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Grow your YouTube Channel with YouTube Ads
Brady Snow: Hi everyone. This is Brady Snow, Director of Content of TubeSift. And today, we are interviewing a special guest, Gibran Escobell. Gibran lives in Mexico. So Gibran, thanks for coming on the call. (Learn how to grow your YouTube Channel)
Gibran Escobell: For sure, man. I’m glad to be here.
Brady Snow: Yeah. We just wanted to talk a little bit about what have you been doing on YouTube and then how you’ve been using YouTube ads to grow your channel? So Gibran has a YouTube channel. If you could just tell us a little bit about that and why you decided to start it and yeah, just kind of how it’s going.
Gibran Escobell: Right. So the main idea behind my channel is I wanted to change people’s mindset. I believe that we can change the world from the inside of our minds. The world problems come from the problems in our minds. So my focus is to impact as many minds as possible so we can change the world problems because as I mentioned, it all starts from within ourselves. Our inner mental problems is what’s causing all these problems with the finances and all that. So I believe that by helping people and expressing this out to the world, I can change a little bit, I can make a little bit of impact there. So that’s the main goal of my channel. Self-improvement.
Brady Snow: Cool. That’s awesome. And you said you kind of, within that category, you have a few other subcategories that you talk about in there as well.
Gibran Escobell: Right. Right. So I have my … The self-improvement is like the whole thing. Right. But inside, there’s like, I focus on relationships, the psychology behind relationships, the psychology behind finances. I put a little bit of spirituality into my channel too, because I believe it’s a big part. When you understand what spirit … A lot of people do not know what spirituality is, but when you understand like the backbone of spirituality, you understand that most of the problems can be fixed with spirituality. It’s really, it’s a whole nother level. And then, so it’s finance, relationships and I also put health into there, into the equation. So by doing that, I get like the perfect trifecta plus the spirituality. So, yeah.
Organic Growth vs Advertising your Channel
Brady Snow: Okay. Nice. Yeah. All important stuff. And when you started it, how long ago did you start it? And then what were some challenges you saw when you started it?
Gibran Escobell: So this is crazy because I’ve been on YouTube for many, many years. And the most I got growth, like in a year, I think it was like 30 subscribers. It was crazy. I was like killing myself making investing videos. I used to be a stock trader. And it was crazy because I put video after video and I couldn’t get any subscribers. And the views were like, they weren’t getting any. The videos were just dead.
So I started this YouTube channel, the one we’re talking about, I started that one year ago. And as soon as I started that YouTube channel, I went all in with the advertising and that’s when everything exploded.
Brady Snow: Okay. So you’ve been using YouTube ads to help grow that channel?
Gibran Escobell: Right. Growing the YouTube channel without advertising is really hard, because it requires a lot of quality content. And I mean, like extra amount of quality. And not a lot of people have the time to put that quality in because you have to dedicate a whole life into a YouTube channel. It’s a whole … It’s a big part of your day. So without putting the quality to a whole nother level in your videos, like without putting the time, the only way to grow, in my opinion, is through advertising. If you don’t have the time, it has to be advertising. There’s no other way around it. Or maybe have a good friend or a connection that helps you grow. That’s another way too.
Brady Snow: Okay. And yeah. So when you started, when you realized you needed to do advertising to help grow the channel, what kind of was your process there? What did you … Why did you decide to do YouTube ads and how did you do it?
Gibran Escobell: Right. So I started in YouTube ads. I think it was Alex that got me into this.
Brady Snow: Alex [crosstalk 00:03:53].
Gibran Escobell: Right. Right. So it was Alex and he always said, “YouTube ads is the best way to go.” The best way to go it is because you don’t have to pay for, if people don’t like it, you don’t pay. Right. So that was like the hook for me. Like the hook, that’s how he got me into the YouTube ads.
But then I started to understand that YouTube ads was way easier and more user friendly than Facebook ads. I don’t know. This is not just my opinion, but I’ve heard so many people say that Facebook ads is just like they let you die in the process and YouTube ads is not like that. They literally hold your hand while you’re putting an advertising out there. You know? So that’s pretty cool.
And I just watched a bunch of YouTube tutorials and it just seems so easy. And I just started putting out, the advertising out. But honestly, it was just a mess when I started. I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was just like throwing money and seeing if anything stick. You know?
Why Ad Placement matters
Brady Snow: Yeah. Nice. And then you said YouTube helped you grow your channel subscribers some. You decided to do placement advertising. So can you tell us a little bit about that process and how it’s helped you?
Gibran Escobell: Right. So when I started the YouTube ads, I was, as I mentioned, I was just throwing money out there. I wasn’t really laser focusing my money to the right place. Right. So I actually went through the video ads and I was also a TubeSift member, I believe, for more than six months before I was a VAC for a couple of, yeah. So I was in VAC and I was brainwashed that the process, in a good way, of course, right. I was brainwashed that the process I was following in the YouTube ads wasn’t the best strategy for my money. I was just wasting my money because I was using placements to focus my money on the wrong people. Right. So I wasn’t using the right placements.
So when I started using the right placements and literally focusing on the right audience and just focusing on them and just going down a little bit on my placements, but really laser focusing, that’s when I started to get a lower cost for my subscribers. I see it like cut in half, the cost for per subscriber. And everything just started picking up.
