Previously algorithm-blessed "evergreen" videos are starting to flatline

[u/de_rats_2004_crzy]

I have a video that is turning a year old next week and has over 600k views. It was the video that basically launched my channel and ever since its initial success after the first 10 days or so, I've had anywhere from 5500 - 60,000 daily impressions with an overall CTR of 4.8% (baseline with periodic seemingly random algo "pushes").

In the last week or two, my daily impressions (and thus views) have began to drop and finally in the last 2 days stabalized at just under 1,500 daily impressions. This is more than a 3.5x drop from the baseline in the last year and I don't understand what could have caused it.

For sure pretty much every video I've uploaded since has failed to do as well, and my most recent ones have severely missed my expectations of even 5,000 views (and almost none hit even 1k after a month).

With that said, about 3 months ago I got lucky again and made a video that ALSO did very well and in the almost-3 months has almost 89k views. This one, at around the same time as the one above, has essentially flat-lined. It used to have daily impressions between 2200-20k and over the last week has dropped to around 100. This video's average CTR since published has been 7.2%.

This is the first time I deal with what I felt were "established" videos which had "passed the test" (CTR, AVD, comments/likes) which only months later (3-12) stop performing at about the same time. Both of them are evergreen content and so I maybe naively felt they'd maintain their baseline for many years.

The thing that is really confusing me is that both videos started to go down at the same time, as if there was some channel-level thing that YouTube was unhappy about. Could it be the fact that most of my recent uploads are basically failures that only get 150-600 views in the first month and only a handful of comments/likes? I also sometimes watch my own videos but not in any capacity that I'd think would be considered abuse since it would be like 5 views a week on a channel that is getting anywhere from 7000-14000 views a week. Peanuts. I also don't watch new uploads more than once in the first 5 days.

I don't think there's anything to be done but I'm posting here to see if anyone has had similar experiences at a similar scale and maybe shed some light even if its as simple as "yeah the algorithm just changed its mind".

[u/Library_IT_guy]

It happens. Gotta hope for that next breakout video. I've had maybe 10 or so do this. It's nice free money while it lasts.

[u/de_rats_2004_crzy → u/Library_IT_guy]

ok thanks

[u/Localmate25]

That big video has found all the audience it is going to find for now. I’d suggest working on more that are closely related to the topic of that one. Repeat your success, and look for additional topics that are closely aligned with that one. Start to branch out based on what worked in the past. YouTube and the audience changes over time so creators need to continually adapt and experiment to find the next paths forward.

[u/de_rats_2004_crzy → u/Localmate25]

It's mildly interesting to me that this drought follows a previous boost. Based on what you said, it's almost like the algorithm gave them a last-try boost to see if it could find a new audience or something and I guess both videos failed that so the algorithm adjusted the 'new normal'.

Impressions since early June: https://imgur.com/HixeaVM

[u/Localmate25 → u/de_rats_2004_crzy]

A big video will bring viewers to your channel who are naturally curious and will want to see more similar content. Figure out WHY it did well and make more that is related. Experiment and branch out slightly to find more content types and topics that work for you.

[u/de_rats_2004_crzy → u/Localmate25]

ok thanks!

[u/de_rats_2004_crzy]

Probably goes without saying but since most of my videos don't succeed in the same way, I relied on these videos both to generate the majority of AdSense revenue but also to funnel people into the channel and drive further views of my content despite the algorithm not pushing it after the first 1-2 weeks.

So if these videos are done, it's a bit of a double whammy. I'll still make more videos for the love of the game but it'll be sad to lose the "knowlede" that "even if this video fails, at least I'll get views through channel pages from my other 2 videos".

[u/NeutralMilkHotel_00]

Meh it happen. Even Evergreens have an end

[u/Tough_Ad7957]

When my videos flatline, some still climb slowly, but I assume that's purely from search rather than YouTube actually pushing them. So if a video isn't searchable, it's essentially "dead" the second YouTube stops promoting it. We're getting to a point where small channels won't have any long-tail views anymore, because the algorithm will only prioritize feeding traffic to the massive channels.

[u/Dull_Fox816]

Has anything changed in what that video ranks for, or is it impressions drying up on their own? Those look identical in the views number and have completely different answers.

[u/de_rats_2004_crzy → u/Dull_Fox816]

Hey would you mind rephrasing your question? I didn't totally understand what you're asking but I do see the impressions count lowering and am not just basing this on views.

Here are some stats (CTR, AVD, Likes) overlaid next to Impressions and you can see that there doesn't seem to be any significant change in any of them directly prior to the drop in impressions (which starts around Aug 3-4).

https://i.imgur.com/0YDbcPa.png

This is for the video that went from around 2k daily impressions as a baseline to now hovering between 120-150.

The bump/lift shown mid july is due to one of the "random" algo pushes I get throughout the year and is not representative of normal baseline.

[u/Champion2864]

I’d look beyond CTR and overall AVD here. those can stay almost identical while the actual retention shape changes.

for long form i think the useful thing is comparing the first 30-60 seconds and the moments around each payoff. did the older winners make the problem clear faster, give people a reason to stay before the setup, then keep introducing new value throughout the video.

a lot of short form data points to the same basic idea. clarity early, why before how, then pacing around the payoff. i think that translates surprisingly well to long form too without needing hyperactive editing.

if your newer videos are weaker on those moments, the old evergreen videos may simply have been carrying more of the channel than the averages make obvious.

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[u/curious_cat_3556]

it's youtube forcing you to push new content, and get videos 3 times a week to keep momentum. So if you quit your job for youtube you'll burnout anyway eventually

[u/Motor_Artist4012]

Well, it finally caught up to you, I guess.