YouTube New Promotion Beta Feature ( First Test )

[@slipthetrap]

In one week of doing "Promotions Beta" I went from hovering around 850 subscribers for over 2 years to 5,725 subscribers. Unfortunately the watch hours by the new subscribers don't count, which is ok for me since my goal isn't to be monetized--rather I just want to share with more people. I wonder if the new sub's stay around after the promotion ends? Thanks for you videos.

[@CarlBroadbent]

Interesting. Thanks for watching. I’ll keep an eye on it

[@Matthew715.]

It helps to get new subscribers but they don't watch your newly released videos. Your viewership doesn't increase.

[@CarlBroadbent]

@@Matthew715. very true.

[@amandasays_what]

But they are real people right? Real subscribers ? Why isn’t they don’t watch then?

[@SharedSpacesCities]

@@amandasays_what that's what I'm wondering also, what's the point of subscribing if they don't care to watch?

[@simplifygardening]

What i would want to know is how relevant are the subs, because subs that don't watch can greatly affect the promotion of the new videos you release as it depends on how your subs react on whether YT promo the video

[@CarlBroadbent]

100% agree. The data is only now coming in after they fixed analytics. Watch time and retention looks about right to be fair

[@Adrian.Danila]

This is why I really love your channel Carl. You test different stuff and make videos about these tests. Cheers mate!

[@CarlBroadbent]

Thanks pal. Appreciate that

[@davidfrost6769]

Carl - you are the best, and I love watching your content! Many others talk the talk, but you walk the walk, and I appreciate that you are willing to take chances for all of us to learn from. Thank you for everything.

[@CarlBroadbent]

I appreciate that!

[@RiskOnInvestor]

Interesting. Thanks for checking out Carl. The issue with using google ads on youtube videos always used to be that the retention rate was low, so any video you promoted killed it's organic reach because youtube saw it as a 'bad video'. Will be interesting to see if the promotion audience has the same issues. Can you promote unlisted videos on a channel? The trick with the old ads methods always used to be to unlist a copy of a video and send traffic to that instead of the version you wanted to retain organic reach

[@CarlBroadbent]

They are the same by the looks of it. You can’t promote unlisted videos.

[@RiskOnInvestor]

@@CarlBroadbent if you still get the organic kill on the vid then it sounds like normal Google ads with discovery settings for videos is better?

[@heyspringchicken9517]

Hi Carl, after watching your video and I trialed 4 videos using the “promotion” tab. One of the videos (beauty channel) was said to have breached YT’s clickbait rules !!! two of other three videos are doing ok (just ok) but one is performing in a way I can barely believe! I am only spending £2 per day for 1 week, and so far, in 3 days, I have over 2k views (I usually average between 50 and 100 views) and over +500 subscribers. Who would have thought “lip tint” would be so popular. Watch time has not really changed and like you mentioned, YT watch time has not caught up, but the kicker is the retention…people appear to be only staying for an average of 37seconds, whereas it’s usually 6mins. I will watch with interest if this changes over the next few weeks. Meantime thankyou for sharing such useful information.

[@CarlBroadbent]

The numbers are strange and I have no answers. Just wanted to share so people could test it. Glad I’m some way it’s helped.

[@Inspiring_Thoughts01]

I found the retention to be quite low as well, it would be good to which countries are cheaper to advertise to.

[@adolphekatia9418]

Be careful with invalid traffic on your videos. There is a lot of YT creators complaining about YT flagged their account with invalid traffic which cause lower CPM etc. Some said that this happens to them after the activated that YT promotion. Just wanted to let you know since I have been following your account for a while and I know that you are working hard.

[@CarlBroadbent]

Ah. Great info thanks. I didn’t know that

[@DrAndrewDoan]

Don’t worry about this. The way KZbin promotions work is KZbin places your video as part of the recommended videos. The invalid traffic you need to worry about are paid promotions by third parties using bots. I tried this over the weekend and my channel exploded from 600 to nearly 2500 subs! 😊

[@homelessraven]

@@DrAndrewDoanhello Doc! Do you think it was worth it in a long run? Do you still run ads on your channel? Thanks in advance ❤️

[@DrAndrewDoan]

@@homelessraven Yes, worth it! I still pay for ads.

[@talkingwithcars]

I tried the promotion beta and got great results with subscribers. Well over 100 in like a week. Big bump closer to monetization. Hopefully! Cross your fingers ! I did notice view time for each video promoted isn’t greatest. Hoping for correction there by KZbin as you noted. Can you explain the country selection portion?? Shouldn’t it be world wide no matter what??

