YouTube Stopped Promoting My Videos

Oct 29, 2020

Image

Every once in awhile, when I'm speaking to a YouTube creator, they'll tell me: "YouTube stopped promoting my videos!" This is an issue, as when YouTube promotes a video less, it gets fewer views. But why does this happen? Why does YouTube stop promoting videos, and what can be done about it?

A video usually stops being promoted by YouTube when it starts to perform poorly. If a video performed well initially but starts performing poorly over time, this tells YouTube that the video isn't being received positively by viewers any longer. Since YouTube wants to share videos with viewers that have been positively received, this will lead to less promotion.

Getting YouTube to promote your videos can be a difficult task. This is why it is so demotivating when YouTube stops promoting your videos after they have been getting promoted. However, all hope is not lost. There are things that you can do to get YouTube to promote your videos again.

How Does YouTube Promote Your Videos

how-does-youtube-promote-your-videos

Before we go any further, we must answer the question: How does YouTube promote your videos? You see, there are a lot of misconceptions about how YouTube goes about promoting videos. These misconceptions cause content creators to focus on the wrong things, leading to fewer views.

YouTube promotes videos through a variety of different traffic sources. These traffic sources include:

  • YouTube search
  • Suggested videos
  • Browse features
  • Channel pages
  • Other YouTube features

A video is promoted through each traffic source based on different factors. For example, a video from an established channel with a high click-through rate and average view duration might be promoted through the suggested videos traffic source. Whereas a properly optimized video from a new channel might be promoted through YouTube search.

Many of the best practices that I suggest you follow are suggested because they can help your videos get promoted more in each traffic source. When I talk about the importance of video SEO, for example, I do so because having good video SEO will help your videos get promoted more through the YouTube search traffic source.

Ultimately, everything technical you do as a content creator on YouTube is done to get your videos promoted more often by YouTube. Meaning, everything technical you do is done to get your videos promoted through each traffic source more often. After all, these traffic sources are what will lead to more views for your videos.

Why Did YouTube Stop Promoting My Videos

why-did-youtube-stop-promoting-my-videos

If the question: "Why did YouTube stop promoting my videos" has ever crossed your mind, you wouldn't alone. Many content creators manage to get their videos promoted for a while, but then the promotion stops. But why does this happen? Why does YouTube seem like they love your videos one minute, and don't like them the next minute?

Videos are promoted by YouTube based on how they perform. Essentially, YouTube evaluates the watch time, average view duration, click-through rate, and other metrics to determine how a video is performing. If a video has a high rating for these metrics, this will tell YouTube the video is good and is worth promoting. The opposite of this is also true.

When a video performs poorly, it gets promoted less often by YouTube. So, if you've had quite a few videos get low watch time and a poor click-through rate, for example, this would cause YouTube to promote your videos less often. This is why creating high-quality videos is so important. A week or two of low-effort could cause your channel growth to stall.

Many channels enter into a "death spiral" when they have multiple videos perform poorly. When multiple videos perform poorly, future videos are more likely to perform worse as well. If your videos have been promoted less often by YouTube, don't only look at your most recent videos- look at the videos before your recent videos as well.

How to Get YouTube to Promote Your Videos

how-to-get-youtube-to-promote-your-videos

Building up enough channel authority and creating good enough videos for YouTube to take notice can be difficult. For this reason, having your videos not be promoted as often by YouTube after they have been promoted by YouTube can be quite demotivating. But what can you do to get YouTube to promote your videos again?

Everything comes down to metrics. You see, the YouTube algorithm evaluates the metrics of a video to determine whether or not the video was received positively. If a video has a low average view duration, for example, this will tell YouTube that many viewers didn't receive the video positively. This will lead to less promotion for the video.

To get YouTube to promote your videos again, you will need to maximize the metrics of your videos. The watch time, average view duration, and click-through rate of your videos need to be increased. How can this be done? This can be done by creating high-quality videos and following best practices.

As you have more videos perform well, YouTube will begin promoting your videos more often. Over time, this will lead to an increase in overall channel growth. The key, however, is making sure that you maintain momentum. Once your momentum stops, you will be back where you started- struggling to get your videos promoted.

Conclusion

It can be disheartening when YouTube stops promoting your videos. However, some things can be done to catch the attention of YouTube again. By creating high-quality videos and following best practices, you can get your videos promoted more often by YouTube. If you fail to do these things, you will struggle to get your videos promoted.

Image
TubeRanker offers the ultimate toolset for Creators & Marketers to optimize their videos against the YouTube algorithm and rank higher in YouTube & Google searches and recommendation engines.
Learn More