How Bad Video Editing Kills Your YouTube Channel

It seems obvious: if my video is interesting and the topic I'm discussing is important, people will definitely watch, no matter how my video looks or sounds. After all, plenty of examples on YouTube get millions of views despite this. Right?  

If it was that simple, you wouldn’t be reading this article right now.  So let us make things a little more complicated for you now—so it’s easier for you to play by YouTube’s rules for years to come.

Why edit the video?

Let’s start with a simple thought: without editing, a video will be boring. Typically, the “record and upload” approach is used by those who just want to capture the essence of something rather than create an actual video.  

For example, this is common with lectures and podcasts, where the content itself matters. The same applies to creators who record "Let’s Plays", believing that the gameplay is more important than the pace of the video.  

And in reality, editing isn’t that crucial—if the content is engaging enough. Think about it: why do viewers come to YouTube in the first place? That’s right—for emotions they want to experience while watching a video.  

But if viewers seek emotions, then the logical question arises: how does editing help provide them? After all, a lecture or a "Let’s Play" can be so interesting that nothing else is needed.  

That’s true, but how often have you come across an unedited video on YouTube that you watched from start to finish without distraction?  

More often than not, such videos are filled with awkward pauses, has no logic, numerous technical flaws, and—worst of all—they fail to engage the audience.  

If a well-known blogger or lecturer with a strong reputation uploads a raw, unedited video, we might still watch it. But from an unknown creator? Unlikely.  

That’s because famous creators have built trust—viewers are willing to watch almost any format from them. But the real question is: how many successful creators actually allow themselves to be this careless?  

Yes, we call unedited videos careless because, in a competitive space like YouTube, this is almost seen as disrespectful to viewers. The most valuable thing we ask from an audience is their time, and in return, we need to offer something of equal worth.  

Editing makes a video easier to watch. It gives creators the chance to hook viewers in the first few seconds so they don’t have to search for something interesting—the engaging content is presented to them immediately.  

An edited video isn’t just a recording of an event—it’s the first step towards something more creative, unique, and insightful, offering viewers a fresh perspective even on boring topics. This is what triggers emotions during a video.  

This is how the relationship between creators and their audience works: creators provide the emotions, in exchange for their time and engagement.  

Videos are edited with music, titles, transitions, and other elements to craft a compelling and dynamic story that conveys these precious emotions.  

At the end of 2024, YouTube released a detailed report on viewer media consumption, which once again highlighted the inseparable connection between a video’s emotional impact and its visual and auditory elements.  

Viewers do value the emotional aspect of content more than its technical quality—but only slightly, not by a huge margin.  

To stay competitive on YouTube today, you can’t rely on just one thing—either emotions or technical execution. Just look at how few people prioritize only one over the other. That’s because audiences perceive and evaluate both as a whole.

Today, good editing is no longer a privilege but a benchmark of video content quality.  

Moreover, you don’t need to be an editing guru. Even the simplest elements can significantly boost your chances against competitors—for example, basic editing to remove pauses and keep the video at a reasonable length, adding captions, and background music.  

Now, let’s move forward—

What types of editing exist in YouTube videos?

Essentially, video editing has no real limits. You can do anything with your footage, turning your final videos into a unique style, signature, and defining feature of your content rather than just ordinary uploads.  

However, here’s a small warning: more editing doesn’t necessarily mean a more interesting video.  

Some video formats only require removing pauses and adding subtitles, while others demand more creativity. But that doesn’t mean every creator needs an overload of animations and sound effects.  

There are different editing principles and styles: for some, editing tricks are the essence of their videos, while for others, it's just a tool to enhance storytelling.  

Some creators interact with edits as if they were a separate character in the video, while others focus more on the story itself rather than the visual effects. The beauty of it is that any editing style can be effective as long as it serves its main purpose—evoking emotions in the viewer.  

Let’s look at some examples of how creators use these editing styles in their videos.

• And the first example is the channel-  Ben Shapiro:

   

This is a case where the creator builds all their videos solely around an interesting story, with editing serving only as a tool to enhance that story. Most of the videos rely on a combination of voiceover narration and inserts from movies, photos, or news footage.  

This represents the basic level of editing that viewers expect from YouTube creators. In a way, it’s the entry threshold to the larger YouTube ecosystem, where the real battle for audience attention takes place—and without at least minimal attention to editing, success is not possbile.

• Next level — Gawx Art:
   

   

Here, the level of editing is much more advanced, often featuring complex animations, stylized captions, exceptional work with music, as well as visual and sound-based humor.  

In this case, editing is an essential part of the video, but it still doesn’t play the primary role in achieving its goals. Ultimately, the emotions we experience come from the topics the creator explores and the way the video’s storyline is structured.

• There's also another approach where the creator makes editing an integral part of their videos, almost playing along with it throughout—just like in the videos on the vidIQ channel.

This is no longer just mandatory editing but rather a format where the creator finds basic functions boring and seeks their own style and form through editing techniques.

