YouTube Shorts WRECKED Our Channel (Warning)

YouTube Shorts WRECKED Our Channel (Warning)

YouTube Shorts can be really powerful if used correctly but they can also be bad for you used them INCORRECTLY.

▬Contents of this video▬
00:00 – Intro
00:29 – YouTube Shorts Backstory
01:13 – Problematic Video
02:48 – Analysis
09:38 – Outro

YouTube Shorts WRECKED Our Channel (Warning)


A little over one year ago we were Experimenting with shorts on our Channel Facts verse and we posted a clip that Went viral getting almost 150 million Views it also got us over a hundred and Fifty thousand subscribers and you might Think these are great stats to bring Into your channel but this is actually One of the worst things that could have Happened to us now this shows that Shorts can be really powerful if you use Them correctly but they can also be Really bad for you if you use them Incorrectly so I'm going to walk you Through how we navigated this and what You can take away from it as a YouTube Creator so for starters we know shorts Are the next big thing on YouTube they Had to compete with Tick Tock with Instagram reels with all of the other Short form content platforms out there And they're pushing it really hard They're driving a ton of traffic two Short videos on the platform and they're Even rolling out a new ad Revenue Sharing model specifically for short Videos and this is why it's so easy to Go viral with YouTube shorts right now And why we were able to get so many Views and subscribers through this side Of YouTube even ignoring this video that Went super viral for us last year shorts Make up tens of millions of views of our Regular regular content and Beyond views

They're the biggest driver of Subscribers to our channel that we've Seen in months and probably even years And as the analytics show you can see That it's all coming from the magical Short speed and that's where you get Those crazy view numbers from but let's Go back to our problematic video when we First started experimenting with chores We were just publishing clips that we Thought had the potential to go viral And get a bunch of views so we licensed This clip from a third party website About a python getting a beach towel Removed from its mouth oddly enough like Most short videos for some reason it did Absolutely nothing for a few weeks and Then out of nowhere it started getting Crazy traffic and got millions and Millions of views per day and while it Looked great at first glance we were Getting tons of views we were getting Tons of subscribers uh under the surface It actually wasn't that good of an Experience for us this is because first We were getting absolutely no revenue From shorts at the time this was before The shorts fund even rolled out and two Based on the analytics we think that it Absolutely destroyed our favorite within The YouTube algorithm let me show you What that looks like so the problem for Us lies right here in the audience tab Now with the over 100 million views we

Got from this video this is what the Breakdown looks like for our audience of Course most of them were unsubscribed Over 99 so we got a ton of new viewers To the channel so that's again one of Those signals that if you are publishing Shorts it is one of the best ways to Find new audiences and bring them onto Your channel and get new subscribers However what worked against us was the Type of audience that this video was Bringing in now this video is not Similar to the content we make there is Nothing here that would uh that relates To any of the other content on our Channel if you're unfamiliar our channel Is Pretty strictly focused on Old School Hollywood we're talking like 1960s 1970s Sometimes even earlier So this python video was completely Unrelated to the content that we're Posting on a daily basis and when we Look at the analytics we can pretty Safely assume that none of the audience That was watching our python video was Going to be interested in our other Content For one we had a huge International Audience over 20 percent of the viewers Came from India and this was a time Where YouTube had just started shorts in India so they were pushing a lot of that Traffic on the short speed through India Just naturally because that's where the

Viewers were Um but we also had a lot of other Countries on here Indonesia Japan the Philippines all of these International Audiences who are not going to even be Familiar with U.S pop culture especially That from the 50s 60s and 70s Furthermore we can look at the age Groups and pretty safely assume the same Thing most of our content is again Pretty old so unless you're maybe in Your 40s at the earliest you know most Likely up to your 50s and 60s you're not Going to be familiar with most of our Other content so this short was getting Tons and tons of traffic with viewers Who would have no interest or perhaps Not even any knowledge about the kind of Videos that we make and for comparison We can take a look at this uh with our Current audience analytics which is our Entire Channel analytics right here not Focusing in on a certain video Um but our top geography is of course The United States with the UK and Canada And Australia right close behind all These other English-speaking countries Um almost 70 of our traffic comes from The US so when you compare that to 20 in India and only 10 from the US here On this short like there's obviously Just a huge mismatch there Um and then of course we have our age Split here which is largely skewed

