Small YouTube Channels Get No Impressions at All
Small YouTube creators are frustrated by inconsistent and unpredictable video views and impressions. They're experiencing significant drops in visibility despite creating content, and are struggling to understand why some videos perform well while others don't, leading to uncertainty and discouragement. This impacts their ability to grow their channels and build an audience.
SOURCES (60)
“you simply cant do anything. just wait as it gets better again. idk why its good now again on my side. and tbh: i did not change a thing, i have shorts planned until february and i managed them months ago and planned them. so…”
“Your skill is the variable. There are no magic right answers, and plenty were stunned about getting absolutely zero conversions.”
“Well the thing is if your title description , transcript does not all point at same direction while also being interesting , algorithm chooses wrong audience for you in that case when they show it to first 100 viewers and they dont respond as the video is actually not for them than this does happen!!! So try aligning everything :)”
“yeah thats the bet id make too. not guaranteed but a 73% on 14 views is way more likely to be signal than 30% on 1500 views is likely to be a fluke, worth checking back on short b in a couple days and seeing if it held”
“I had this happen once because YT thought I was reusing content. (it was my content, different channel, whatever). The point being, YT didn't tell me a reason. Nothing. Silence. Are you definitely posting unique content?”
“ok that makes way more sense, 71 average with a couple sitting at 80-91 is a real spread not a broken metric. those two high ones are your outliers, id go look at what they did differently in the first 2 seconds specifically, thats usually the whole difference between 71 and 91 on shorts”
“Are you getting any views now cause i am facing same problem? What helped you or did you quit youtube?”
“For context : https://i.imgur.com/QA3yPJJ.png As you can see, views are suddenly falling. CTR and watch time have both been in the green on the last 3 videos.”
“Can't share the channel with you, but my average views were 1-2k per video. Can you tell me how to reset all the setting of my youtube studio”
“Does changing the name really help . Isn't it mostly driven by thumbnail and the title . Or does youtube algorithm make a note of the channel name as well?”
“If the format really is unchanged and the videos are getting literally zero views, I would check whether they received any Shorts-feed impressions at all before rewriting the hook. Try one fresh upload and compare its visibility and processing status with the old winner; that separates a reach problem from a viewer-response problem.”
“Yeah, Shorts analytics are confusing because distribution and viewer response are separate tests. I would use the third Short as the bridge: keep the clearer topic from A, but open and pace it more like B, then compare the first few seconds instead of the raw view count.”
“Those two playlists can work together because they serve the same kayak-fishing viewer. I would make the split obvious in the titles: one solves ownership questions, the other sells the actual day on the water. Then watch whether the adventure videos bring people into the gear videos, rather than judging the playlists by views alone. Before filming a full batch, you could put the two playlist promises and a few titles on launchpadyt.com and see whether people understand the difference.”
“That is a reasonable control test. Since the restrictions and format are unchanged, compare the next upload with the last one that got reach: same traffic surfaces, impressions, and first-hour processing status. If it also gets zero exposure, you have a stronger channel-level signal than another theory about the hook.”
“I would keep the old channel for that test. Four consistent uploads in the same lane will tell you more than starting a second channel with the same uncertainty, especially since the first video back was still tested.”
“My view counts went from around 100 to zero in my last three videos. No idea why. I suppose YouTube just didn't push them to anyone for some reason even though two of them are part of a series so you'd think they would get pushed to the same people. It's a strange one. I'm sure another video in the near future will burst through. Until then I'll keep plodding away trying new things, tweaking old things and seeing what happens. And so should you.”
