Is someone using bots on my channel?

[Crystal Cherry]

Hi everyone, I have been searching for an answer for this for a while and even Google Product Forums couldn't help me.

Sometimes when I post a video, it will get steady views around 30-50 views an hour. Some "minutes" it will spike up to 100-700 views per minute for 1-2 minutes. My videos do this spontaneously and only my popular ones. I checked socialblade and I had a negative view count there. Does this mean someone is using bots on my account?

Also most of my videos stopped being suggested and dropped from search results. These videos were really popular and had a lot of shares, engagement, playlists and watch time.

If someone can help me with this I would really appreciate it.

PS - I don't know if theres anything to do with this but a YouTuber with less views than mine but higher subscriber count at the time. He wanted to collaborate and I declined due to limited time. I also read comments about him complaining about a few popular YouTubers and how they used bots to gain subs and views etc (not true -- both YouTubers had been promoted from big Youtubers). Then checked his channel and he had less than 300k views and 7000 subs. I checked his SB and it showed he gained 100 subs a day and getting about 3k views a day. Clearly he's using a bot or something similar.

Is there a way someone could be attacking my channel? Does YouTube "ghost" videos from results/suggested videos if it picks up invalid activity? How can I report this to YouTube?

 

[LJay]

PS - I don't know if theres anything to do with this but a YouTuber with less views than mine but higher subscriber count at the time. He wanted to collaborate and I declined due to limited time. I also read comments about him complaining about a few popular YouTubers and how they used bots to gain subs and views etc (not true -- both YouTubers had been promoted from big Youtubers). Then checked his channel and he had less than 300k views and 7000 subs. I checked his SB and it showed he gained 100 subs a day and getting about 3k views a day. Clearly he's using a bot or something similar.

Is there a way someone could be attacking my channel? Does YouTube "ghost" videos from results/suggested videos if it picks up invalid activity? How can I report this to YouTube?

I don't really know how much help I can be without access to analytic activity on your channel. However I've seen enough petty BS on YouTube to believe that someone can be doing this to you. This article might help but it's a bit outdated:

videocontestnews.com/2013/01/25/how-to-spot-fake-youtube-views/

I'd highly suggest using the tool Tubebuddy as well as the Chrome App's VidIQ and Heartbeat to help give you some insight in what you are experiencing. Spotting fake views (at least IMO) has gotten harder to do but with those tools I mentioned it gets easier.

One thing you can do is report someone's channel for Artificial Traffic by going to their 'About Me' section of their channel, click the flag icon, select report user and in this case you should select Spam and Scams. This will take you to another page where you can find 'Artificial Traffic' under the Spam and Scams section.

One more thing. You mentioned heading over to the Google Product Forums and asking for help. You also let them know you suspected you were getting botted right? It'll help for future reference if someone is in fact trying to bot you and they falsely but successfully manage to get your channel terminated. I also recommend taking screenshots of what you find as well. The more proof you have the better. Good luck! :]

 

[Crystal Cherry]

Thanks for your reply. Seriously Google Product forum is a waste of time. I got a sarcastic remark once when I posted the spikes in my videos for a few minutes.

The so called "Google Expert" (chosen by Google to help others) replied to me "Maybe someone suggested your video on television. I don't know." Yeah, my homemade non-viral video is going to be suggested on TV only to jump my views to 700 for 2 minutes...It was purely sarcastic and not helpful at all. Had my video been suggested on TV, everyone knows I would go viral to at least 10-20 million views.

I'm pretty frustrated right now. I spend maybe 20+ hours a week on my channel and lots of money on equipment etc. and no one has an answer for me. I'm wondering if this is what caused my videos to stop being suggested.

Today I contacted YouTube partner support so I have my fingers crossed.

 

[Insidific]

I doubt it, spiking views on an already popular video could be as simple as it being shared on a forum or some other website.
Even being posted on twitter.

I wouldn't worry about botting being a thing for sporadic spikes in views like that.

 

[LJay]

Thanks for your reply. Seriously Google Product forum is a waste of time. I got a sarcastic remark once when I posted the spikes in my videos for a few minutes.
The so called "Google Expert" (chosen by Google to help others) replied to me "Maybe someone suggested your video on television. I don't know." Yeah, my homemade non-viral video is going to be suggested on TV...It was purely sarcastic and unhelpful at all.

It's a poorly set up, ran and inactive help section. Very little help gets around over there and if anyone can or does help it's rarely out of courtesy or the sake of helping, more like their trying to become a Google Top Contributor/MVP/Rising Star and reap it's benefits. You'd be better off searching YouTube for specific videos on matters like this or dedicated YouTube Help or FAQ channels.

EDIT: I'll try to update this thread with some YouTube and Twitter accounts that can be of help which you can contact for further information.

 

[YouTuber1978]

Well, I can't say 100% but I'm 90% sure it's not bots. Wait a few days and then try to match up your real time analytics where you saw the spike with your traffic sources. Most of the time it's because YouTube is actually trying to promote your video. They will have put it in the suggested videos of someone elses very popular videos so it sent you a ton of traffic for a few minutes. To get 700 views a minute you were probably first in the recommended channels of videos getting 300,000 - 400,000 views an hour which is huge. Unfortunately, the average view time for people that clicked on your video was not long enough so YouTube pulled you out of those videos suggested feed after a few minutes. This is a very good thing to see because it means the YouTube algorithm has decided it "likes" your video and it's trying to figure out where to put it to send it a ton of traffic. It will probably try a few more times and if it finds videos that it can relate it to that gives you a long enough average view time you're going to see a huge hit on your hand. Probably in the region of several hundred thousand views a day. If it can't find videos to relate it to that give it a long enough average view time it will keep your views where they are eventually and stop trying to promote it. It normally means one or more of your videos has a really good chance of taking off.

 

[Crystal Cherry]

Thank you so much guys! You guys make me feel better already! I didn't know all that. I would really like to learn how it works. Is the YouTube Creator academy a place to learn all these things or is it "top secret" business? lol.

The spikes that I saw were only for 1 or 2 minutes so I wish I got 400k in an hour lol. They usually happen to my new videos that I spent a TON of effort in making.

Also regarding YouTube not recommending me anymore, is it because my videos are long? Averaging 8-12 minutes and watch time is around 2:20 for most long ones and 3:30 for some.

Should I cut it down to 5 minutes to stay recommended? Is that my issue? Also my most popular video dropped to 50 views per hour. It was getting around 1500-4000+ for the past couple weeks. Then suddenly, BAM! It plunged to its death.

Now, I checked it disappeared from almost every suggested video. There are videos that were viewed less than mine (VidIQ) they had about 16% retention and viewed for 1:00. Mine was 2-3x that. And it disappeared.

This is why I worry I might be botted. Especially after rejecting the collab offer but that specific YouTuber who seems to be upset at successful YouTubers success. He spreads lies about them for no good reason (I saw it on a different forum). This really turned me off and I'm glad I went with my instincts and did not collab with him.

Also, how can I check analytics for spikes because it happens periodically throughout the day but analytics only shows day to day information not minute by minute? Thanks again!