What Every Church Must Know About The YouTube Algorithm

Hey, it’s Brady,

There’s nothing wrong with using YouTube as a free archive for your church's sermons.

But that’s not what YouTube’s algorithm wants.

The good news? Your church already has the video it needs - we just have to tweak it.

Here are the four steps you need to follow (with real examples)...✏️

Step #1: Title

YouTube is a search engine. This means your sermon title “Gravedigger, Week 1 - Feb. 11, 2024” won’t make for a good YouTube title.

Do This: The message below had three main sections. One of those sections was about Jesus and Judas. That inspired the title “How To Handle Betrayal”.

Step #2: Length

The average length of a first-page YouTube video is 14 minutes and 50 seconds [Source: Backlinko].

Do This: Extract a 6-20 minute focused section from the full sermon (see Step #1) to create a new video of the ideal length.

Step #3: Intro

Viewers evaluate a YouTube video in the first 10-15 seconds. This determines whether they stay or go.

Do This: Develop an attention-grabbing intro by stitching together compelling moments from the video. Click here to see an example.

Step #4: Thumbnail

A good thumbnail is made of three ingredients: text, color, and a photo of the speaker. We use Remini.ai to upscale a still from the video to give it the polish of a photo.

Do This: Pair your church’s colors, brand font, logo, and speaker photo to create a compelling thumbnail.

Your church is already sitting on a goldmine of content for YouTube.

You don’t need to make new videos from scratch. Just four edits to your existing sermon videos will optimize them for YouTube.

And what do we do with the full-length sermons?

Keep publishing them! Here are a few options for how to organize your two categories of videos:

1. You can separate the two types of videos into different channels

2. You can create unique playlists for each type of video on the same channel

3. You can keep the full services in the Live tab with your new optimized videos in the Videos tab

Your call! ✅

An Unfiltered Conversation With Mike Todd’s Social Media Advisor

For three years, Rohn Starling held the role of Content Creator To The Lead Pastor at Transformation Church in Tulsa, OK.

This means Rohn was working 1-on-1 with Pastor Mike Todd helping to direct strategy on social.

This week on the podcast we hosted Rohn to ask him all the big questions:

• How do you decide what to post on the church account vs. the pastor account?

• How do you manage posting 5X per day on Instagram?

• How do you convince your pastor to trust your ideas even when they sound crazy?

• Why did Rohn leave Transformation Church? 👀

Rohn is a wealth of wisdom, and he’s incredibly transparent in this interview.

Thanks as always for your time, attention, and trust. Talk to you next Thursday. - Brady Shearer