Do you also hate when YouTubers ask you to subscribe in the beginning of a video?

I find it annoying tbh because they usually say it in the beginning of their video.

Why not at the end where I've actually watched your video and can determine if I've received enough value/entertainment from it to warrant subscribing.

Just me?
Because only few viewers stay until the end of the video
But I'm with you, it's annoying to ask for it at the first minute of video

Maybe the best place is in the middle in a moment that you change of toppic (the problem, YT should use this "pauses" to add an ad break)
 
Most viewers never reach the end of a video, so asking at the end means you only ask the most engaged 10-20% of people. A quick reminder near the beginning catches everyone who is interested but might forget later.
 
I don't think people ever subscribed to channels because the youtubers asked us to subscribe. We have always subscribed to a channel only if they were entertaining or if they held any kinda value in our life. Hence asking us to subscribe, yes its irritating, but the subscription isn't happening according to if they ask or not.
 
I find that completely normal, as YouTubers who ask viewers to subscribe right at the start of a video are usually already famous; they want the audience to be able to find them directly without having to watch the entire video, since by the end, viewers might no longer be interested in subscribing.
Unfortunately, many of them are not famous, but they still do it. They do it because of viewers retention.
 
Most people watch a video and skip to the next video midway the current video, so keeping the suggestion of subscription to the end isn't a good idea for a creator, also asking to subscribe is a way of engineering the viewers to actually do it, because most youtube videos have more views than subscribers ratio, which is ofcourse going to be like that but content creators are trying to close that gap, basically they are trying to convert most of their views to subscriber because 70-90% viewers just leave the video without subscribing, even if the video was great. Sure its annoying but that's the only way for creators to make sure they get the subscriber.
 
Yeah asking for a subscribe at the start feels annoying i would rather watch the video first and decide at the end.
 
Never hate such video when it ask to subscribe first to the broadcast channel to secure uploads of many helping videos on the channel,it happens on problem resolving videos to prove the unique of the presentation video.
 
Absolutely. If the video hasn’t earned my attention yet, asking for a subscribe feels premature. Let me enjoy the content first
 
They usually say it out of habit, because that was how people use to be in the start. I have personally seen many channels where they don't mention this. Sometimes they say it to remind us to subscribe and it works at times. For example, a channel I really love watching that appears on my account quite often, but not subscribed, I subscribe to that channel just because I saw the face of the channel say it out loud.
 
I think its overplayed now days. Back when people fist started adding it in the content years ago it was a good marketing tactic now its just overplayed. infact most people are going to skip that part or any ad or promotion you add in.
people have warmed up to the tactics used and don't want to watch that. if your content is nice and actually holds peoples attention it will get subs naturally anyway and i think you can leave a call to action like this out of your content altogether.

Things i cannot stand on youtube content, I am clicking off right away and watching something else if you do any of these.

  1. Retention farming, Padding of the content where the narrotor is strecthing the words out so that a 1 minute sentence becomes 5 minutes, over and over for the whole video
  2. Over use of call to action, such as "Head to my site", "Click this link for more info", "Subscribe for xyz"
  3. Low effort slop and long pauses between keypoints of your video as you are trying to time game the watching hours.

You can also just put call to action at the end of the video, this way you build up both clientele. People that know the game are not trying to hear what you have to offer in terms of adverts and what ever else in the first 10 minutes but the people that watch to the end will be the ones receptive to hearing about how you should subscribe.

people have really low attention spans today the last thing you need to be doing is breaking that with something off topic mid sentence.

Also to add if your content is interesting people do read your Video's description, i know personally if i find the content to be interesting i will read the blurb there as i am listening to the video. I will then click on or sub or whatever. People don't need to be told to do this action instead it just comes from being engaged.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I get it but I also think most people click away before the end, so they're just trying to catch you while you're still there. Still feels pushy though.
 
I’m with you on this. a quick CTA at the end feels more natural because the viewer has already seen what you offer. That said, a short one early on can work if it doesn’t interrupt the content. The delivery matters more than the exact timing.
 
I find it annoying tbh because they usually say it in the beginning of their video.

Why not at the end where I've actually watched your video and can determine if I've received enough value/entertainment from it to warrant subscribing.

Just me?
Yes I find it very annoying as well.
 
most people already decide first few seconds if they want to subscribe or keep watching so i am not really see a big issue with asking early
 
If you watch the video on a Smart TV if your wait until the last frames of the video the end screen and the next video suggested by YT don't allow you to access to the control buttons of the video to left a like or subscribe
 
Asking for a subscription within the first 20 seconds doesn't make sense; I prefer to watch the video first before deciding whether to subscribe. Ideally, the request should come after the content has provided some useful information, preferably near the end of the video. It should be a quick mention, as dragging it out can annoy viewers.
 
Back
Top