention-grabbing so they stick around long enough to see the video you put the effort into and they’ll more than likely hit that subscribe button (if you remind them to do so).
- Calls-to-action are imperative on your dealership’s website, your Facebook ads, and basically everywhere else, right? The same goes for YouTube! Powerful and effective CTAs. YouTube has made it incredibly easy to add on-screen CTAs directly to videos and end screens. Use them. Ask for them to hit that like button and to subscribe. There’s zero shame in straight-up asking for them to follow your channel. Keeping your page humanized and honest is also extremely helpful.
- Lastly – and this is one that we all knew would be in the list – invest in YouTube advertising. Every single social media platform is pay-to-play and YouTube is no exception. There are five major types of YouTube ad styles that are effective and can over time help grow your subscriber and follower count.
- Sponsored Cards
- Display Ads
- Non-Skippable and Skippable Video Ads
- Bumper Ads
- Overlay Ads
Do your research, figure out which ones will help your dealerships’ channel the most, and run with it. Similar to Facebook, you can target people based on interests, in-market customers, and various demographics. Basically – You gotta spend a little money to get those authentic and engaged followers. (Sorry!)
A properly managed, clean-appearing, and well-maintained YouTube channel that is updated regularly will thrive. It’s a crowded space, but luckily dealership videos aren’t as common as wannabe makeup artists and cat videos.
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