“YouTube Shorts and TikTok/IG don't share a distribution system, so strong performance elsewhere doesn't carry over, especially on a brand new channel with zero subscribers. YouTube is notoriously slow and inconsistent about testing Shorts from new channels, sometimes it takes several uploads before the algorithm starts pushing to non-subscribers. A few things worth checking: - Make sure you're not tagging them as "made for kids" by mistake, that throttles recommendations -”
“Go right into the video ASKING a question similar to your title. And then cut the video up more to make it shorter. We are new so not a lot of ppl will take a chance on us if its too long (personally)”
“Does it matter? Some people claim an age restricted video gets you a shadow ban. I got one kf my videos age restricted and it had similar impressions to my other videos the next video i posted after te restriction got only half the usual impressions but the one after that got 4,5 times more impressions than usual. Is the "shadow ban" just bs? submitted by /u/Obamna13 [link] [comments]”
“Double check the "made for kids" toggle on the video. If it's set to made for kids, YouTube kills recommendations and browse impressions almost entirely, which looks exactly like a zero-impressions ghost. Also brand new channels with zero watch history just get indexed slower. 8 hours is basically nothing.”
“so i posted a video, it took about 2 hours to edit and the video got 100 views. im not complaining about the views as it was about average for my channel, but looking at my analytics, i got 2.1 watch hours (video was 7 minutes long) and 1 subscriber, while i dont know if they are good statistics, i dont think getting 2 likes is good. Is this youtube or just my video being ass, be honest submitted by /u/Ok_Code_44 [link] [comments]”
“I would usually get 500 to 1k views per short. I really dont know what is happening now. submitted by /u/Imaginary-Address868 [link] [comments]”
He has a lot of subscribers which kind of bypasses the algorithm
“What is a good search volume for a fresh youtube channel? should I aim for keywords that have volume in hundreds? Thousands? submitted by /u/Lot014 [link] [comments]”
“I've been struggling with coming back to YouTube and wondered if anyone has anything to say about this. When I first started, I uploaded mostly Dead by Daylight gameplay videos of me just playing the game with lots of edits etc.. just very small concept videos. They barely got any views (usually under 50-100), but they were the videos I genuinely enjoyed making. Eventually I switched to stronger concept videos and tutorials. The big concept videos were something really good that nobody else”
“Thank you for your kinds words! I'm beginning to get this through my head lol! I don't think I can upload long form videos, well, I have uploaded several but they're all just a few minutes long. It's just that the content I make is wildlife videos and I'm literally recording any wildlife visitors that come to my backyard! So it's not like a big production or anything. Perhaps I can look into doing one of those wildlife live streams!”
“Means your packaging and initial testing has improved, but I’m not sure if 88 views in 24 hours would be considered viral by many people”
Its been 3 days and its still not fixed but 2 shorts got 60 views tho 🫤
“I’ve been tellin others here this for a bit, but shorts are practically useless, especially on their own, they’re basically intended to be an advertisement for your bigger videos, but frankly they were implemented poorly given they were just a knee jerk reaction to TikTok. You’re chill man, just keep uploading normal videos and you’ll be fine”
“Actually the thing is that a majority of my impressions are from non-subscribers, yet the CTR seems to be sitting at 1%. I've tried using an AI-generated thumbnail for my latest video instead of pictures I take so that this would improve, but I haven't been seeing any improvement.”
“I uploaded a post yesterday and, a few hours later, I noticed it was showing up among the views of the last 48 hours. The strange part is that I checked the post with a couple of accounts in the first few hours, but they don't seem to be counted, since the first views that appeared were much later. Moreover, the views don't even match the likes, since there are 3 likes and 8 views. If I try to click on the post in the 48-hour tab, nothing happens. Does anyone know how to explain this? Wa”
“I create all my music by myself. I have 15 years of experience playing instruments and have just gotten into songwriting. As for the last part: fair enough. My songs aren't extraordinarily high quality but I'd still say they're worth more than 5-10 views. I can share some of my music with you in DMs if you're still suspicious. I make orchestral music, relaxing music, pop, and lofi music. I've tried experimenting with other genres as well.”