Also, my audience retention went up, the watch time went up, the conversion per subscriber, like percentage viewed, everything went up. All my statistics went up and my numbers went down for cost bases. You know? So that was pretty cool. That was after I went through the VAC, the value ads, the what is it? The video ads cracked. Yeah.
Brady Snow: Yeah. Videos cracked. Yeah. So you started to use placements and kind of by finding the right placements, you can find out where your most interested audiences, your like ideal customer.
Gibran Escobell: Right.
Brady Snow: And what were some of those places you were looking to do that?
Gibran Escobell: So the first placements I started with, just to give you a little bit of backstory, I was just literally throwing whatever was in the self-improvement niche. So if it was like, for example, I have depression. I need help. Or I don’t know, I have anxiety, or I need help with my self-esteem. Whatever that placement was for whatever video. So a video about depression and anxiety and a video about confidence. Right. I would just shoot my advertising to all of those videos.
And it was, as I mentioned, just throwing money out there and seeing what stick on the wall and that wasn’t the best strategy because I was just like, I was getting depleted really fast. I was just throwing, like those money machines, you put money and they throw the money. Have you seen them, like the money guns? It was literally like that.
And I was getting a bunch of subscribers but it wasn’t the right audience. I was getting a lot of like five-year-olds when I started. I don’t know why. It was crazy because I wasn’t putting the right placements. Right. But I was getting a lot of subscribers, but not the right audience to build a business with, a strong audience.
So when everything changed for me was after, as I mentioned, the VAC, but I started like, for example, if the video was about confidence, building your confidence and being the best version of yourself. When I started putting my videos in front of those placements, just focused on confidence, that’s when everything changed for me. So it was like confidence video, confidence placements, video about depression, the placements have to be about depression. And only that. Even if it’s just five placements. That made the whole difference. You know?
Brady Snow: Nice. Yeah. That’s good. It’s amazing how much you find the right content and then place your ad there. You know that your audience, someone’s going to be interested in what your content is about, is going to be [crosstalk 00:08:49].
Gibran Escobell: Right. It makes a whole like night and day difference when you do that. It’s like who wants the candy? Oh, you want the candy, the guy raising their hand who has a little banner saying, I want the candy. That’s it. You just throw the candy to the guy who’s asking for the candy and that’s it.
Brady Snow: It’s easy.
Gibran Escobell: Yeah. It’s easy.
Bring Value to Your Subscribers
Brady Snow: Nice. Yeah. Do you have any, those are most of my questions, but I was just going to say, do you have any major goals for your channel or just anything you’re looking forward to in the rest of the 2021?
Gibran Escobell: Right. So right now I’ve been focused on building my brand, like putting myself out there, just letting people know, Hey, I’m here, like come and check my channel. But now that I’ve built my brand and I think I have a good following, I’m at the point of now I want to start asking for support from the people so I can put more money into advertising. So I want to expand myself and I haven’t really put myself out there like to sale. You know? I was just building the brand and this process and I believe more in helping than charging.
So at this point, I’m trying to get my group built up so I can get their support and they can help me reach this expansion. that’s my goal for this 2021.
Brady Snow: Nice. Yeah. That’s a solid goal, for sure. Cool. Well, yeah. Did you have anything else you wanted to add or I think that was all the questions I had?
Gibran Escobell: If this, like if someone’s objective is to build a YouTube channel and like that’s their main goal, to build a YouTube channel. I believe that they should focus on helping people and not the money side, because when you first start on YouTube, we’re talking about YouTube, not the business size, right. The business side. So I think the best advice I can give someone who’s starting out in YouTube is do it to help people. Don’t do it for the money. Money will eventually come in. Because it is hard. But when you put your mind on just helping people, you get joy out of that. You get so much pleasure out of helping people. And that’s what literally helps you to go day after day and keeps you motivated to keep on going. You know? So that’s been my main motivation, helping people.
Brady Snow: Definitely. Yeah. Like offer value upfront.
Gibran Escobell: Right, right, right.
Brady Snow: Because then people will want to return to you and continue.
Gibran Escobell: And here’s another thing. Brands actually started reaching out to me to offer me money. And I’ve never reached out to a brand in my whole life as a YouTuber and they started offering money and money and money. And I haven’t accepted any other offers because I believe I can offer way more to my audience than what they’re offering. But that’s just another perk, when you really help people and build your brand, brands will literally, companies will start throwing money at you just to get you to say whatever they want. You know? So that’s a nice perk there.
Brady Snow: Nice. Cool. Well, if anyone wanted to check out your YouTube channel, can you just tell us the name of it? We’ll be sure to link to it below as well on this post.
Gibran Escobell: Right. Right. So my YouTube channel, if you Google search me or YouTube search me, that would be Gibran, which is G-I-B-R-A-N. And then Escobell, my last name. So, double L at the end. So that would be my YouTube channel. Yep.
Brady Snow: Okay. Sounds good. Yeah. We’ll be sure to link to that below, everyone, in the comments, if you’re watching this on YouTube and then also on our blog posts in the resource section.
Gibran Escobell: Cool.
Brady Snow: Yeah, that’s all I had. So Gibran, thanks for coming on. And yeah. Good luck with all your goals for this year.
Gibran Escobell: For sure, man. I hope to see you guys around and keep getting use of TubeSift.
Brady Snow: Awesome. Yeah. Thank you.
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Gibran Escobell
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