• And finally, the rarest and most complex format—where the creator either coexists with the editing, turns it into a living character within the videos, or builds the entire essence of the content around it.

But in this example, it is important to consider that the channel itself is dedicated to editing, so here it not only serves as an artistic element or the author's signature feature but also as confirmation of their expertise. 

Moreover, the author has chosen humor as the approach for their videos, which is not the only way to make editing part of your video. Honestly, in many cases, the way a video is edited can make it more interesting than the content itself. 

Of course, these are very superficial examples, and one could discuss endlessly who edits videos in what way and how editing works for the authors’ ideas, but the goal of this article is to understand the actual value of editing. 

Don’t forget that the choice of video format also depends on who will be watching them. Your potential audience might not like a lot of effects simply because they are in an age group where substance and content matter more than the packaging. 

Or it could be the opposite, with younger viewers expecting action and special effects, while you are telling them smart stories using only titles. Therefore, whether or not to focus on the editing stage of your videos is also a question of your viewers and their preferences.

How you lose views through editing

Overall, in response to the question "why is video editing important," we've answered: because it enhances the emotional component of the video and helps viewers enjoy their time watching.

Now we can move on to some tips on what to focus on first when you start editing your videos.

First, editing works both ways: it can fix a bad video, but it can also ruin a good one. Those who have been working on videos for a while are probably subconsciously attuned to this balance, and for those just starting, our main recommendation is — try more.

Editing is, in general, a very hands-on process. You can discuss it as much as you want, but until you start working with it, you won’t understand what you like, what your viewers prefer.

Video editing is an extension of working with the script. 

Not just that — it is working with the script. When we think about the story we want to tell in a video, we imagine how it ends up. If you’re not doing this yet, perhaps that is, if it hasn’t already, your main problem as to why viewers don’t want to watch you.

It’s impossible to create a logical video with basic elements: beginning, middle, and end; if you don’t see the final result in your mind.

This leads to the next major issue — without a well-thought-out story, it’s very difficult to structure the logic during editing.

You might shoot hours of footage, but during the editing process, spend forever trying to piece something together, and still run into the problem that you’re missing some important scenes for the story to work.

And if you think the script is complicated and only for big movies, let me disagree. In fact, for YouTube, all that’s required from you is just a few things:

• Setting the goal of the video at the beginning (this could be a question or a problem you want to solve);  
• A sequential path to the goal;  
• Achieving the goal at the end of the video (that is, answering the question or solving the problem).

And that’s it. Without these small steps, there’s a high chance you’ll "create" a Frankenstein instead of a video during editing. Very often, this leads to a problem: you try to cram everything you shot into one video. 

Don’t try to cover more than one topic in a single video, set a question at the beginning that you will answer at the end. 

Let’s break down this issue with an example from iconic movie, take the “Avengers” franchise: a popular blockbuster about superheroes, yet from movie to movie, the characters pursue only one goal: to save the planet and the people. 

The villains change, the special effects levels change, the actors and character traits may change, but the goal never does — to defeat evil. 

If the plot of “The Avengers” also added goals like conquering someone’s love, building a corporation, winning a Nobel Prize, and finding a cure for cancer, no one would want to watch that movie. 

The viewers’ brains would be overloaded with information, goals, and tasks, the heroes' actions would be chaotic, and viewers would be confused, wondering what exactly the characters are trying to achieve. 

It’s the same with YouTube videos: you’re making a video about building a house, while simultaneously cooking dinner and painting a picture, and viewers stop understanding what goal you’re pursuing. But most importantly — what goal they are pursuing, why they are watching it. 

Try to clearly define the problem you want to solve with your video and move straight toward the goal, not through roundabout ways. 

Don’t be afraid if at first, you create very simple and short videos. They will be much more effective than long ones, and once you understand the secret of success behind such videos, it will be easier for you to create more complex stories.

Another important problem that creators somehow avoid solving in editing is the editing of the video itself. 

We watch hundreds of videos from creators who, for some reason, leave long pauses, poor sound quality, repeating thoughts, and dead silence between sentences, or, the opposite, make poor transitions and unattractive titles. 

Editing is, of course, not just a tool for editing, but primarily it is. It gives you the opportunity to bring your video closer to the level of cinema, adding effects and music. But the advantage of the platform is that no one expects Hollywood-qualita here, but they do expect at least a minimal level of work with the raw footage. 

It’s not us who expect it, not the platform managers, and not even YouTube’s algorithms. Your viewers expect all of this. 

And most importantly — creators don’t evaluate editing as an artistic element. 

If you start paying attention to this stage of video production, you’ll understand that with editing, you can not only “tidy up” the raw materials but also showcase your vision, formulate your unique signature, and narrative style. 

And we strongly encourage you to pay attention to the tools you can use if you set the goal of making your content better and more interesting. 

In our opinion, if you can construct a story and put it together — that’s the secret to success on YouTube. If we want to gain viewers' affection and attract their attention, we must understand that this will take effort. 

Show your viewers that you’re here for them and because of them. Editing is a way to express respect for your audience, as it shows that you’re working on your content and yourself.