Growing a small YouTube channel can be especially difficult, whether you’re stuck at 500 or 5,000 subscribers. If you’re looking to grow a channel that’s plateaued, or even just looking to accelerate your growth, here are some ideas.

1. Collaborate with similar channels

In a YouTube collaboration, creators will cross-promote each other’s content. That might consist of an in-video shout-out, a community tab mention, or a guest appearance.

Collaborations have been one of the most helpful tools that I’ve seen in my career for jump-starting YouTube channel growth. If you’re trying to find collaborators, reach out to similarly-sized YouTube channels in your niche to see if they’re interested. Figure out what kind of collaboration makes sense. 

Finding a channel much larger than you is even more valuable, but this can be more challenging. A channel with 10,000 subscribers will probably be less interested in a cross-promotion with a channel that only has 100 subscribers. In these scenarios, smaller creators might want to consider what kind of value they can add in their pitch for a collaboration. That might mean offering your services as a subject matter expert, or leveraging a larger audience from a different platform.

The late Grant Thompson, in a 2017 interview with YouTube, recounts a story where he approached a much larger channel for a collaboration. “At the time, he had about 1 million subscribers, and I had 50,000,” Thompson said. “So it was a little bit of a stretch, however I felt like I still had value to add.”  Thompson made a video for Household Hacker’s channel, who agreed to upload the video in exchange for a shout-out to Thompson’s much smaller channel. 

Mission-driven channels might also be inclined to promote smaller creators whose values align with theirs.

Here are some tips for collaborations:

• Avoid attracting the wrong kind of audience. A history creator may bamboozle a few hundred people to subscribe from a collaboration with a prank channel, but these new audience members will be less engaged and less likely to click the content when it appears in their feed. In short, they’ll be a drag on the channel. Instead, make sure your potential collaborator’s audience closely resembles your ideal viewer.
• Make the collaboration as tailored as possible. “If you like this history content, check out that history content,” might be fine, but something better might be “If you liked this video about the Roman Empire, you’ll love this video that uncovers why it really crumbled.” Even better: coordinate your topics and content so you can make the end of each video a trailer for the next video.
• Measure the impact. Some big YouTubers have disengaged audiences, and some smaller creators have extremely engaged and loyal audiences. Be sure to track how many extra subscribers you’ve gained from a collaboration, and see which ones are worthy of repeating.

2. Study your competitors

There’s an overwhelming amount of data available in YouTube Creator Studio, but here’s some that can help you grow your channel.

In Analytics > Audience, there’s a card that displays what channels and what videos your viewers are watching. These channels and videos are a shortcut for understanding what kinds of topics your audience is interested in. 

This tool can also highlight larger channels that overlap in audience with your own. Try studying these channels. What is their content selection like? What are they doing differently than you? This doesn't mean copy them, but note their best-performing videos to see if you’ve missed out on a topic that could draw a larger audience. Similarly, seeing what they do differently might highlight where you can improve: maybe the production quality is better, maybe the pacing is faster, or maybe the content strategy is more targeted.

The newly revamped YouTube inspiration tab can similarly give you ideas for what your viewers are watching and searching for, as well as breakout videos from other creators.

Here are some things to be mindful of:

• Don’t make copycat content. Viewers will have a choice between you or the real deal, and probably choose the latter.
• Determine what you bring to the table. Figure out how your unique perspective and voice can add in a new way to already well-performing topics. 
• Don't chase trends. Creators who solely chase trending topics and content are at greater risk for burning themselves out, if they’re producing content they don’t truly enjoy.

3. Focus on your watch time and click-through rate

“The magic formula to conquering the YouTube algorithm is a high number of clicks [and] a high amount of watch time,” creator Tam Kaur says. Increasing these two metrics will make it more likely that YouTube shows your content to new viewers in the suggested bar or the home page.

To improve your click-through rate, experiment with different thumbnails and titles on existing videos. You can also use YouTube’s Test & Compare tool or other A/B testing tools. You’ll inevitably notice patterns in what performs well and what doesn’t, so be sure to implement those learnings into new titles and thumbnails. Competitor research is also valuable here—what kinds of titles and thumbnails are performing well on other channels in your niche? 

Remember, half of all videos on YouTube have a click-through rate between 2 and 10%, according to YouTube. If you’re on the higher end of that average, you’re probably doing something right.

Improving your watch time is a little more complicated, and ultimately means making content worth watching. For that, creators can look at their retention data to see where viewers are dropping off or sticking around. Carefully studying those moments and applying your learnings can greatly improve your watch time. 

Some things to be mindful of:

• Be careful with deceptive clickbait. It can tank your watch time and isn’t sustainable.
• Don’t string your viewers along. Nobody likes a video that starts out with “Here’s something fascinating, but I’m going to add in 10 minutes of filler before I tell you.” Tricking people into watching your content may perform well in the short-term, but YouTube has implemented checks to crack down on these kinds of videos.

In summary: Experiment

It’s often the case that small YouTube creators treat their existing audience as sacred. And for good reason. If you spend hundreds of hours getting your first 100 subscribers, you certainly don’t want to alienate them. But if your channel is stuck, repeating the exact formula that got you your first 100 subscribers won’t cut it. 

This doesn’t mean to abandon what you’ve been doing (though you can certainly try), but to avoid be overly precious. Ultimately, many successful creators experiment with different formats and topics before they find the ones that work. From there, they often double down. In my own career, I’ve seen experimental content draw in millions of views and redefine the identity of the channel. 

If you’re nervous, consider an 80/20 rule. 80% of your content can be what your audience is used to, but 20% should push the envelope in some way. If that 20% outperforms your existing content, do more things like it. And even if that new content comes to define your channel, never stop experimenting.