“The part that stands out to me is that views keep going DOWN each upload even as the actual music quality goes up - that direction is the useful clue, more than genre or thumbnail style. If quality were the bottleneck, you'd expect a flatter or noisy pattern, not a steady decline that tracks your upload count. A steady decline like that usually means the videos aren't reaching anyone beyond a small fixed pool (your own repeat visits, a couple of regulars) and that pool is simply losing i”
“It’s all about finding what works. You have to look at your stats and figure out why a certain video suddenly has 800 views, then copy that style as closely as possible while still making a new video. That approach works for practically everything. The best way to start is by making a good number of videos, around thirty in my opinion, because that gives you a baseline for what works and what doesn’t. After that, spend a few days studying what made those videos perform. Maybe the intro was stron”
“I’ve been downloading consistently since June 18th and my number of views per vid fluctuates up and down like crazy. One vid will get 800 views while another will get 37 and get stuck there. I’m trying to figure out why this happens, but so far the only thing I can find is that I tend to get more views on Wednesday than any other day of the week ( go figure ). Also, is anyone here a visual artist? It is a visual art channel if that makes a difference. submitted by /u/Zestyclose_You73”
“One thing that I have always wondered about is whether or not video essayists/game reviewers on YouTube use their own footage. For example your average video essayist uses gameplays of atleast 20 games per video, and that's for a smaller video, for a bigger video they'd need even more, this would mean that unless they're using the footage from somewhere else they'd have to record themselves playing over 30 games, some that they have surely played before and that are hard to get t”
“I recently uploaded my first video on a new channel two days ago and am sitting at just 4 impressions total from youtube search, at least 2 of which are from me. Just wanted to check whether this is normal for a first upload on a new channel. For context, I made a 9 minute documentary type video, using inkscape vector illustrations and my own voice and script. Spent almost 3 weeks (3-4 hrs every day) on this first upload. I do all the illustrations and animations manually. Kind of disappointing”
“"just move on to the next one" - but what do you do when this ALWAYS happens with videos like this? "well you have to niche out, this video is outside of your retro gaming niche, it's about the state of modern gaming and how digital is hurting gamers and developers, go back to your corner and keep making videos on bootleg super mario!" This is legit sick, yet people on these forums support it wholeheartedly not realizing they're supporting a system that is RIGGED agai”
“Yo hice un análisis mas profundo de esto, pero llegué a tocar algunos puntos tuyos. Y concluí exactamente lo mismo. En general videos buenos y malos pueden cumplir exactamente el mismo patrón. Lo que hace bueno. Los buenos está más en territorio de escala de grises.”
“jdotwilliam I'm having a really hard time with everything. I don't exactly know what my "niche" is. I just go out and try to make whatever fun ideas come to life. Every time I post I get hit with some copyright nonsense, and sometimes I'll do shorts and have no problem, but then I can't use the same audio for long form. A lot of my ideas come from music, so when I want to make a video I have that song in mind. Idk, I'm confused and it's a little disheartening wh”
“Hi! My friend just started YouTube/streaming. He is uploading multiplayer game play of all of us playing together. I want to help him grow cause it feels like we all talk about how we’re supposed to go about the YouTube thing but none of us know much about it other than we need to get views/interactions. He is putting a lot of time into YouTube shorts in order to get engagement, but I’m not sure how much this will help versus more regular videos (20-45 minutes)? Thanks for any advice on the matt”
“I’m almost at 3k, and through trial and error I realized that if you keep the same set of hashtags (around 7) for all your videos, and do a short but satisfactory description, YouTube finds your niche much faster and promotes your channel much more. p.s. im only at 2.86k rn I need some advice. submitted by /u/Mysterious_Finish672 [link] [comments]”
channel is 2+ years old and has 70k views total with 360 subs
“and previous videos i have made got good views so why is my newer videos not doing as well? i am not a content farm bot, i make my own content mostly arg for minecraft and super mario 64 with a few other things i like being posted, all long form, Images are fully banned on this subreddit along with linking videos so you will just have to believe the thumbnail is good, video was a super mario 64 arg type of video submitted by /u/CybyAPI [link] [comments]”
