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Introducing YouTube Fan Finder

By The YouTube Team

Behind every great channel are great fans. A few months ago we announced Top Fans, a tool to help you interact with your most engaged viewers. Today we're launching Fan Finder, a new initiative designed to help you introduce and connect your channel to new fans, at no cost to you.

To get started with Fan Finder, just create and upload a video introducing new fans to your channel (more on that below) and then submit it here to Fan Finder.

We'll turn your video into a TrueView video ad, which gives viewers the option to skip after 5 seconds. We’ll show your ad for free across YouTube to connect you with brand new fans. Fan Finder takes into account the interactions that viewers have with millions of YouTube channels in order reach the people who are most likely to engage with your channel.

Ready to get started? Create and upload your ad to your channel, then submit it to Fan Finder.

Here are some tips for creating an effective channel ad:
  1. Keep your channel ad short and engaging: Introduce the viewer to your content; don’t assume they have heard of you or your channel before. Remember, your channel ad will run as a TrueView ad which the viewer can skip after 5 seconds, so get to the point.
  2. Entertain the viewer: When in doubt “show” what your channel is about, don’t “tell”. If you have a comedy channel make sure your ad is funny, if you have a music channel make sure your ad has music. You get the drift.
  3. Aim for a strong message: Keep your channel ad focused on your channel and why viewers should subscribe or check out your content. 
  4. Have a clear call to action: What do you want your viewers to do? This should be scripted and annotated in your channel ad. Don’t forget to explain what subscribe means (example: want to see more content? Subscribe here).
  5. Branding matters: Make sure your branding is clear and reiterated throughout the ad. You want viewers to remember your channel.
Check out www.youtube.com/yt/fanfinder for more information and to see some great sample channel ads.
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