Same video: 10M views on TikTok/IG, 2k views through YouTube browse. What am I doing wrong?!
In January I released my first 3D animation (previously was all live-action, everything is comedic short films). A 30-second clip got 10 million views combined on Instagram and TikTok, while the full video on YouTube is at 37.7K.
The thing is, only 1.5–2K of those YouTube views came through browse features... (which is where I'd want all of them to come from).
All the other views are from people searching the video title, the channel name, or clicking the link in bio. Essentially funneling in from the viral Reels.
CTR is around 11% — though most of those clicks are people coming from the Reels (searching for the video directly). Retention sits above 50% to the end.
So why is it not getting pushed on YouTube??
I have ~20 other videos on the channel sitting at 500 views, and a new 3D animation parodying Stranger Things at 900 views (8% CTR, 50% retention).
Theories I'm turning over — would love honest takes:
- External traffic is poisoning my signal. Maybe YouTube can't tell who organically wants this content because most clicks are funneled in from Reels viewers who would have clicked anything I linked. CTR is real but polluted.
- Channel audience/category mismatch. Channel was created 10 years ago by my friend who posted his high school films on it. Could YouTube have categorized the channel for an audience that doesn't care about the niche I've honed in on the last 3 years?
- Lingering effects of an old community strike. There was one on an old home movie video he made as a child (violence between kids playing) that had been unlisted. It got resolved, but I wonder if there's residual punishment.
- The boring answer. I just need to make better videos and keep going until one breaks through and the channel gets picked up. That's what happened for Joel Haver(Succesful filmmaker YouTuber in very similar niche), and it's the path I'm trying to walk.