Video marketing on YouTube is one of the most profitable and proven online marketing business models around.
There are many YouTubers making a full-time income (ranging from 3 to even 6 figures a month) from it.
Generally, YouTube channels can be sorted into 2 categories:
1. Faceless video channels
Like the name suggests, a faceless video could be about peaceful scenery, subliminal audios, top ten lists and so on.
Usually, you’ll never see who is behind the scenes creating content.
One example of a faceless video channel is Primal Earth: https://www.youtube.com/@primalearth8951
2. Personal brand channels
Personal brand channels are created around an individual’s identity. They’re like mini-celebrities in their niche (also known as influencers). People follow these channels because they like the content/creators.
One example of a personal brand channel is Grant Cardone’s channel (https://www.youtube.com/@GrantCardone).
His videos revolve around him sharing personal tips, real estate advice, etc. with his viewers.
There are some hybrid channels that have both personal brand videos and faceless videos.
You may be wondering which way to go when setting up your YouTube channel.
Do you create faceless videos… or will you put yourself out there and appear on screen?
We’ll compare the pros and cons of each option over a range of metrics so that you can make an informed decision.
There’s no right or wrong answer here – only one that’s right for you. Let’s begin…
- Ease of creation
When it comes to creating YouTube content, faceless videos are much easier to produce. By splicing video clips, images, etc. you can generate awesome videos without ever needing to appear on screen or say a word.
Let’s assume you start a faceless video channel in the self-help niche, you could easily hire someone on Fiverr to create these videos for you.
At $10 a video, you can pay someone $200 for 20 videos (excluding Fiverr’s fees) and your channel will grow rapidly at this pace.
With a personal brand channel, you’ll need to appear in front of the camera and have a script, etc. Your lighting and audio will need to be right so your videos look professional.
It’s a lot more work to create a personal brand channel. That said, personal brand channels have an advantage that faceless video channels can never have… which brings us to the next point…
- Personal connection
When you have a personal video channel, your viewers can see who you are and hear what you sound like.
This not only lends an air of credibility and authenticity to your content… but if you’re charismatic, your audience will find you relatable.
This is personal branding at its finest!
When people visit Grant Cardone’s channel, they’re going there for him.
They want to hear what he has to say. The stronger the identity of the creator, the more polarizing he/she will be – and the more loyal their fans will be.
One excellent example is Andrew Tate.
People love him or hate him. Either way, his videos get views and engagement, which is what every video creator wants.
So, personal brand videos excel in this metric.
- Privacy
It goes without saying that there’s a lot more privacy when you’re doing faceless videos. Since you’re never on screen, no one will know who you are.
This is why introverted or shy people tend to prefer faceless videos. Getting in front of the camera can be intimidating, especially if one is feeling insecure about how they look.
This is merely a mental obstacle that can be overcome by ‘just doing it’.
Once you get on screen, you’ll realize that it’s no big deal after all. But this is up to you.
Whatever the case, faceless video channels allow you to create content while staying in the shadows. These videos can still get thousands or even millions of views.
For example, this scenic faceless video of the Maldives has gotten over 1.9 million views so far.
So, don’t discount this type of videos. They can be just as lucrative.
- Focus
With faceless videos, the focus is 100% on the content. So your content will have to be interesting, beautiful, and/or engaging.
If your video is sharing information or ideas, the viewers will be able to focus fully on the content without getting distracted by the appearance and/or personal charisma of the person on screen (personal brand videos).
- Appeal
Generally, faceless videos have a much wider appeal. Since there’s nobody appearing in the videos, you’ll avoid bias based on physical appearance, race, gender, etc.
If your videos only use background music, they’ll overcome the language barrier too.
Personal brand videos, however, are at the opposite end of the spectrum.
To stand above the noise, content creators must be engaging, witty, charismatic, and opinionated. While you’ll have your fans – you’ll also have detractors.
So the appeal of personal brand videos is a lot more limited and ‘niched down’.
- Flexibility
Both faceless and personal brand videos allow you some degree of flexibility – but it’s in different areas.
With faceless videos, you can add voiceovers, animations, etc. Your videos can be formatted differently and there’s a lot of room for creativity because there’s no need to focus on the person behind the video.
Personal brand channels, however, are limited in creative freedom because the focus is on the creator and his/her message – but you’ll have several different opportunities to monetize your content, unlike faceless videos which mostly rely on ad revenue.
- Monetization
As mentioned earlier, with a personal brand channel, you can sell your own products, offer coaching, promote affiliate products and much more. Since you already have a loyal audience, you can just point them to your offers.
All you’ll need to do is add a link in your video description and tell viewers to click on the link to learn more. A fraction of them will.
Your videos can be used to generate leads, build an email list and much more.
By building your own email list, you’ll not be putting all your eggs in one YouTube basket.
Building your house on rented land can be risky – and if you get de-platformed, at least you’ll have a list of email subscribers. Personal brand channels reduce the risks here.
With faceless video channels, you’ll mostly be confined to ad revenue. Once you meet YouTube’s criteria to get monetized, you’ll get a percentage of the ad revenue generated from your channel. So your goal will be to get as many views as possible.
It’ll be difficult to promote your own products (or affiliate products) because you won’t have much of a relationship with your viewers. That’s the trade-off when you don’t show your face in your videos.
Nevertheless, even with faceless videos, you can make 3 to 6 figures a month, depending on your channel’s content and performance. So it can be highly profitable too!
- Scalability
As mentioned in point #1, it’s easier to create faceless videos. You can outsource the content creation to freelancers – and leverage their time and effort to grow your channel. These video channels are highly scalable.
Personal brand videos, however, require you to appear on camera. While you can outsource tasks such as adding captions, editing, etc. you’ll still need to appear on camera when creating videos.
Since your presence is required during the video creation process and time is limited, scalability is slowed down.
Furthermore, it’s more difficult to sell a personal brand channel because no one else can be you.
It’s very easy to sell a profitable faceless video channel though. So it wins hands down in this regard.
- Haters
Personal brand channels tend to get a lot more haters because some people enjoy tearing others down.
Video creators who get affected by negative comments will struggle overcoming this issue.
Faceless videos do get some hate too, but hardly as much as personal brand channels. Since they don’t have a person to put down, the haters are lost.
This is the world we live in now.
Everyone needs to voice their opinion about what they dislike, and the people who do this often can never be pleased. So it’s not even worth trying.
The best way to beat this problem will be to create content but not consume it, especially the comments.
Publish your videos without fear and while you may use some comments as constructive criticism, be resilient and let pointless hate roll off you like water off a duck’s back.
Which model do you choose?
By now, you’ll realize that both options (faceless & personal brand) have their pros and cons. Which one you go with is up to you.
What matters is that once you decide on channel, niche, and video preference, you stick with it until you see positive results and profit.
The key to succeeding with video marketing is to be consistent and conscientious in your video quality and output.
The more videos you produce, the better you’ll get at it. The more time you spend fine-tuning your processes, the better your results will be.
You can profit immensely with either faceless videos or personal brand videos – because the one secret ingredient to make them work is YOU.
Start creating videos and build a profitable YouTube channel today. It’s one of the most reliable and profitable business models online.