Quick question for YouTube growers here

[Jack_Gold]

Been testing Shorts to funnel viewers to long-form content. Anyone seeing decent conversion rates lately, or is the algorithm killing this strategy?

 

[juli3tt]

What's your niche?
I used this strategy heavily in 2023-24 and it worked well. Honestly, I don't rely on it anymore. Retention dropped significantly last year and yt now seems to keep Shorts users in the Shorts feed rather than pushing them to long-form.

 

[Jack_Gold]

What's your niche?
I used this strategy heavily in 2023-24 and it worked well. Honestly, I don't rely on it anymore. Retention dropped significantly last year and yt now seems to keep Shorts users in the Shorts feed rather than pushing them to long-form.

Thanks for the insight. I'm in the home improvement niche (DIY tutorials). Interesting to hear retention dropped for you too – have you pivoted to anything else that's working better now, or just focusing on long-form directly?

 

[juli3tt]

Thanks for the insight. I'm in the home improvement niche (DIY tutorials). Interesting to hear retention dropped for you too – have you pivoted to anything else that's working better now, or just focusing on long-form directly?

I focus directly on posting long-form videos. I also believe that including detailed descriptions with keywords and tags really helps.

 

[Jack_Gold]

Thanks alot you are such an open minded, helpful and amazing person. Thanks once again

 

[IT agency]

I’m seeing mixed results. Shorts still get reach, but getting people to actually click over to long-form isn’t as easy as it used to be. It works sometimes, but you really need a strong hook and a clear reason for them to continue watching.

 

[Jack_Gold]

I’m seeing mixed results. Shorts still get reach, but getting people to actually click over to long-form isn’t as easy as it used to be. It works sometimes, but you really need a strong hook and a clear reason for them to continue watching.

Sure it sounds good

 

[RoboTech]

Been testing Shorts to funnel viewers to long-form content. Anyone seeing decent conversion rates lately, or is the algorithm killing this strategy?

It’s still working, and it’s the only way I use Shorts from time to time.

Your Short should go viral though. A direct CTA Short to your long form video will never go viral.

You need to make a Short that captures the user’s attention until the very end so it has a higher chance of going viral. Provide some value in that Short, and at the end add a CTA to a long form video (which should be attached to your short vid as "related video") . That long video should obviously be an extension of the Short’s idea and offer even more value to those who came from the Short.

That said, I would advise against abusing this approach. I still believe that too much Shorts traffic can hurt your long form vids reach in the long run.

Shorts traffic has a very short attention span, and those viewers probably will not click on your long form video if it appears on their homepage. They also less likely to click on long form YouTube notifications if they are subscribed, and that can be enough for YouTube to K.O your video’s reach.