Towards those those older age Demographics Um which again not what this short video Was was drawing in so the problem is Immediately after this python video Launches and we get tons of views Um tons of new subscribers That is a big indicator to YouTube to Maybe start suggesting other videos in Our library to this audience uh this is New audience members that were brought In and they liked our content that's why They got so many views the the video had Good retention so we assume that YouTube's algorithm thinks okay they Liked this video from Facts verse let's Show them more videos from Facts verse And see if they are further satisfied With their library of content but as I Showed you none of our other content Really fit what this short video Delivered on so all of the people who Were coming in and watching this python Short expecting more videos like that Were shown videos from old Hollywood That they probably had no idea you know What they even were furthermore it was English content being pushed to International audiences Um who might not even be able to Understand the video that they're being Shown of course we couldn't assume all Of this for sure because YouTube still Hadn't separated the analytics for

Shorts and long form content so we were Largely going off of gut instincts here While we were watching the rest of our Videos get worse and worse performance And this python video just kept getting More and more views unfortunately some Of this data seems to be wiped like The Impressions and click-through rate which I think are probably some of the most Important for this scenario but you can See the video went viral here in early May Um and right around that time Is when our view started to taper off For the next couple months and this is Where we think we were feeling the after Effects of the short going viral and Then YouTube pushing our content into Now the wrong audiences those new Subscribers those new viewers who are Coming in who actually weren't Interested in our main library Um so this video went on and we just let It keep running because we thought views And subscribers can't possibly be that Bad until uh late August where we Switched it off And then almost immediately we saw a big Bump in our traffic once again uh so It's it's hard to point to exactly the Short and say that was for sure the Issue and as soon as we turned it off The problem was solved then we were back To normal uh but the data does seem to

Indicate that YouTube was going to push The rest of our content to the shorts Viewers which had negative impacts on Things like our click-through rate and Uh just views across the board because People who are being shown our videos Weren't actually interested in them so In summary the trick from this really is To make sure you're making shorts that Are similar to the rest of your content Because the shorts have the potential to Get that huge traffic tons of views tons Of subscribers to bring new people to Your channel the trick is again make Sure those shorts are similar to the Rest of your content so that when those New viewers come to your channel they See other videos that they're going to Be able to enjoy and engage with after Having that bad experiment with a python Video we've learned from that to create Short videos that are just like our main Content and we've had a lot more success Not only are the views more consistent Across the videos but they're bringing In a ton of subscribers that we know are Going to enjoy our other content and Honestly you don't even have to make Dedicated short form videos it's super Super cheap to make short videos out of Content that you already have one great Example of this is the new edit into a Short feature on all YouTube channels if You're logged into your account and you

Are viewing one of your own videos you Can just create a short from that exact Video and you just pull up to 60 seconds From that video and boom it's a short You don't even have to use a computer You just pop up the video on your phone And create a short and we are a little More strategic and involved in that Because sometimes you want to be able to Crop the video and make sure that Everything fits in the short speed for An optimal viewing experience but what We've done is take some of our most Popular videos and go into the retention Analyzer and pull the 60 seconds or less That are the most interesting from the Video that viewers have already been the Most engaged with pull that and release It as a short and it's had great success For us so I'll show you an example with This video so you can see we did this Video about I Dream of Jeannie that had Over a million views so he knew it was Successful and there was something in Here that audiences liked Um so you go down here to the retention Graph and it shows you the most Effective parts of the video so we Actually had an ad integration here that Kind of caused some drop off but this x This following part of the video was so Good that the video retention actually Bumped up higher than what it was before During that section so what we did is we

Took a clip from this section of the Scene that people think ended the series And uh turned it into the short and it Shorted more views than the original Video did getting over 2 million views 2 000 subscribers and again bringing in Audiences that we know are going to go Back and like the rest of our content Maybe even go watch the original video There's a lot the ways you could you Could approach it to to follow up with The audience but The point is creating shorts doesn't Have to be that hard you can go and take Videos that you've already created and Just trim them down into short form Videos But as long as you make sure they are Appealing to an audience that will also Like the rest of your content this is One of the easiest hacks for growing Your channel and getting a ton of new Traffic on your channel new subscribers And your views Um and this is what is slingshotting a Ton of small channels into much larger Success so whether you're doing YouTube Automation or you're creating a Channel Of any kind shorts are such a powerful Tool to get you further along in that Journey hopefully this video was Insightful and informative for you guys If you have any more questions about Shorts or growing a channel drop them in

The comments below and be sure to check Out the playlist on screen now for more On our YouTube automation strategies and Techniques that we use to run this Channel with pretty much no effort [Music]

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