Everyone says the same thing, show up consistently, keep uploading, trust the YouTube algorithm and it will eventually reward you. I did exactly that for five years, more than 300 videos and counting, and I still can't fully explain why some videos blow up and most don't. So if consistency is the answer, why is my channel not where it should be after five years? I did the work, I showed up week after week. Something else is going on here. I've watched hundreds of hours of YouTube advice, paid for courses, followed to gurus,
and not one of them can explain the YouTube algorithm with real confidence.
They all give you the same recycled tips, improve your CTR,
improve your watch time, post consistently,
but none of them can tell you why two videos with identical stats get completely different results. But then I thought, YouTube launched an AI tool called Ask Studio that sits inside your YouTube channel and tells you how to grow your YouTube channel. Here's the thing, if it knows how to grow your channel, logically it must understand how the YouTube algorithm works, right?
Otherwise, what exactly is it basing its recommendations on? So I asked YouTube Studio a simple direct question about the YouTube algorithm, and it refused to answer. It literally pretended to break, which tells me one thing. I think it knows something it's not supposed to say. But if direct questions didn't work, then I need to interrogate Ask Studio. So I spent an entire session trying to trick it with a series of questions into revealing what it knows, and I did find something, something you can use too. So my first question was simple. Is my niche even in demand anymore? Because if nobody's searching for my content,
the algorithm has nobody to push my videos to. That's just common sense. And Ask Studio completely dodged it. Instead of looking at YouTube as a whole, it only analyzed my channel, which tells you something important about this tool right away. It cannot see outside your own data. But it did surface something interesting.
My returning viewers are actually up 13%.
The people who already know me are coming back more. But new viewers are trending negatively which means my content is working just not for anyone new. It also flagged a short that got 7,000 views and called it proof viewers want practical
content. That short was me saying eight to ten minutes is a good video length. That's it. Not exactly a revelation. Don't you agree? Then it told me my niche is shifting toward case studies and that my viral video is the perfect example to replicate. Here's the problem with the viral video. That is my best performing video ever. I have replicated that format more times than I can count. The algorithm
never responded the same way twice. So right away, just attention.
Thinks the issue is me. I think the issue is the YouTube algorithm,
and I need to know which one is right. But if AskStudio thinks the issue is me, let me give it a chance to prove it. So I told it I don't care about search, I want browse features. Home feed, that's where the YouTube algorithm decides who gets views and who doesn't.
And I've been hitting my numbers, my CTR, my watch time, but the algorithm
still won't push my videos to new people the way it did with my viral video. And for the first time, Ask Studio actually pulled real data. It compared my recent videos directly against the viral video in browse performance over the first four days.
Why four days?
I don't know. But look at this table. My CTR is actually higher on this video, but the browse impressions
are nowhere close. So Ask Studio gave me three reasons why. One, my subscribers aren't triggering the white test, meaning the algorithm never gets the signal to push further. Two, the algorithm prioritizes
extreme curiosity
over relatability
or how to content. And three, the algorithm pushes results and revelations, not problems and venting, which I like to do. But underneath all of this, I still have one question about the algorithm that hasn't been answered. If my CTR and watch time are already strong,
why won't it just give me more impressions? So I pushed harder. I told AskStudio,
my recent videos actually have higher CTR and better average view duration than my viral video. So why did the viral video get 10x more impressions?
And this is where it got interesting. AskStudio pulled the actual numbers. The viral video got 108,000
impressions
in its first four days, but my recent videos only got between 6,014
impressions.
CTR and average view duration is a tad bit lower even though average view percentage is higher, but still a fraction of the impressions is brutal. So what explains that gap?
Ask Studio gave me three things. First, relevancy.
Impressions aren't just a reward for good stats, they reflect how many people the algorithm thinks will care about the video at all. Second, initial velocity. The algorithm doesn't just look at your CTR, it looks at how fast that CTR happens. So essentially what this means is in the first twenty four hours, my viral video had fourteen
fifty nine views, 8.5% CTR, and over five minutes average view duration.
