This is just a quick update of the previous episode. Initially, I just wanted a video to break 1K views on Tik Tok. But this one that got 10K views now has 40K views.
It seems like as long as you reach a certain threshold of views, Tik Tok will keep showing it for a while.
Subscribe, or I’ll have ChatGPT fill in these subscribe CTAs.
Subscribed
Whereas before when all my videos didn’t break 1K views, the views will stop growing, period.
Of 40K views, I have about 342 downloads so far (yes, I can’t spell). Of those, I’d say 10% are duplicates because they sent it twice for some reason. So let’s say:
- 40K views
- 307 emails.
…Guess how many conversions?
Only 1 confirmed. (2 others signed up but I don’t know the lead source they came from).
I offer a 30-day guarantee, so it’s unclear to me that they wouldn’t just pay the $9, do 4 articles and then just ask for a refund.
Crappy Funnel, But It’s OK.
When I made this video, I didn’t even expect it to surpass 1K views. I did less retention editing, so I actually expected this experiment would fail and have maybe ~300-500 views only on Tik Tok.
Not having any direct conversions is fine by me, because I’m fine playing the long game. If I can build up rapport with my audience over many videos, and then ask for them to sign up to my SaaS and they need to view 5, 10, 50 videos of mine to be convinced, that’s OK.
I’d rather inject value directly into my audience’s vein with nothing in return for me, and then capitalize it down the road when the rapport is very strong, than to prematurely sell too hard.
If I sell in every single video, my brand becomes “buy my stuff” and has a very needy feeling to it—it makes it look like I don’t care about my customers’ needs.
But if I jab jab jab right hook and just show what I’ve done, how much I earned, and what lessons they can use so they can leapfrog my results—for free—and give $997 course worth of value—for free—in every video, then I feel like it’s a lot easier to do the ask and make loads of money when I finally get around to it.
Plus, delaying the ask gives me time to polish and refine the product.
YouTube Performance For The Same Video
Sometimes, I’d get 2K views on a YouTube video when Tik Tok only gives me 200. This video is the reverse. Here are my stats:
- ~550 views.
- Lower than average retention…
- …But 9 subscribers?
9 subscribers is very surprising. Normally, I’d only get ~2 subscribers for a fairly popular short, see below:
Entertaining video with lots of views and retention, but low subs. “Pleases everyone but nobody loves it.”
Even this 7.2K view on YouTube’s gotten only 5 subscribers. But this newest video:
Low view count, but high subs. Seems like this indicates a niche audience, but more engaged. “Pleases very few, but they love it”
9 subs with only 567 views?!
I think I learned a good lesson here for YouTube, which is:
Views aren’t everything.
I don’t know about you, but if I had to choose, I’d rather have more subscribers than more views. Views don’t mean shit if they aren’t glued to the screen.
But if I make shorts and can gain subs that way, I can build my brand further in front of those subs with long-form videos.
Conversely, 10K views with 0 subs is just a vanity metric. What am I going to do with +0 subscribers? My ultimate goal is to monetize my audience. And if the eyeballs are just skimming through my shorts without actually becoming my permanent audience, there’s nothing to monetize.
Conclusion
I’m happy with the metrics. More subscribers than usual on YT and more views than usual on Tik Tok.
I think I’ll keep up trying to be real and just trying to deliver deep value to my audience.
Ideally, I’d like to have more retention on Youtube and tons of subs, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.