“Hi! I have a fairly new channel: @maytalksalott where I've posted maybe 10 videos. I'm still finding my niche so the content is all over the place. My first couple videos were talking/helpful content but didn't post for a year or so after that. I've picked it up again and decided on reaction videos (as i love watching them) but ive found the copyright issues quite draining so I want to switch to more of a review/recap/commentary style video altho the one recap video I did on acci”
“Would it be worth re-uploading with different meta-data? Or is there still a chance it might be pushed down the line? My video straight after has much worse stats but is being pushed to feeds which is frustrating lol submitted by /u/croftyyyyy [link] [comments]”
“So I dont know exactly whay you fuys do with feedback, but I just made my first video and wanted to see what im doing wrong. I review it myself and I already noticed thay I need to be louder and more enthusiastic, but ifntheres anything thay I missed it would be greatly appreciated if I could get some feedback on the smaller stuff like how to give better commentary and so on. I will say I was sick thay day and my Dad was there aswell, but thats besides the point. Also how can I add a link to my”
“So far I have only posted shorts. They have gotten between 60% to 45% swipe away rate, usually get a few hundred views in the first hour and then plateau. I would just like to know where other people started. I've also started working on my first longform video about the history of tobacco. Thank you everybody! submitted by /u/Southern-Leopard-154 [link] [comments]”
“You should probably trust your gut. If you feel its bad then theirs a good chance it is, but you might also not enjoy that type of video. I dont watch the type of gaming videos I make so sometimes I underestimate how well they will preform. I still get excited and can tell when a really good video comes out. Sometimes its just a feeling you get when the get when you finish a video, but a lot of times theres clear signs if the video is good.”
“I find this to be true. I mean hearing back my video even once I'm like anyone in my shoes will feel bored out of their mind because my voice is monotonous and they will sleep. I see it in my CTR and also view averages and it's like 36 sec out of a 10 minute video and they click off. Should you still post? is it in my head? do you drastically change your personality? like what is it? submitted by /u/Wide_Permission7656 [link] [comments]”
“So I uploaded my first video, a shorts, it explores machine learning and neural networks in the context of can a machine teach itself to play flappy bird with no prior knowledge of the game, the conclusion is yes, and the video shows both the training and the result of the experiment. To get to the point, it has been 6h since the video released and it only has 18 views, 63% of viewers stayed to watch, and the average viewer is watching 1.5x the length of the video, so 150%. Is it normal to have”
“I upload videos on a specific niche, but when I go to YouTube and search for that same niche on the same day I post a video, it doesn't appear in the feed or among the recommendations. Is this normal? What's causing this, and what can I do to get YouTube to start showing my videos? submitted by /u/nhiiza [link] [comments]”
“what do you guys think? anything i should improve? submitted by /u/Fluffy-Parking-6815 [link] [comments]”
“Hi! I have a YouTube channel called Ritaban Datta "@ritabandatta", which I created over six years ago. Do you have any tips on how I can reach more people and grow my channel? My channel was monetised. But last 2 years I could not post any video so my monetisation went away. I am again restarting my career submitted by /u/iim-guys [link] [comments]”
“I got curious whether the standard hook advice actually holds up, so I ran a comparison across 36 channels (10k to 6.6M subs, mostly education, finance, explainers, commentary niches). Here is the process: For each channel I took the last 45 long-form uploads, found the median view count, then grabbed the top 5 and bottom 5 videos relative to that median. That gives us each channel's overperformers (median ~4.7x their normal views) and flops (median 0.28x), 349 videos total, about 254M combi”
“Long Form Videos: They don’t get any reach. It’s usually 0 views. How do I determine what is wrong or right if I don’t get any views. Is the solution to keep uploading? Please help as I am not aware of the strategy behind pushing Long Form content. Shorts: It genuinely feels like my shorts has an upper ceiling of 1k views. No matter how well a video does, it very rarely crosses that threshold. Is there a secret ceiling? My recent short has an average watch time of 43 seconds with only 30% people”
“Hey everyone, I recently started an economics and finance animation channel and just uploaded my 3rd video. It's a short 1-minute 45-second explainer about credit card debt traps (specifically how a $4,000 vacation turns into $9,000 of debt). I’m looking for some honest feedback to improve my next projects. Here are my current stats after a few days: * Average View Duration: 0:44 (around 42% retention) * Impressions: ~300 * CTR: 3.7%( This is my main issue right now, I changed the title rece”