[@CarlBroadbent]

I always choice the top 5 tier countries. Congratulations hope you get monetized soon

[@talkingwithcars]

@@CarlBroadbent thx!!

[@sfisoskhosana9719]

Hi, did you eventually get monetised even though you used promotions?

[@talkingwithcars]

@@sfisoskhosana9719 I still use promotions to help the KZbin algorithm. Even though I’m monetized to help push my video out. You can tell that when promoting yourself, (and paying for it), KZbin will send your video out with more of a push. You can actually see the periodic “pulses” in the view trends. And that will help get more views and hopefully more subscribers who like your content.

[@NK-gamer88]

Very helpful information 😮 Thank you very much!

[@kbblghn]

Keep on grinding brother!!!!

[@CarlBroadbent]

Always 👍

[@SecretLetters]

Hi Carl, what's your "average watch time" on your promoted videos? I've spent a lot of money just to see the YT algorithm kill my channel.

[@JonathanRCross]

I wonder if the exact wording is 'earned through a promotion'. For Watch time, this is the same as when you run ads on Google ads. The paid for watch time does not add to your channel watch time for monetisation. I assume however, that once the promo stops running, any watch time gains by those new subs could count towards watch time? Is is specified as such anywhere? And secondly, I assume that means if you were on 990 subs and paid for 11 more, which all appeared through that promo, it would say for the purposes of monetisation you would only have 990 subs and not 1001? But I would again assume that watch time post promo from these new subs SHOULD count for watch time. Said differently, does 'earned through a promotion' just mean whilst that promo is running, or does it mean anything gained via tha promo will not count ever?

[@ashliegh94]

Interesting! It sounds similar to how Instagram/Meta has it set up for their promoted posts. I've had success with that for my old niche, but not this niche I've started a KZbin channel for. I'll keep my eyes out for this update.

[@upthegainsmoney]

Interesting video! Going to give this a go for sure!

[@CarlBroadbent]

Small amount over a few videos works better. I’m just checking some information from others about invalid traffic and it causing issues on channels. I’ll keep you all updated

[@souzamotasacul]

7:33 That’s what’s happening with me! My watching hours is not , thank you for this information ❤

[@professionallycurious7372]

Subscribers are valid towards YPP, though?

[@wonderboy855]

Thanks man really honest advice, appreciated 👍

[@CarlBroadbent]

You’re welcome

[@Kevinstats]

Hey, I know that guy! lol Good luck with the monetization. I know they do that manually, so hopefully, they don't notice. If it goes through, let me know, and I'll do the same. Just don't have extra to spend on it at the moment. I have heard when people pay for traffic on KZbin, once the paid time is over, the original traffic seems to go down lower than before the paid traffic- though I never verified this, just all hear say.

[@CarlBroadbent]

I heard that but not seen it so far. I think people will try this who are struggling to get any traction at all. Channels that are growing fast don’t need to test it

[@annielivesineurope2234]

Hi there, may I ask you two questions about new promotion feature on KZbin studio? 1. It only shows “promotion “on my KZbin studio, but it doesn’t show “promotion beta “. Is that different or the same ? 2. Can I just run a promotion for my KZbin video directly on the KZbin studio with my current google account? Or will I need to create a new google ads account? Many thanks!

[@CarlBroadbent]

1) it was in beta it’s not now. 2) it will use the account connected to your YT account

[@annielivesineurope2234]

@@CarlBroadbent Thanks for the answer! As one of my promoted videos shows the status is active, but everything else is showing “0”, such as cost, views, subscribers ,etc. I remember that you mentioned that you had the same problem when you made promotion for your videos, then you just deleted the promoted video and run it again. Could you please tell me how to delete it? Also, after deleting it, will KZbin still charge me the budget or they stop charging me?

[@CarlBroadbent]

@@annielivesineurope2234 you just pause. Not delete. You have to select 3-4 different videos and see which ones take off. Some don’t even get started. Not sure why

[@annielivesineurope2234]

@@CarlBroadbent Thanks! But did KZbin still charge you after pausing it? For example, if I chose 75£ for 14 days, but I paused the video after 5 days’ promotion, would they still deduct money from my credit card for the rest of 9 days? Also, when you set up the promotion for the video on KZbin Studio. There are two options about the goal for you to choose. One is engagement, the other one is gaining more views. Could you please tell me which option did you choose when you run the promotion? My goal is to get more subscribers. Thanks!

