Hello, i uploaded a video recently (using the unlisted method) and it was ranking on youtube and google for a couple days. I also bought some views, comments and likes over those days. I then changed the video thumbnail with a more eye catching one. Suddenly i noticed my video disappeared out of the ranking on both Google and Youtube.
Do you think changing the thumbnail was the cause of this sudden drop?
It's possible but unlikely, in my opinion. YouTube tracks the CTR (click through rate) of videos, so in theory if you changed your thumbnail after upload and the new thumbnail performed worse then the old thumbnail in the sense that it got less clicks from the audience that was seeing it, the algorithm might lower the ranking of your video and suggest it to less people to accommodate for videos that are getting more clicks when shown to the same audience your video is targeting.
Often when videos are first uploaded and views, likes, comments, shares, etc. are being added it can rank well, then drop after a few hours or days once that activity slows down. This can be for a long lost of factors, for example: YouTube may take into account the amount of activity the video is currently receiving so once the botted services stop your video might have more views and engagement then it's competitors however they might still be getting more views organically per minute/hour/day then you; the ranking algorithm may prefer new videos over old videos so you can immediately rank well then after x amount of time, your position corrects to something much lower that it then sustains; once you held your high ranking your competitors videos may have had a better click through rate then yours so your video looked irrelevant for the keywords and it's ranking was lowered accordingly; etc. There are a significant amount of variables involved with video search rankings, so much so that most of them are probably unknown and will never be known.
Your post gives me very little info to work with but I will say that your video probably needs more time to properly rank and that the ranking position you hold shortly after the video goes public isn't where you will stay. In my experience, a ranking can dance around for up to 3 weeks, maybe longer in some cases although usually by that time it'll be in a solid position. So just give it some more time before worrying about where it is ranking.
If it has was on page 1 initially, then dropped completely from the search results and doesn't come back at all after a few weeks, there may be an issue with the services you used to boost your videos metrics, or an issue with the way your ranking strategy was executed. Those issues can be addressed if need be in the future after giving the video more time. It should rank again in the coming days though, let's wait and see
