Is A Channel Trailer Really That Effective, Though?

[XtremeConditioning]

So I'm always reading articles on how having a channel trailer and a nice graphic on your channel is a good way to attract more subscribers, but how effective has it been?

For some of you guys, if you were on a good uploading schedule, and you suddenly put up a nice graphic and channel trailer, did it noticeably help at all? Or is it just fluff being pushed on the internet?

I also notice that channel trailers themselves don't seem to drive subscribers as per video statistics, but what we can't measure is how many people actually checked out other videos on the channel and subbed as a result of that channel trailer, so it's something that's really tough to measure on its own...

 

[spize]

I would just put my last uploaded video as the trailer so my subscribers have access to it.

But the trailer itself is a good idea, it tells newcomers what to expect from your channel.

 

[XtremeConditioning]

Yeah, I usually do my last uploaded video for subs, and maybe another video I wanted to "boost" for newcomers.

However, I've heard that channel trailer views are not going to be effective in that way, or that it won't count for views, but that doesn't seem to be true given the view counts of some videos I've done that with.

 

[XXLRay]

My report shows six subscribers directly from the channel trailer. If such a trailer is made good it can furthermore make people watch more of your videos. So it's hard to tell exactly which amount of subscribers resulted from having a trailer. Decide on your own if that's worth it for you.

 

[Switchbox]

I don't know.
I made a new channel trailer yesterday, and personally I like it a lot

I'll have to give it some time and see.
I'm also doing a Google Adwords run with it.

 

[McCoob]

So I'm always reading articles on how having a channel trailer and a nice graphic on your channel is a good way to attract more subscribers, but how effective has it been?

For some of you guys, if you were on a good uploading schedule, and you suddenly put up a nice graphic and channel trailer, did it noticeably help at all? Or is it just fluff being pushed on the internet?

I also notice that channel trailers themselves don't seem to drive subscribers as per video statistics, but what we can't measure is how many people actually checked out other videos on the channel and subbed as a result of that channel trailer, so it's something that's really tough to measure on its own...

I always skip trailers. The reason is that, from my viewpoint, only the newest video shows youtuber's talent in the most convincing way.

 

[XtremeConditioning]

I always skip trailers. The reason is that, from my viewpoint, only the newest video shows youtuber's talent in the most convincing way.

That's interesting... It seems to be a mixed bag at this point. I think maybe the best thing I can do it to try both. Do the same thing as far as upload schedule, then leave a channel trailer for a while, then try to simply leave my last uploaded video, and see which tended to work better...

I'm also thinking even more than a trailer, to maybe do a good intro before videos, or even a cool outro. Demolition Ranch's outro comes to mind. I don't have anything that awesome to put into it, but it may be a good idea to show other videos without making it annoying for people who go to my channel.

/watch?v=99w08bYL6yc

 

[wasabiroots]

Hmm.. I always skip it if its not a trailer. I only watch the entire thing if its less than 30 seconds long. I've never once subscribed because of a trailer tho.

From my analytics, the "trailer" video I have which is around 25 seconds long only managed to get 1 subscriber and has a retention time of 21 seconds. lol

But here, 65.5% of my subscribers came from channel/other rather than directly from a video:


So, it could be good? Or its a mixture of "trailer", content and overall look?

 

[XtremeConditioning]

Hmm.. I always skip it if its not a trailer. I only watch the entire thing if its less than 30 seconds long. I've never once subscribed because of a trailer tho.

From my analytics, the "trailer" video I have which is around 25 seconds long only managed to get 1 subscriber and has a retention time of 21 seconds. lol

But here, 65.5% of my subscribers came from channel/other rather than directly from a video:
View attachment 32085

So, it could be good? Or its a mixture of "trailer", content and overall look?

That kind of goes to my original theory... The trailer itself won't make people subscribe, but it may draw them to actually check out some of your content and subscribe because they like it, rather than by trailer alone. And that's something you won't be able to see using the channel trailer. I know that Google can actually look at the "trail" you make with your videos, as far as ads you click etc as to weed out illegal clicks.

I wish we had access to a similar feature to see who subscribed on a specific video, and what they viewed beforehand. Then we would know if the trailer was the first thing that made them want to watch your content. Unfortunately, we don't have such features, but maybe that would be intrusive if done wrong...

 

[DBA]

The other thing never brought up is that the channel trailer is only shown on the computer version. For me only 33% of my views come from "Computer"...