Why Intros Are Hurting Your YouTube Channel!!

Having an “intro”, also known as a VFX graphic, to start off your a YouTube video has thought to be a need for a channel to grow on YouTube for a few years now. Many YouTubers believe that having an intro will make their channel look more professional or help people know exactly who they are before the video really starts. None of this, however, is true. I’m here today to tell you that having an intro on YouTube does absolutely nothing to help your channel on YouTube, and that it does everything to hurt it and hold back its growth.

Why are intros so bad?

Intros are bad for a few reasons. One of which is that they stop people from getting exactly what they want when they want it. When someone clicks on a YouTube video, they want the content that is in that video. YouTube is different from TV and film in that when someone decides to watch a video on YouTube, they already have a very acurate picture of what the content is going to be, and they want that content now. Putting an intro at the beginning of a video holds them back from getting that content when they want because they have to wait through an intro to see it. Many YouTubers who use intros over 5 seconds see 25% or more of new users who find their channel leave before they even see the actual content. This is because when they clicked on the video they didn’t want to see some VFX work; they wanted to see a video content.

Additionally, most of the time intros can acutally hurt a channel’s professionalism. This is because 90% of the intros that are used on YouTube are used by 100’s if not 1,000’s of other people. This is because many of the people who use intros just found a free template and went with it. They didn’t put any original material into it whatsoever besides their name and maybe channel link. This makes you look very unprofessional. There are literally certian intros that I’ve seen so much that I just write a channel off before I even see the content because I assume that if the intro is generic so is the content behind it.

But I want an intro…

While I would recommend not having an intro whatsoever, should you decide to have an intro, there are few guildelines you need to follow to insure that your channel’s growth isn’t hurt by having an intro in your video.

1. Your intro needs to be 5 seconds or less. This ensures that people don’t have to wait any long ammount of time to get to the content they were expecting to see when they clicked on the video. The longer people have to wait, the more likely they are to click off your video.
2. The intro you have on your channel needs to professionally done just for you, and yes, this means you’ll most likely have to spend a little bit of money on getting an intro. That being said, it will most definantly be worth it. I’d recommend using a service like Fiverr which will allow you to get an awesome intro for just $5 or $10.
3. Include the intro after 5-15 seconds of filler content that captures the audiences attention. Did something funny or important happen in the video? Give a teaser of that moment at the beginning of the video to capture the viewer’s attention. Then, play the intro, and then, play the actually content of the video.

If you want an intro, which again I recommend not having one at all, but if you want one, you need follow the steps above to insure that your channel is not hurt by it. Overall though, it is much easier to just cut the intro all together and instead make better content overall.