[@CarlBroadbent]

@@annielivesineurope2234 no they won’t charge you once it’s paused and I went for views

[@MotionPictureTrips]

Interesting! Have you been using it often since you started promotions? I just started a couple days ago. I wonder if setting the promotions to run for a few days is better than distributed through days or weeks. What are your thoughts? Please give us an update on results

[@CarlBroadbent]

I set mine for 3-5-7 days and it’s hard to say what worked. I think it’s more to do with the video content. Some took off some really didn’t

[@MotionPictureTrips]

I see. I've started gaining some new subs, so we'll see if this helps with getting more subs that can be monetized as I understand new subs that came from the promos aren't counted towards monetization. Which is a pity. @@CarlBroadbent

[@ath9123]

How much time needs beta to approve your promo? Because before beta, it only took me a few minutes. Few hours now and nothing yet

[@CarlBroadbent]

Can take days now in the beta tool

[@ath9123]

@@CarlBroadbent ok thank you 🙏

[@ath9123]

@@CarlBroadbent Yes, but when will the promotion start counting? Because a day has already passed

[@CarlBroadbent]

@@ath9123 some of mine didn’t start. I had to set 3-4 different ones at the same time with small budgets. When one started I increased it and then others started

[@ath9123]

@@CarlBroadbent but it dosent give me the option to cancel it. And recreate it again. How can i cancel the promo?

[@BBK.1984]

Great video! thanks

[@Restless_Vanguard]

You should have reviewed the average retention also because it is usually around 20-30 seconds from these promos

[@CarlBroadbent]

Very true. Have you tried them ?

[@ledibarilokanangmaldita8]

Interesting video

[@tenminutetravelbreak]

What the heck, I'll throw in $100 and test this. Thanks Carl, let's see what happens.

[@CarlBroadbent]

I would select 3-4 videos and put 25 on each for it to spend over 3 days. So total $100 budget.

[@JaguerRhye]

Thanks for the info. I ran promotions on one vid and got over 600 subs but the vid only has 20 Likes. I’m confused. Maybe most of the subs are bots?

[@CarlBroadbent]

Yea bots. I did an update video on this feature. Check that out

[@tenminutetravelbreak]

Carl did you choose your more popular travel videos, or did you promote some of the more middle performers for this?

[@CarlBroadbent]

Yes the ones I thought suited a wider audience

[@KC-RallyPlanes]

From what I’ve seen on 2 videos I’ve promoted, you don’t get monetisation from these videos. Or as you said, will this show up when KZbin updates the promotions??

[@CarlBroadbent]

Mine did. Other people Say theirs didn’t. So I’m not 100% sure

[@midnight-reading]

Great vid🌺 For me, they are counting the subscribers for the monitizations, but the watchshours dosen’t seem to be counting 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@CarlBroadbent]

Exactly. How long did you run them for ?

[@NicoleSage]

Just subscribed, follow you on Twitter and saw this pop up, I am the opposite now so I’ve hit my watch time but 340 away from 1000, very interesting results thanks for sharing!

[@CarlBroadbent]

Thanks for subscribing. Good luck with yours

[@sfisoskhosana9719]

Hi, so where you monetised eventually even though you used promotions?

[@anthonyplaysbass]

Yeah im doing it now... 40$ over a month. I figured my niche is small. And it's going well i get about 10 subs a day, started it about 7 days ago. It doesnt bother me about the monetization caveat, because i don't think ill be monetized ar 1k subs anyway, since my watch time Is always going to be low - im a bass guitar cover channel so no long form video. So that 4k watch hours is really, really steep. Anyway, hooroo, good video mate.

[@CarlBroadbent]

Is it working ?

[@anthonyplaysbass]

@@CarlBroadbent yeah suppose so haha

[@user-ADHDvids]

So what happened to the test? Can't find the update on this?

[@CarlBroadbent]

I did a few mentions of the results. Basically.. not every video promoted worked but the ones I did worked really well . Lots of views and lots of subscribers. Things I didn’t like.. if often spend more than I asked it to and on some videos it didn’t spend the budget. It’s easy to. I’d only use it if my channel was not growing at all. If you have slow but steady growth don’t use it

[@user-ADHDvids]

@@CarlBroadbent thanks for the advice. Im running two videos to test i spent $20 on each video. I just created my channel about a week ago. This is helpful information. thank you for responding.

[@CarlBroadbent]

@@user-ADHDvids Good luck with your channel

[@OzonebxGaming]

Carl mines has been running for 6 days it still says 0 spent still out of 50usd. It says the promotion is active.

