Is the critical period for videos really only 48/72 hours?

[PositivelyBrainwashed]

A lot of people say that videos need to get a lot of views, watch time, comments, shares and all those good stuff during the first 48/72 hours. While this is a good rule to follow, I think it's actually a little longer than that now. I got a video that got about 1400 views during the first 30 hours and then the momentum died. But at around the 80 hour mark, slightly past the 3rd day, I promoted it one last time just for extra subscribers and the video is now near 3k views. When I looked at it's rankings in search, it went up from 11th to 5th for my targeted keywords, which is a big jump especially since it passed videos ranging from 24k views - 1M views, and top 5 means the viewer doesn't need to scroll to find my video.

So perhaps I've given up on promoting a little too early on many of my other videos. My new theory is that the first week is critical for views, until your NEW video's extra boost disappears. But perhaps the first 48/72 is just extra important.

 

[TwoTakes]

I think this can be true- if you can get a good amount of traffic from somewhere such as a social media site then you can get plenty of views at any point. This grace period presumably only effects SEO within Youtube and Google?

 

[XXLRay]

The first few days seem to work best although a video can take off at any time when it shows a dense engagement.

 

[Loki Doki]

your right, i think people focus a little too much on the 72 hour thing. while it is hugely important. people seem to just move on to the next video, nothing wrong with promoting some older videos expecially if something in the news related to them

 

[PictureFIT]

I would say there are a few factors, and it pertains to the type of content. For many "help" type of content, such as tutorials and educational videos, they can have a steady stream of views throughout its lifetime without necessarily having a huge 72 hour exposure. Those come down to searchable keywords and content density within that keyword. If you hit the right snag, as well as receive favorable engagement for a video (which helps with algorithms), then it can be a consistently viewed video. The fourth video I made still gets a relatively steady stream of views to this day simply because it slotted perfectly into a keyword that didn't have a lot of good content for it.

There are also "major" content that has the intent of going viral or at least get a lot of people clicking it based on title and thumbnail. Think of Casey Neistat's New York snowboarding video. That will have an explosive amount of views that will help grandly with exposure, thus driving views not only to that video but also the rest of his video library. It'll also receive considerable views throughout its lifetime.

There's also time-sensitive content. This content is only relevant for the time that it is uploaded and a few days or weeks after. The goal of this content is to drive immediate viewers to your video and channel but will dissipate rather quickly. Think about videos that will be uploaded in November about election day. It will be super relevant at the time, but then it becomes irrelevant after. This is what I think where the 72 hour window is most important.

Outside of this, the reason the first 48-72 hours is important is simply because YouTube favors new content.

 

[Kousuke-shii]

Well, the first 48 hours is when your videos easily come up in the suggestions with the "new" tag. The amount of views you got on your first 48 hours must have been the reason. Youtube updates your analytics in the third day, saw that you got good views and watch time and boosting you up in the search rankings. At least that's how I see it, I'm no expert though.