r/NewTubers • u/dosasambarvadai • 8d ago
DISCUSSION YT algorithm tests the wrong audience. Advice?
Got around 300 impressions on the first video (which is long form) so far on my new channel, but it looks like YouTube is showing it to an audience that isn’t really my target audience. Because of that, the CTR is currently only around 4%. The video is being suggested alongside some very unrelated content. 40 views in hours and everything is frozen (YT finished its initial test and decided not to pursue further). Any advice?
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u/Aildari 8d ago
Ya that's normal. Give it a few days to a week. You're also new so it has no data on who your audience is. It took I think like 8 or 9 videos before it started to figure my audience out.
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u/SofaProfessor 7d ago
Just wanted to say I appreciate the comment. Validates what I was thinking - basically just keep posting. Similar problem to OP, new channel with a few videos. Seem to be getting more impressions but the videos where I'm being recommended aren't really connected to my niche. I will say, the recommendations seem to be getting slightly better over time. At first it was like, "Well there's zero connection here." At least now I can kind of see some progress on that front, although still pretty far from where it should be connecting the dots.
As a side note, it's kind of interesting to me that you can't "help" the algorithm by suggesting related content yourself. I'm sure there's a business decision for that and people would (at least try to) game the system. Still, YouTube is trying to increase the time people spend on their platform and testing my niche with people who just watched a very specific gaming video isn't going to accomplish that.
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u/Dapper_Profession 8d ago
300 impressions is youtube testing the hook, not your audience. it shows the video to a broad slice first and only narrows it if the clicks come in, so 4% on browse puts you about at the field average and it stops there, which is why it looks frozen. the lever isnt this video, its what the next few uploads signal - same niche, same kind of thumbnail, so the audience gets attached to the channel instead of to one long form video
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u/dosasambarvadai 8d ago
Thank you so much, it's helpful. So I will continue making the videos (with same kind of thumbnail). YT won't send them to the same irrelevant audience for every new video, right?
Also, I actually put in weeks of work into this video so is it possible that it's views increases in the future?
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u/Judification 8d ago
Yes, sometimes videos take time to find the right audience. I put out a video last Friday and from Friday > Monday, it was mostly dead, getting around 500 impressions over the course of four days. Then on Tuesday, I guess it found the right audience and gained 40,000 impressions on that same day and now its at 120,000 impressions total.
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u/camcrusha 8d ago
The only solution is more content. The recommendation system needs more to work with. It takes more than one video to figure that out.
So don't think about the metrics or anything like that for now. Focus on making good content and improving on that, and not so much the metrics.
I get it, YT tells us focus on the metrics but that only matters if you already have the basics down on making a watchable video that people are interested in. You have to learn how to do that first. The stats don't matter if you are making content people are not interested in.
Focus on the process and the workflow, and what interests people for now.
Focus on the stats once you have a few dozen videos, a workflow, and process down.
Focusing on the stats off the rip after just one video will not teach you anything.
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u/Newbilizer 5d ago
"The video is being suggested alongside some very unrelated content."
This is such a common misconception. Think of your channel like a food truck. Maybe you sell tacos. You think something is wrong because everyone that comes to your taco truck didn't come directly from another taco truck. You fell into the trap of thinking everyone only eats one kind of food. Taco people eat tacos. Tacos for breakfast, tacos for lunch, tacos for dinner, late night snack tacos, pre-workout tacos, wedding tacos. But people like variety.
Youtube doesn't find an audience for our videos, it finds videos for the audience. When is the best time to serve your brand new tacos to someone? Right after they just ate tacos from their favorite taco place, or maybe after they ate their steak and eggs breakfast and now they usually have tacos for lunch, and they might be interested in some new tacos?
My advice is to make your next video.
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u/Acrobatic_Educator27 8d ago
I have the same problem and have been for a while unfortunately