[@CarlBroadbent]

I have had a few do that. Just delete it and start a new one.

[@annielivesineurope2234]

@@CarlBroadbentHow to delete it? After deleting it, will google still charge you for the promotion ? Thanks!

[@CarlBroadbent]

@@annielivesineurope2234 they will. Hate you goto that point yes. You pause it.

[@DEFIT-e9c]

Thanks so much. Any update on this? I promoted and my watch time got decimated

[@CarlBroadbent]

🥲 it’s not been great. I’ll get an update video out asap

[@DEFIT-e9c]

@@CarlBroadbent thanks Carl. It’s a real shame. Not sure why KZbin is still allowing it

[@CarlBroadbent]

@@DEFIT-e9c I don’t also know why KZbin would promote something that could hurt your channel

[@deanward3715]

Bad isn’t it. Hopefully hasn’t hurt you too bad

[@Chipin-Golf]

Great video. Carl, do you know if KZbin is sending impressions to the correct target audience? Or to random folks who aren’t in the market for your channel? Your channel has clearly grown so you should have the data on this. I subscribed!. Lastly, do new subs coming from a promotion count towards non- promotion videos? Meaning do promo subs activity on your channel count?

[@CarlBroadbent]

Random I believe as they interaction after hasn’t been great

[@Chipin-Golf]

@@CarlBroadbent is it worth it then?

[@CarlBroadbent]

Ps I’m binge watching your golf videos now 😂

[@CarlBroadbent]

@@Chipin-Golf if you’re over the 1000 subs and 4000 watch hours I would say no. Just continue with content. Optimise titles, descriptions and great thumbnails. But if you want to get over the threshold for monetization then maybe.

[@Chipin-Golf]

@@CarlBroadbent awesome

[@soundwarehouse9524]

WARNING - KZbin says that subscribers and watch time earned though this promotion method DOES NOT contribute towards the 1K sub's & 4K watch hours needed for the partner program. So if you are using it for that purpose then it's pointless.

[@CarlBroadbent]

Yea they do but mine counted and is clearly showing in analytics

[@soundwarehouse9524]

@@CarlBroadbent hi Carl, I think that you will have the sub's and watch time added to your analytics as they are real but I bet when you apply to the partner program KZbin will deduct those sub's and watch time hours gained from the promotion when considering your application. For example, if reached 1k sub's and 300 came from promotions they would simply say come back when you get another 300 sub's organically. I think once you get over 1k sub's this could be a great way to rapidly growing a channel though as you could use any earning made from the partner program to put into a promotion and get your videos everywhere fast. I would love to know what you think about that mate?

[@isosTV]

It’s definitely broken. It won’t count all the subs just some of them. They do appear to be bots tho because the subs we are getting are not engaging.

[@kennynoel2863]

Can you do an update to this video ?

[@CarlBroadbent]

I did. Last week

[@LumiRapper]

Once finishing promotions the subs literally start dropping off one by one. Be careful as they take more money beyond a set budget too.

[@CarlBroadbent]

Yeah I noticed that the set budget didn’t always stop at my limit 😡

[@DisturbingCuriosity_]

KZbin is really shitty for asking for hundreds and not allowing the results of that investment to pay the creator

[@jsocials]

Its interesting that KZbin will put in place a feature that can hurt a channel. I do Understand if its paid ads from a third party. The issue with small channel is that the algorithm doesnt always show your content to the right audience even after optimizing SEO. Every business has to pay for marketing and Don't see why Content creation is any different. People still have to click on those promos. I heard the Subs count towards your monetization but not Watch hours. Still in the testing phase. I had 3 videos organically do really well for my channel size then the 4th video barely got 3K impressions and felt KZbin just wasn't pushing that video. How does 10k ppl watch a vide and gain 80 subs but next video can barely attract 50views. Think this promotion feature helps the algorithm reach the desired audience. As a European Football channel, my organic audience were mostly from the U.K so i set my target audience to U.K and have seen growth. The subs Dont look any different from the organic subs I previously had and from other channels I follow. Only about 20% of your subscribers will continue to watch all content. Hopefully there's more clarification from KZbin about this new feature in 2024.

