It’s no wonder every marketers’ dream is to have a brand video go viral. But the vast majority of viral videos don’t just happen organically.
Brands and agencies pay to go viral – even though it’s against YouTube’s rules.
The majority of marketing and entertainment videos go viral with “seeding help” from companies with names like “Pimp My Views”, 500 views and View Tornado – who claim to be the cheapest on the Internet.
All sell YouTube views, subscribers and Likes. Some use bots to repeatedly view and click on videos. Some use more legitimate methods, but all of them get paid for seeding.
Viral video is a myth
The reality is, “viral video” is a myth. The biggest and most successful online video campaigns are the result of carefully crafted and well-funded strategies – not friends sharing videos with friends, said Mitchell Reichgut, CEO of the social video platform Jun Group.
The seeding goal is to get 50,000 views to get a video on YouTube’s Daily Most Viewed videos. Instead of being a needle in a haystack of 72 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, a video on the Most Viewed page it can get 1/20th of the views on that page. Once it gets there, its thumbnail becomes important, as do its tags and descriptive copy.
Half a YouTube million views, $479.95
Prices for paid seeding vary widely. YouTubeViewsX promises a half million views for $479.95. Other firms promise 100,000 views for $2,000, stacking up 10,000 – 50,000 views per day – which will most likely make your video go viral by getting it into “You Tube Honors” “Most Viewed,” or “YouTube Partner.” Viral Views will get you 100,000 views or clicks for $300.You also can buy 7,000 YouTube views in 96 hours on ebay for $29.99.
These methods are widespread – and they’re also against YouTube’s terms of service. Which make me wonder why YouTube allows seeding.
If you get caught, Pimp My Views’ website claims, “YES! We can unfreeze videos that have been frozen from using fake/bot youtube views. This usually happens when the company uses bots or proxies to increase the views (i.e. low price companies). The videos will be stuck forever at around 300 views. Let us get your youtube views unfrozen for your video ans [sic]start soaring with youtube views once again.”
YouTube terms of service bans buying viewsg
YouTube terms make it crystal clear that using bots or buying views is against their terms of service. But busts are rare.
H. “You agree not to use or launch any automated system, including without limitation, “robots,” “spiders,” or “offline readers,” that accesses the Service in a manner that sends more request messages to the YouTube servers in a given period of time than a human can reasonably produce in the same period by using a conventional on-line web browser. …. You agree not to solicit, for commercial purposes, any users of the Service with respect to their Content.”
Randall Magwood wrote on Internet marketing forum, Warrior Forum, “Buying Youtube views is worthless. It’s a waste of time, and people won’t buy because of your views…. they will clickthrough and view your article if it’s targeted, and if it’s perceived to be something that they need to listen to.”
The attention that’s really important to capture is from the people who are most likely to engage with the brand and its products. You don’t want the video to be the viewer’s entire experience.
If you get a million views but you they’re not your target audience, virality won’t do you much good. And you might get kicked off YouTube, Google AdSense and other Google products.
Only partially right. Most of the companies you mention aren’t really able to drive a true “viral” video. Google/YouTube sniffs them out with regularity. Rather, they pray on clueless people hoping to achieve a viral hit for $500. Were it so easy…
But, you are right in the sense that most “viral” videos, at least those produced by brands, are supported by substantial PAID ADVERTISING or $eriou$ production budgets (how much do you think T-mobile’s “FlashMob” series cost???).
Yes, sorry people. Money still matters. Hate to rain on your purist internet parade. We got a client on the top of AdAge’s “viral” video chart by paying for it. Plain and simple. We didn’t produce the video. In fact, it was shite to quote my Irish cousins. But, we were able to get it in front of millions of people and get a “viral hit” by signing some large checks ($$ = views). We didn’t use the types of companies you mention, but we did use others that have made business models of blurring the line between paid and earned. Hint, one rhymes with MUZZBEAD.
Bottom line: nothings is free. Are you kidding me? Come on. Don’t be stupid. If you think money doesn’t matter, you are a fool or naive. Go ahead, blast me. Just calling it like it is after 15+ years in digital marketing.
I said they promise that they can do it, not that they can. Paid advertising yes, but a sneaky kind, disguised as promotion. yecch.
Thanks for explaining your example.
@ Stuart Meyler,great point and analysis. That gives a bit of light about viral videos in a general and case-to-case perspective. Thanks.
Interesting points from the article and the comments. We’ve been putting out a daily wrap-up to keep people updated with everything going on here in London for the Olympics. Not paying anyone or using bots, just having a little fun, and inviting people to join. http://bit.ly/olmVd
Great article and to the point – even well known brands have used ways to get their videos viral.
Like you said, it takes a lot to get recognized among the 72 hours of video being uploaded very minute. That is a lot of video for anyone to go through. People have to find it, share it and reshare it.
Everyone needs a jump pad and I think services like the one you’ve mentioned are just providing the jump off pad for anyone that wants to get their video go viral.
Viral video – agree it is a myth. It does not happen to everyone. A well crafted and with thousands spent on marketing it (bots or whatever), it will go viral ONLY if it deserved it. Otherwise, no matter how much you spent on bots, etc, the video will not get the views if it just plainly sucks.
Sights that offer this service are not all THAT bad. They have their place. For example, imagine an amateur YouTube video content creator who is just starting out and really has no views at all on his video. Has put so much of his own time and money into producing great content…lets say it’s for kicking puppies.
When someone searches for “kicking puppies” it’s likely his video does not show up anywhere in the first page or in the first few pages.
If you are this guy, and you Buy YouTube views, from one of those sites like socialviewz.com, you get that little boost you need to get you video noticed an clicks.
A video with 10,000 views creates a lot more curiosity than a video with 10.
Just a thought!
Who are you? Michael Vick?
let’s see, you sell YouTube views and you talk about kicking puppies. Blecch.
Sites that help people cheat do not have a place anywhere, any time.
And anyone who makes a video about kicking puppies: well, I couldn’t even find words to describe how contemptuous that would be.
Hi,
not all providers uses only bots. So I just wanted to mention to check out http://www.ViewsMania.com
Thank you in advance.
I made this puppy video go viral all on my own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6FYpRhLoY4
HA! if you call 47 view viral :)
I have purchased views from a company, they come from mobile device source. After few days, the video get banned, so while buying views make sure, the referrer from social media sites for your safety.
Thanks.