How To Grow Your YouTube Channel By Targeting The Right Demographics

​

Are you a YouTube content creator who is trying to grow your YouTube channel? Are you struggling to grow channel subscriptions but no matter what you do, you seem to be experiencing stagnant growth? And while you have been producing new content consistently, it does not seem like your videos are getting you your desired ROI? Well, you are not alone on this!

​

Since 2005, over 37 million channels have been set up on YouTube. However, most of these channels do not attain the volume of views and subscribers that the owners believe their content deserve. This is despite publishing many videos, engaging with the audience in the comment section, sharing on other social media platforms etc.

​

Well, there are many possible factors as to why your YouTube channel is now growing. One of the main reasons is probably because you are not targeting the right demographics that appeal to your content and your niche the most. Perhaps, you don’t even know what your ideal audience demographics are! And because of this obscurity, you are not generating and posting the correct content that will appeal to them! 

​

By knowing and targeting the right demographics, you can grow your channel much more effectively because you will be able to craft, curate and fine tune the type of content that engages them. In this article, we will discuss the importance of targeting the right demographics and how you can target them, so that you can grow your YouTube channel effectively.

​

​

You may be wondering why targeting the right demographics to show your content to will help to grow your channel. After all, shouldn’t we be “casting a wider net” and target a more generic and bigger group of audience so that our content can reach out to more people? Well this is indeed a very common misconception, especially for new YouTube content creators. 

​

Targeting the right demographics and creating content that appeals to them will allow you to attract the right audience whom you can easily build an emotional connection with. An emotional connection between the content creator and the audience is extremely important and should never be underrated because it helps your audience feel valued and invested in your content creation journey. Everyone likes to feel valued, and feel like there is someone who knows them well. This is the emotional value that we want to be providing for our viewers, so that they will trust you, follow you, subscribe to your channel and look out for more content coming from you!

​

When you know who your ideal audience are and their demographics, you get a better idea of their tastes, preferences, interests, hobbies, fears, dislikes as well as knowing what kind of tone or language appeals to them better. Geared with all this information, you will then be able to curate ideas and create content that will “get them hooked” and keep them engaged and entertained. It gives you focus when coming up with new content ideas, rather than just trying content ideas blindly without any sense of direction, crossing your fingers and hoping that your next video will go viral.

​

Once your first group of loyal fans start subscribing to your channel, they will start sharing your content, either via social media or via word of mouth. They will begin to refer other people, likely of the same demographics, to watch your content and more people will start subscribing to your channel. This kind of growth is exponential, and the fruits of labor are sweet. That is why it is worth investing some of the time, effort and attention into sharpening your ideal audience definition and making sure that your content is targeting the right demographics!

​

​

You already understood why it is important to target the right demographics. Now, you must be wondering how to start targeting and reaching them! To help you understand this, we will share 4 ideas on how you can do so.

​

​

1. YouTube Audience Analytics

​

Analyzing your current audience demographics will help you to understand the kind of audience that are attracted to your content thus far. You must be asking, "How is this information useful?'' The answer is simple; understanding this information will help you to fine tune your content accordingly to attract more viewers who exhibit the same patterns as your current audience!

​

Studying your YouTube Channel Audience Analytics will give you information such as the age and gender of your audience. These two should be your primary areas of focus as you conduct your analysis.

​

​

▶ Age

Understanding the age groups which engage with your content is of paramount importance. This is because different age groups are known to exhibit different patterns and levels of engagement with YouTube content.

​

Research has shown that Gen Zs turn to YouTube when they want to gain knowledge about something, improve their skills and deepen connections. Gen Ys on the other hand, go to the platform to be inspired, to be entertained, and to catch up on some news.

​

Gen Xers usually go on the platform with the purpose to learn something, stay up to date with news and pop culture. The Baby Boomers will go on YouTube to learn how to use products which means they spend more time watching tutorials. Boomers happen to have the most spending power than the other generations.

​

Perhaps the takeaway point here is that whilst each generation might watch fairly similar content, their goals are different. For Gen Zs it is to learn something new and deepen real-life connections, for Gen Ys it is to be entertained, for Gen X it is to stay up to date and reminisce and for Baby Boomers, it is to watch tutorials and learn to use products.