[@anonmon6236]

I imagine the roi will drop off rapidly. So best invest a lot of the bat while it's still effective

[@CarlBroadbent]

Yeah i was early so my results might be better than others

[@inspiredakash]

After running an ad promotion beta my KZbin channel dead 😢😢😢

[@inspiredakash]

@varunsrini i don't know my channel is is 6 months old I was not uploading videos regularly but it was getting views now I am not getting single view in a day

[@CarlBroadbent]

I've not heard of this before but, maybe you answered the question yourself " I was not uploading videos regularly " sorry to hear it died😭

[@JustBeingDak]

Your not really gaining just subscribers I’ve actually gained supporters I’m going to make a video about it soon

[@blerdzimmer]

Did you release the video im interested

[@JustBeingDak]

@ unfortunately no I never got around to making it but the support was amazing but like everything else if you stop you loose

[@blerdzimmer]

@@JustBeingDak im doing it now i went from 197 to over 550 in a few days im intrigued to know more about how people supported i dont think its fake subs i just think the engagement ratio is way less than we picture it Mrbeast has over 330 mil subs but a video from two months ago has 103mil views and only like 29k comments. im a sub to him and i havent been getting notified when he uploads. So no i dont think its fake its just taking more than we expect to get where we want

[@AzzieTheGamerr]

i used beta promo, all bots, 99 percent of my subs were from promotion but non come to watch vids ever again so it just shows me they are bots so the promotions have hurt my channel, promotions shouldn't be a thing

[@CarlBroadbent]

😥

[@Hogwarts-j1x]

No such thing as a "Promotions Tab" on my menu. No such thing. Not on the KZbin App, and not on the website. Ridiculous.

[@CarlBroadbent]

What? Go to studio, content , and it’s next to the revenue tab. Hope that helps

[@dgxxtreme]

First question is... How would it be fake... this is youtube we talkin about. 💀💀💀💀

[@CarlBroadbent]

😂😂😂

[@MallorcaUnderTheSun]

The best way to get subscribers is to make better content. Know your audience and read your analytics. Subscriber numbers are a vanity metric pure and simple. It’s super interesting you’re testing this but this is a route I would never go down. If you don’t get the subs, re-evaluate the content you’re making. If you don’t get that right the new subs won’t watch either. Nor could they get the notifications of uploads or get recommended your videos. Easier said than done but IMO it’s money down the drain. Good luck tho!

[@CarlBroadbent]

I agree about the content and building a specific target audience. As an affiliate marketer I always test to see if things work to let my subscribers know if they should test it for themselves

[@abubakarkaweesa6413]

Did you see this? "Subscribers and watch-time earned through a promotion do not contribute towards KZbin Partner Program eligibility"

[@CarlBroadbent]

I talk about it in the video near the end. Look at what i found in my results

[@dadsonly]

Seems unfortunate, now those subscribers can't ever find your channel organically and have their watch count ever count. So you're better off never running a promotion?!

[@truecolor252]

Dec 2023 I was at 328 subs fast forward to today which is Feb 3rd I'm currently at 6.1k subs. are the genuine I have no idea, watch hours are going up by what my standard of big leap on the video's. You can see that people are watch but my overall lifetime dont look like it have been impacted by much!! what are your thoughts on this?

[@CarlBroadbent]

The numbers seem strange. Do you get interaction. ? Comments likes etc

[@Sleepcalmm]

The person who is reading this comment , i wish you great success , health, love and happiness

[@ghostlyjudge]

i was wondering about this i was gonna do 20 for a video just to test

[@CarlBroadbent]

split that and test 2-3 videos with a smaller budget. works best for me

[@ghostlyjudge]

ill give it a show i really like the video@@CarlBroadbent

[@DE-eVOLVED]

I've got around 1180 subs and need approx 130 watch hours before reaching 3000 pwh... I don't mind throwing 20 quid at this as a 1 off ..just to see if it helps our channel in some way...but don't want to do it if somehow my channel is penalised for doing this for some reason at a later stage... It sounds like a good idea...but does 'seem' like a bit of a scam... 🤔

[@CarlBroadbent]

Well it’s a KZbin feature so it’s up to you. I’m not telling you to do it. But if they promote it how could they punish you for doing so ?

[@DE-eVOLVED]

@CarlBroadbent I am not sure .. I am still confused why my videos have Ads and I am not monetised yet !? ... there seems to be alot of stuff that isn't openly explained.. I think that anything KZbin offers - they should explain in more detail to cover the video maker.

[@CarlBroadbent]

@@DE-eVOLVED yt announces if you don’t put ads on they will and if you’re not monetized yet they will also put ads on until you’re monetized

[@DE-eVOLVED]

@@CarlBroadbent ah OK 👍 thanks for the info 👍

[@MarvelHeroicActor]

I am getting nothing just views

[@CarlBroadbent]

😥

[@annielivesineurope2234]

Me too😢