Does YouTube Promotion Hurt Your Channel?
Reddit is full of creators afraid that paid promotion will ruin their channel. The most upvoted answers, and YouTube's own help page, say it doesn't. What matters is the video and the viewers you bring in.
The short answer
No. YouTube's help page says promotions don't impact your channel's or a specific video's organic performance. Ad views show as their own traffic source. They don't count toward monetization, but the viewers who come back do.
What YouTube says
YouTube answers this on its help page for Promote: "promotions don't impact your channel's or a specific video's organic performance. Organic recommendations are based on how content performs when it's recommended organically, not when it's run as an ad." Sprizzy runs your video as an ad through Google Ads, so the same holds.
What Reddit creators found
The threads that say promotion ruined a channel get pushback from people who ran ads for years. Their point: ads and organic views are counted apart.
You didn't ruin your channel. The only thing that is going to ruin your channel is if you stop improving your craft with every upload.
…It makes no sense for promotion traffic to affect your audience. … These are always two different systems.
…I remember YouTube stating a while back that external and YT advertising views didn't hurt a video as they are siloed in the system from organic views. … I know some have said advertising hurt their channel but it didn't do anything bad to mine. …
…I honestly don’t think YouTube would put a self destruct function for its creators. …
What really holds a channel back
Creators who were unhappy usually promoted a video that wasn't ready, or showed it to people who don't watch that kind of video. Pick your best video and an audience that already likes your topic.
You didn’t ruin your channel, it doesn’t work like that. … But the most important thing is the quality of your videos. If the content isn’t interesting, no amount of promotion will help. …
Watch time and monetization
Watch hours and subscribers from ads don't count toward the Partner Program. That is true of every ad on YouTube. When someone finds you through the ad and then watches your videos normally, that viewing counts. How Sprizzy affects monetization.
More from Reddit
Channel questions from Reddit
Will a promotion lower my average view duration?
The promoted video's overall average can dip, because people who see an ad often watch less. YouTube shows them as their own traffic source, YouTube advertising, and says promotions don't impact organic performance.
Can promoting a video get my channel in trouble?
No. Running your video as an ad through Google Ads is YouTube's own way to promote a video. It is not the fake traffic YouTube's rules ban.
Does promotion help organic growth?
It brings new people to your channel. YouTube says a promotion may kickstart a viewer's relationship with your channel, and the ones who come back watch and count like any other viewer.
See your video as a YouTube ad first.
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