My recent videos had less than 500 views in that same window. That speed gap is what triggers the algorithm to push your video to a wider audience. Okay third, and this one actually clicked for me. There are two types of CTR. There's the CTR from your subscribers and there's the CTR from new viewers. Both need to be high. If your subscribers don't click fast, the algorithm never tests it on new people at all. I never thought about CTR that way before and I think that changes everything about how I approach the first twenty four hours of a video launch. Now at this point, Ask Studio Startups contradicting itself a little. First it said CTR and watch time isn't everything, that relevancy matters.
Then it said CTR and watch time velocity
is what drives reach.
I'll let you decide what to make of that. But I spotted something in the data that AskStudio
didn't actually point out. My recent videos have a higher average view percentage
than my viral video. So I asked, does the YouTube algorithm care more about how long someone watches and not what percentage they complete?
Because if that's true, I could just make hour long videos and I win. And AskStudio
said, yes, absolute watch time beats percentage.
A viewer watching five minutes of a twelve minute video gives the platform more value than someone watching
four minutes of an eight minute video, even if the percentage is higher. However,
it can backfire.
Hour long videos can kill your CTR. When viewers see a one hour timestamp,
they scroll straight past it. So the sweet spot for my channel is ten to fifteen minutes with 50%
retention.
If I can hit that, my average view duration clears seven and a half minutes,
and AskStudio
says that that kind of signal would almost certainly convince the YouTube algorithm to trigger a browse push. That's actually a formula I can work with. At least it is something I can try and this sort of clarity helps ease my brain a lot. But I still had one more thing nagging me. The algorithm keeps saying it knows who my audience is, so I pushed it. If my subscribers don't watch my video, does it just die? And Ask the Studio State, no. That's actually a misconception.
The algorithm doesn't just test your videos on subscribers,
it finds the right viewer regardless of whether they're subscribed or not, which explains why you see videos in your feed from channels you have never heard of. But here's the thing, Ask Studio also said my recent videos are too subscriber focused. They appeal to people who already know me but not strangers,
so the algorithm has no broad audience to push to. So I gave it a blunt statement, I said I've been nailing the stats but the YouTube algorithm still chooses to ignore me. That's not very reliable. And then it went and did its own calculation and acknowledged
that even though my recent video has a higher average view percentage,
the number of impressions it got is far too low. And then it contradicts itself by saying stats isn't everything, and that the algorithm doesn't just push videos based on performance,
it pushes based on how many people it thinks will care in the first place. My viral video had brought curiosity appeal. Almost anyone on YouTube interested in growth would click it. My recent videos appeal mainly to creators
who already follow me closely. In other words, the algorithm isn't punishing me, it just can't find enough strangers who care about that specific topic. At this point I was a little frustrated, so I said fine, why doesn't the algorithm just give every video a 100,000 impressions on launch? Problem solved. And AskStudio pushed back. It said, if the algorithm forced a 100,000 impressions on a niche video,
my CTR would crash,
my watch time would drop, and the algorithm would actually learn that people don't like my content. It could damage my channel long term. What Ask Studio implies is the YouTube algorithm isn't being stingy, it's actually protecting me. I'll let you decide if you believe that. But what actually convinced me was the three Ts Ask Studio brought up. Ask Studio kept coming back to the same thing. Title, thumbnail, topic.
This is the wrapper around the video. And that aligns exactly with what I've been saying on my channel for years. The content itself isn't what gets you pushed. It's the packaging that convinces the algorithm there's a massive audience waiting to see it. So here's what I took away from the entire session. The algorithm is this super complex system that has many moving variables. But beneath it all, it all really comes down to knowing your audience, who you are creating for, and what each of those numbers represents so you know what to focus on. To be fair, almost all my videos are not catered to new viewers, which is stupid now that I think about it, and that's the gap I need to close. Talking to Ask Studio did clarify a lot of things for me. It wasn't direct with its answers, but after pushing it hard enough, you can sort of piece together what the YouTube algorithm is actually looking for, and more importantly,
what it's been waiting for from you. So go try Ask Studio on your own channel. Ask it the uncomfortable questions. See if it defends the algorithm the way it defended it with me. Alright. That's all for me. Thanks for watching.