The 2025 YouTube Playbook

Hey,

I'm writing this on New Year's Eve, reflecting on YouTube in 2024. What changed, what didn't? What works?

YouTube has settled into a new (old?) style for businesses, which is good news for you.

I wish you an amazing 2025 for you, your family and your business, we can all use a great year.

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Worth Watching

Part of what I do daily is consume a lot of content and here are some of my favorites:

We created a full YouTube Idea Bank with all the previous outliers.

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• Niche Pursuits - I Tried 50 Business Ideas. These 3 Made Me Rich...​
  Very much an authentic video, sharing the effort, failures and success. This is putting in the extra mile and sharing it with their audience.
• Sam William - You've consumed enough. It's time to start creating.​
  A short 5 min video, hooks with grat storytelling and is very actionable and relatable.
• Frey Chu - Can You Really Make $200K+ With A Website Directory? My Thoughts + Answering Questions​
  Being niche works, this channel created content on a lot of random and broad topics until he went niche into something he has more experience in. Also using an existing video to further elaborate on helps with structure.

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The Ultimate YouTube Growth Playbook for 2025

I want to give credit to Paddy Galloway for his initial thoughts on what you should do on YouTube in 2025.

Lots of this we are already working with or on and so I'll expand on these ideas.

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1. AI Integration with a Human Touch

Paddy's take: Use AI for the first 50% of the process, research, script outlines etc

Our take:

As you know the idea is most important for your YouTube success, followed by the packaging (Title, Thumbnail, hook). To speed up the process of coming up with better video ideas, using AI tools will get you better results faster. I covered this exactly not too long ago "Find The Gaps In The Market". The tools covered here will help you find the outliers.

Finding videos that work is one thing, analyzing them is another. Capture their transcript with the "YouTube to Text" Chrome extension. Then break the video down and analyze why it's so successful like looking at the hook, and structure of the video.

I agree with Paddy to never use AI to come up with final products, use them to get started on a script idea, for structure or to overcome creative block.

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2. Format Mastery Over Broad Appeal

Paddy's take: Become a format king, you as the format

Our take:

Authenticity is a word thrown around a lot. What it means is, don't fake or pretend to be something you are not. YouTube is looking for real experiences and real examples.

The rise of survival in the wild content is an extreme example. In the real world, this means people are sharing business success examples rather than "theory". Think about Simon Squibb, I reference him a lot.

Instead of looking at successful videos, the "new" thing is video formats, also known as content pillars. You can look at them as a content topic that works or a video structure/style that works. Something that can be repeated by changing the content/topic or the style of the video.

I'm actually working on a video format library after the success of the YouTube Video Idea Bank you guys like so much. If you check the bank, you can see the newest videos in there have a deep dive included and categorized by video format as well.

Now, for your own success, provide your own twist, something that makes you you, what's your value proposition? It could be your experience, views, location, personality, contrarian view, ... At the end of the day, what makes you stand apart?

For those who think they need to achieve something before they can talk about what they do, just sharing your point of view, you experience going through something, is valuable to some.

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3. Strategic Content Study

Paddy's take: 1 hour/day studying YouTube

Our take:

Going back to the idea is most important, 40+% of what you do with YouTube is about that. So reflect that by the amount of research you do, you are on YouTube, ar eyou consuming what your audience is?

I spend a lot of time on YouTube, partly because it's what I do for work, partly because that's what I do in my daily habits. But every time I click on something, I ask myself why. Even better would be to journal those habits to get an understanding of content consumption habits.

An example: I scroll on Instagram a lot (too much), certain creators pop up. Maybe the first time I don't really watch their reel, but if the platform keeps pushing it to me I get curious. Then later I see that YouTube pushed one of their longer form videos on my home feed, something I would normally overlook if they weren't in my mind already from their other content. That is just one example.

Understand what makes you click on a thumbnail?

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4. Thumbnail Revolution

Paddy's take: Create 3+ differentiated thumbnails, not slightly different ones

Our take:

In 2024 YouTube introduced A/B testing for thumbnails to every channel.

The best practice is to create 3 different thumbnails and then create variations on the one that works. Don't just test 3 different texts on the same layout, but 3 different-looking ones.

Remember, differentiate your title and thumbnail and have your thumbnail stop people scrolling, have it create so much curiosity that they have to click.

Going a step further is using 3 different emotional triggers or pattern interrupts.

Fear of loss? Contrarian view? Bold statement? Your viewers desire? ...

Keep the thumbnail simple, don't overpack it with information, less is more.

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5. Original Content Creation

Paddy's take: Don't just copy what works for others

Our take:

A bit opposite from what we told you before, to look for the outliers and use them as ideas. Yes, to see what works and what people are watching but use your own original content and that format that works.

Document your processes, share your experiences (success and failure), and create unique stories. This newsletter is exactly that. I've been working on a new SOP Library for Playstack for the last 3 months, while I was doing that I've been sharing templates and systems with you.

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6. Double Down or Adapt

Paddy's take: Double down faster than ever, you are the first one to know what works for you.

Our take:

We see so many being too hesitant creating content on something they already posted and that worked. What works, double down on it. Is it the video format that works for you or a certain topic, make more content about it.

On the other end, if something doesn't work, don't get stuck in a cycle of creation because the workflow of creating the content works well for you. This is especially true for teams or businesses that set the wrong success metrics, such asthe amount of content vs successful content.

To be on top of this, get in the habit of analyzing your content at least every month. Have a template to fill out the key metrics you are tracking. Average view duration, retention first 30s, click-through-rate, ...

Be adaptable.

What makes this approach powerful is the focus on sustainable, system-based growth rather than quick wins. Each strategy builds on itself, creating a compound effect that's hard for competitors to replicate quickly.