This is a heartbreaking story that--with your help--might have a happy ending (or not?):
(TL;DR - Did we get shadow banned or throttled because we posted shorts to our newer YouTube channel? See my question to @TeamYouTube on Twitter here: )
Hey all, I came here looking for help in the form of experience from people who have worked with YouTube and "seen a thing or two" when it comes to performance of channels (analytics).
I recently started a family gaming entertainment channel with my kids. I really have them involved in the whole process from ideation through editing and final production of the videos (a bunch of newly minted teenagers and younger . . . think MrBeast experience)!
We were THRILLED to see the first video INSTANTLY start to take off and get views and subs (as we've had another channel for years that didn't do "squat," but we were not really trying to "crack the YouTube code" as much as we have been trying with the start of our newer channel).
Two more videos later (three total now) and things were performing "well enough" to make me think we were on to a "little something" (at least we were getting decent enough traction to gain analytics data that could help us understand how to improve future videos).
Then, just in the last 2 weeks, something TERRIBLE happened!
I got wind of this service called breakoutclips.com that I've seen people use for advertising on social media. The idea is short videos with "thumb stopping" attractions that can help get the advertising message across.
So, I thought . . . what a great idea to make some YouTube shorts with a call to action to subscribe to our channel.
What happened? The first video did pretty well in that we got 10 subs from it in a matter of hours. The views died off real quick, as likely also did YouTube exposing the video (no longer giving impressions).
With the breakoutclips service, these short videos are super easy to create, and with the team of my kids, I thought if they spend 30 minutes a day creating a bunch of new ones, we might grow our channel subs by LEAPS AND BOUNDS.
So we made about 12-15 or so, and we uploaded them with scheduled posting to release a new one every hour.
Only 2 or 3 of them gained any traction and about 1-2 of them got some more subs, but very measly results. We had a quick spike in views, then drop off.
BUT HERE'S THE HEARTBREAKING PART!!!! THE VIEWS ON OUR OTHER THREE VIDEOS (LONG FORM) ALSO DROPPED OFF ALMOST INSTANTLY!
Keep in mind that our very first video--long form--was just about 6 months old and had views almost every single hour since the day it was posted. Our second video (also long form) started to take off and outpaced the first video, getting many multiple views every hour. Both these video also growing subs with at least a couple every week.
Point being - these videos were "alive," but now?
Well, I tried reaching out to @TeamYouTube on Twitter, but as I expected . . . they don't care and won't respond.
Here, see the data points, my questions and concerns for yourself on my Twitter thread:
So, in your experience, did we get Shadow Banned? Throttled? I fear the shorts strategy KILLED our channel - ZERO views now for a few days, and that hasn't happened since DAY ONE of posting with a consistent performance daily since then.
(TL;DR - Did we get shadow banned or throttled because we posted shorts to our newer YouTube channel? See my question to @TeamYouTube on Twitter here: )
Hey all, I came here looking for help in the form of experience from people who have worked with YouTube and "seen a thing or two" when it comes to performance of channels (analytics).
I recently started a family gaming entertainment channel with my kids. I really have them involved in the whole process from ideation through editing and final production of the videos (a bunch of newly minted teenagers and younger . . . think MrBeast experience)!
We were THRILLED to see the first video INSTANTLY start to take off and get views and subs (as we've had another channel for years that didn't do "squat," but we were not really trying to "crack the YouTube code" as much as we have been trying with the start of our newer channel).
Two more videos later (three total now) and things were performing "well enough" to make me think we were on to a "little something" (at least we were getting decent enough traction to gain analytics data that could help us understand how to improve future videos).
Then, just in the last 2 weeks, something TERRIBLE happened!
I got wind of this service called breakoutclips.com that I've seen people use for advertising on social media. The idea is short videos with "thumb stopping" attractions that can help get the advertising message across.
So, I thought . . . what a great idea to make some YouTube shorts with a call to action to subscribe to our channel.
What happened? The first video did pretty well in that we got 10 subs from it in a matter of hours. The views died off real quick, as likely also did YouTube exposing the video (no longer giving impressions).
With the breakoutclips service, these short videos are super easy to create, and with the team of my kids, I thought if they spend 30 minutes a day creating a bunch of new ones, we might grow our channel subs by LEAPS AND BOUNDS.
So we made about 12-15 or so, and we uploaded them with scheduled posting to release a new one every hour.
Only 2 or 3 of them gained any traction and about 1-2 of them got some more subs, but very measly results. We had a quick spike in views, then drop off.
BUT HERE'S THE HEARTBREAKING PART!!!! THE VIEWS ON OUR OTHER THREE VIDEOS (LONG FORM) ALSO DROPPED OFF ALMOST INSTANTLY!
Keep in mind that our very first video--long form--was just about 6 months old and had views almost every single hour since the day it was posted. Our second video (also long form) started to take off and outpaced the first video, getting many multiple views every hour. Both these video also growing subs with at least a couple every week.
Point being - these videos were "alive," but now?
Well, I tried reaching out to @TeamYouTube on Twitter, but as I expected . . . they don't care and won't respond.
Here, see the data points, my questions and concerns for yourself on my Twitter thread:
So, in your experience, did we get Shadow Banned? Throttled? I fear the shorts strategy KILLED our channel - ZERO views now for a few days, and that hasn't happened since DAY ONE of posting with a consistent performance daily since then.