How To Create Amazing End Screens That Make Your YouTube Videos Stand Out?

Any YouTube creator knows the power of an effective video end screen.  Even more than the video, it’s the video end screen that can keep the viewer on your channel for elongated periods of time. YouTube end screens need to be creative and offer the viewer the advantages of staying on your channel and keeping watching your new content. Furthermore, they can be used as calls to action and introduce the user to your work outside of YouTube.

The Power of the YouTube End Screen

Until just a few years ago, YouTube end screens were hardly as popular as they are right now. Most YouTuber creators preferred to use annotations to introduce the user to their new content. When you clicked on the annotation, the browser took you to the screen the annotation was made to link with. However, a major drawback of annotations is that they can be viewed only on the desktop version of YouTube. So as a higher number of the population began to view YouTube on their mobile instead of their desktop, the click-rate of annotations began to fall exponentially.

This made YouTube introduce cards, which appeared as minimal video titles on the top right of the mobile as well as the desktop screen. However, cards appeared only for a short period of time during the video – around 2-3 seconds at a time – and then all together at the end. This made the cards easy to miss, especially when you were watching the video, and not a lot of people chose to click on them at the end either.

YouTube outro screens are different. They allow creators to include segments at the end of their videos for as long as 20 seconds. These screens can include all types of content which can be clicked on, taking the user to further content. How outros are different from cards and annotations is that they appear at the end of the video, when the user has finished his viewing and is prospectively looking for other content to view. If the creator can catch the viewer’s eye at this point, and make him click on content, it leads to a win-win situation for both the creator and the viewer.

How to Create YouTube End Screens

The following are the steps to create an end screen on YouTube. The process is the same as the Outro Maker, but the context is different.

1. When creating the video using your video maker, keep up to 20 seconds at the end of the end screen.
2. Log in to your YouTube account and upload your video.
3. In the YouTube Creator Studio, go to where your video is uploaded and choose settings. In the settings, click on End Screen and Annotations.
4. In the YouTube Editor, select a template for your end screen. You can also create your own format.
5. Place your end screen at the appropriate position in the video using the timeline.
6. Click Save.

What to Add on Your End Screen

All sorts of content can be added to your YouTube end screen. Here are just a few examples of the same – 

1. Previous Videos: The most common content to add on your YouTube video end screen is your previous video from your channel. Given the fact that end screen content can also be edited once the video has been uploaded, you can also edit your previous end screen to showcase your latest content. Adding previous videos to your YouTube end screen allows the user to navigate to your previous content and helps increase the view count of your channel. Playlists can also be added to the end screen along with video links.
2. Subscribe Button: This is another very common and popular link added to the YouTube end screen. Especially when viewing a video in full screen or in landscape mode using your mobile. The organic subscribe button usually placed below the video is not visible. An alternative is to include the subscribe button inside your video in order to remind the user to subscribe if the content was found interesting. Using the subscribe button in the end screen has led to a spike in subscriptions for a number of YouTube creators, further leading to an increase in YouTube video views over the years since the end screen has been introduced.
3. Outside Content: A number of YouTube creators do not remain restricted to YouTube. They run merchandising stores and even support causes outside of YouTube. Hence, they often choose to include links to their enterprises outside YouTube at the end of their video. A number of creators have also started including a call to action such as charity donation and crowdfunding calls so that they may be able to create more content.

YouTube end screens are hence a very effective way to grow your channel. They are easy to add and edit through a video maker, and allow the creator to increase the reach of his channel organically. YouTube end screens are a minor change but have caused great profits and led to immense publicity for a number of YouTube creators since their introduction, and hope to continue doing so!