Google’s “Creator Stories” Explain How YouTube Stars Made It Big

YouTube employees often talk about the lessons aspiring creators can learn from the most popular channels on the site. The YouTube Creator Academy, YouTube Creator Playbook, and YouTube Creator blog all focus heavily on the successes of top creators, whose best practices can easily be applied to the average up-and-comer.

This strategy is no guarantee of success, but it’s a logical one, and a recently launched series is continuing to utilize it. Think With Google, which provides insight based on data from Google sites, has debuted YouTube Creator Stories, which analyzes top YouTube channels in order to understand how they made their mark online.

The first three installments of YouTube Creator Stories look closely at the channels of the three women who benefited from YouTube’s first ever creator-focused ad campaign: Michelle Phan, Rosanna Pansino, and Bethany Mota. In each case study, Think With Google discusses a few important actions and the results those actions created. For instance, all three reports stress that their respective subjects maintained a diligent upload schedule while also spending plenty of time listening to and interacting with their fans.

Of course, those insights are not terribly revealing. Most competent creators know to upload regularly and engage audiences whenever possible. What’s more interest in the YouTube Creator Stories is the use of search data to back up these insights. For instances, a handy graph reveals that Phan’s traffic spikes each year on Halloween, when she unveils makeup ideas for specific costumes. In Mota’s case, her channel gains a lot of attention each August as viewers search for back-to-school fashion teams. Pansino’s graph reveals that she began to grow at a fast clip once she focused on her Nerdy Nummies series.

These data points provide unique insights that YouTube is well-equipped to deliver. Even if you don’t have your face plastered on the side of a New York City subway car, there’s still plenty to learn from those who do.