​

So how do we apply this information for our content creation process? Let’s take an example. Let’s say you have just started a guitar tutorial channel. You do not have any specific target audience in mind (maybe perhaps just targeting guitar music learners in general). But because of your cheeky, funny and lively personality, style of delivery and frequent use of game references as analogies to explain guitar techniques, you ended up attracting a much younger crowd (mainly Gen Y and Gen Z) who understand and love your references. Knowing information like this will give you a clearer sense of direction of what kind of content to focus on and create more of. So in this example, you can now try to focus on using more Gen Y and Gen Z references in your delivery of your content. This is an example of how knowing your audience analytics data can help you to fine tune and create content that speaks to the right demographics.

​

​

▶ Gender

Does your content attract more men or women? YouTube analytics will also help you to determine which gender is more attracted to and engaged with your content. Use this information to your advantage by fine-tuning your content, style of delivery etc, so that you can “double down” on your existing advantage that your channel has currently and fast track your channel growth. Going back to our guitar tutorial channel example, you may have realized that there are significantly more males than females watching your channel, probably because guys are more interested in learning how to play guitar to date girls. In that case, use this knowledge to your advantage and craft content that resonates with guys more, for example, giving more love song tutorials, or by incorporating some of your own experiences about impressing girls by playing the guitar etc.

​

​

2. Understanding Your Audience And Researching Trends

​

Digging into some good old data will go a long way if you want to target the right demographics. Research goes beyond just knowing the age, gender or even geographic location of your desired audience. You should be researching thoroughly into the specifics such as; what are their interests, their hobbies, their favorite shows, which influencers or creators they follow. The main purpose of doing so is so that you can know, predict and spot the trends that will interest them. In this case, when your target audience searches for trendy content that they want to consume, your videos are amongst those that appear in their search results This will definitely allow your content to get lots of views and attention, and will contribute greatly towards your channel growth. By doing thorough research and deeply understanding your audience, you will be able to focus on producing trendy content that can catch their attention and keep them engaged. 

​

​

3. Learning From Your Competitors 

​

Scouting your competitors’ channels never hurts. In fact, it is one of the best strategies to find the right demographics for your channel. Pick out at least three of your biggest competitors who are producing content in the same niche as you. Take a look at the content they produce, and the way they write their titles, descriptions, tags, thumbnails etc. Try to get inspired by the way they optimized their presentation. These channels are successful most likely because they are already producing content that your ideal audience wants, and their presentations are already optimized. Adopt their best practices and then just let the YouTube algorithm do its work by showcasing your content to the right demographics.

​

​

4. Collaborations With Your Others In The Same Niche

​

Creating video content yourself doesn’t mean you should always promote the videos yourself. One tactic that some of the biggest YouTubers use to grow their YouTube channels is collaboration. Collaboration will give you exposure to a new audience who are likely to subscribe to your channel. The key to a successful collaboration is finding a fellow content creator who shares the same niche and target audience demographic as you.The best part about a collaboration is that it creates a win-win situation for both you and the other creator since you will both be helping each other attract new viewers from each of your existing pool of followers. 

​

​

Growing a YouTube channel requires a lot of groundwork, especially at the start, but it isn’t impossible. You can grow your YouTube channel by targeting the right demographics. This approach has many importance, one of which is that it helps you create an emotional connection with your audience. 

​

Targeting the right demographics also allows you to fine tune your content, which will not only help you retain the existing audience, but to also attract new ones who share very specific but similar interests as your current ones. If you are looking to grow your channel, be patient, take your time and dig deep if you must. At Vling, our Analytical Tools are able to provide in-depth audience insights and data analysis of your competitors’ channels. We also provide the functionality of keyword analysis to help you research and identify relevant keywords that you can utilize to target and attract the right demographics to subscribe to your YouTube channel. If you are a YouTuber, be sure to leverage on these tools to grow your channel!

​

Have you tried any of our suggestions before? If so, how were the results? Feel free to share your thoughts and your personal experience with everyone in the comments section below!

​

​

​

​

​