Image Source: Forbes.com
In May we found out that every minute there are 72 hours of video being posted to YouTube. While everybody has hopes that their video will become viral there are only a tiny number of videos that make it happen with millions of views naturally.
How do you get thousands of views on your YouTube video when it doesn’t go viral or how do you kickstart the views in case it does?
You sell out and buy some views.
Let me be clear that paying for views is not real marketing. It does not grow your exposure nor does it put your brand in front of others. It is not supported by YouTube, nor is it something regularly condoned in the world of marketing. Most of the time it is questionable on whether or not somebody is actually watching the video, or if somebody has programmed simulations to view the video.
So why would you do it?
There is a perception when you are sent a video that has a lot of views and favorable likes. It adds value to the delivery of the video to new audiences as their adoption rate an likelihood of watching the video increases.
When you come across that video with very few views and really no interactive comments, you approach the video differently as if you are watching the video that you perceive thousands have tuned in to.
We experimented on one of the One Lap of America videos coming out of Fiery Feather Productions. Within a couple days we turned 830 views into over 19,000 views. The cost for 19k views? A mere $5.
We have a mild disclaimer that you should turn off monetization if you are going to run such experiments. Luckily YouTube recognized the views as a staged audience and did not monetize any of the views. If you are monetizing your own video and paying for views you have to imagine you are breaking into the legal realms of fraud.
