How liberal creators are cracking the code on YouTube

A new class of Democratic personalities are riding the election - and the platform’s algorithm - to viral success

Kyle Tharp

and

Lucy Ritzmann

Sep 27, 2024

FWIW, this week’s newsletter is sponsored by Civic Shout

A little over two months ago, Jack Cocchiarella didn’t have a single subscriber on his YouTube channel.

His very first video, posted on July 11th, has just 701 views. Now, he’s one of the fastest growing progressive political creators on the platform, with over 330,000 subscribers and counting. ”The momentum that exists on YouTube is like no other platform,” he told me.

Cocchiarella isn’t alone - he’s a part of a growing cadre of Democratic pundits and personalities who have quickly figured out how to build a large audience on YouTube using a few simple hacks. Others in this cohort include Keith Edwards, Adam Mockler, Luke Beasley, Jessiah, and Harry Sisson who have all amassed hundreds of thousands of subscribers in the past two years.

For Edwards, who only started publishing on the platform in June and has accumulated nearly 200,000 subscribers, it has been a learning experience. “The hardest thing is just starting. Just make the terrible video and have something out there so that you have a baseline to work from,” he says. “That's how all creative endeavors begin - something terrible - but you just slowly iterate and improve.”

Edwards also says “knowing the language of your niche” and quickly signaling to your viewers what your content is about is critical. Along those lines, all of these Democratic creators deploy a few identical tactics in hopes that YouTube’s algorithm will surface their content to thousands of strangers. First, they use hyper-optimized thumbnails that feature bright yellow text and big, bold arrows. Then, they combine that with over-the-top, clickbaity video titles, featuring some mix of ALL CAPS text. Most of their most successful videos are under 15 minutes long, and we should also note, each of these creators happen to be white men.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

*All of these videos are from different creators*

“You could have the same exact story and you could record it the same exact way, but what's gonna dictate success is your thumbnail,” says Cocchiarella. “Then, the difference between a video getting 200,000 views and 800,000 views is sometimes just luck.”

Timing is also key. Particularly in the political and news space, videos are rewarded with increased distribution if they can be first among this cohort to feature a new breaking news bit or viral political moment.

YouTube continues to grow in importance among American audiences, and that, like any other trend in media and news consumption, has implications for our politics. According to Nielsen, the platform accounts for nearly 10 percent of all TV viewership in the United States, outpacing Netflix and all other streaming services. It’s a leading platform where Americans get their news, and Gen Z audiences are on YouTube more than any other digital platform (including TikTok).

According to Comscore, it’s the biggest smartphone app among U.S. users. Even if you’re not tuning in to a 30 minute-long explainer video on geopolitics or obscure history, there’s still a chance you’re on YouTube searching for a quick cooking video or how to change a bike tire.

While most social media platforms like Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are actively deprioritizing political content, YouTube doesn’t discourage it. It also has one of the most powerful and unique algorithms to feed viewers exactly what they want to watch.

Immediately after watching a video, YouTube sorts you into a very specific bucket and serves up very similar content from very similar creators. For example, if you watch a video by MrBeast, you’re likely to see content from Ryan Trahan up next in your “Recommended” feed. If you watch Ryan Trahan, maybe you’ll be served a video from Nick DiGiovanni next. That same process applies to political content - users who watch MeidasTouch content may soon be turned on to The Bulwark.

As you can imagine, this means that political content echo-chambers may be stronger on YouTube than elsewhere online. The liberal creators I spoke with admitted that their audiences definitely lean left, and that there would be significant overlap with each other. Despite that, most feel it's important for Democrats to invest in growing their own audiences on platforms like YouTube where bad actors on the Right have built massive followings for years.

“It’s a huge opportunity,” says Edwards. “And I truly do not think that 90% of DC strategists think that YouTube is a thing.”

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Digital ad spending, by the numbers:

FWIW, political advertisers spent just over $29.6 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:

As Democrats have done in previous cycles, the Harris campaign has begun running partner ads on Facebook with noteworthy brands. Glamour Magazine ran a partner ad in support of VP Harris, describing her as the “Freedom” candidate. The ad was largely targeted at women 65 and older in states like New York, Florida, Illinois, and Texas.

And speaking of political ads aimed at women, Galvanize Action dropped $229,000+ last week on video ads aimed at moderate or independent women encouraging them to support Democrats. The ads were largely targeted at battlegrounds like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.

Meanwhile, political campaigns spent $34.6 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:

Republican Super PAC American Crossroads spent $620,000 this past week on attack ads against two of the most vulnerable U.S. Senate incumbents this year, Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Sen. Jon Tester in Montana. The video ads attack both senators on the issue of immigration.

On X (formerly Twitter), political advertisers in the U.S. have spent $11.3 million on ads year to date. Here are the top spenders:

Eager to stay relevant: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has been ramping up his X/Twitter ad spending on his campaign against big government and for “our values,” which includes this recent ad that focuses heavily on Christianity and faith.

…and lastly, on Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent $9.7 million on ads year to date. Here are the top spenders:

Presidential head-to-head

FWIW, here’s how weekly digital ad spending (Facebook/Instagram, Google/YouTube) compares between the Trump and Harris (formerly Biden) campaigns year-to-date:

As the election enters its final stretch, the Harris campaign is testing a variety of new formats in its advertising across platforms. Researcher Andrew Arenge has a great thread highlighting many new ads he spotted this week here.

“We saw over 200% ROAS in two months!”

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New TikTok data + charts

Both the Harris and Trump campaigns have officially passed 1 billion views on their TikTok content, a wild stat that underscores the importance of the platform this year. We have that data and much more in in this week’s FYP newsletter 👇

See the latest TikTok data + analysis >>

More from around the internet:

A video from Jubilee entitled “Can 1 Woke Teen Survive 20 Trump Supporters?” has been making waves across the socials (spoilers: most people seem to think the one woke teen survived and thrived).

VP Harris, a lifelong Golden State Warriors fan, went on the NBA podcast “All the Smoke” with former Warriors players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.

And speaking of podcasts, the top podcasts (in the US, we assume) have a strong conservative lean – which may explain a lot. Also of note: Talk Tuah by the Hawk Tuah girl which has made it to #4.

Apparently, polling AI bots who have been trained to act like voters may give you more accurate predictions than polling actual voters…

That’s it for FWIW this week. This email was sent to 23,649 readers. If you enjoy reading this newsletter each week, would you mind sharing it on Twitter or Threads? Have a tip, idea, or feedback? Reply directly to this email.