I used Google Ads to promote my Youtube channel. Here is what happened! 

Would you try Google Ads after watching this video?

To the person reading this, I pray you become a successful youtuber

Awesome video. I am small RU-vidr, and I think that for small channels the most important thing is to get good presence from the beginning. If you are not popular, people won't care even if you have the best videos and the best content on platform. I am not beginner anymore, but I know how hard it can be (and honestly if I didn't use a lot of Fame - ster, I would have quit a long time ago. It made everything much easier for me, especially getting to 1000 subs and view hours).

To the person reading this, If you're a small youtuber, you'll get there soon, just be consistent.

One thing that helped me a lot is to use RU-vid normally and comment on things you like with your RU-vid channel name. Over time, people may noticed your name or comments, they may be curious and check your channel’s content organically.

I find your video very informative. I have never advertised for viewers, but by advertising, I could have cut down the time and number of videos necessary to hit a million+. We have used advertising on Instagram and have enjoyed regular growth. The bottom line is if you are talking about what your nitch wants to hear, one way or another, they will find you.

If you’re reading this, this is your sign that your youtube will be successful. Don’t give up please! Love

One method I've seen is to reupload the video you want to promote as an unlisted video, then only run ads on that. When the campaign stops you delete the reupload. This way it doesnt kill the original videos stats. I guess a secondary benefit is you can precisely measure the results of the campaign in terms of new subs etc.

Excellent experiment. Years ago I had a gaming channel and I tried google promotion, I even took a course on how to use google ads correctly to get my content to the right people and the same thing happened to you. Now I have this new channel and I'm doing everything organic and I'm doing super well. NOTE: My channel is in Spanish but some of my videos have subtitles in several languages, the niche is Finance. Thanks and good video

Hey Cristina! Thank you for this video ! It's a total chaos what is working for growing faster on RU-vid. Retention rate is the hardest actually. In order to have big retention rate, you need to hook viewers to your content by promising all the time that something is coming in the next minute also that the last point you want to show is actually best so stay tuned. I am also struggling, but it's great to see that I am not alone in this. :)

Thank you for this! And I don't understand those who clicked away after 30 seconds of watching your videos. You're pleasant to watch and listen too.

I had similar results.. When I started (5$/day) I didn't specify country, just English speaking, and after a week or two I noticed a big boost in views and subs, but i noticed nearly all of my views were from India and the Philippines, and that the searches leading up my videos were commonly stuff around "how to speak English". I stopped the adds but was afraid I was teaching youtube that I was somehow an English teaching channel which is definitely not what I do haha. I was afraid I ruined my channel. I recently started back up but limited it to like the US and Canada and added more "life event" audience filters and I've noticed significantly higher retention. But dang when you turn it off and those views slow down... It don't feel great haha

Great video Christina, you earned a subscriber! Even though I don't consider myself a beginner anymore, I still remember getting started. It was a tough journey. Of course, things are a lot easier now and I'm super grateful that I didn't give up and stayed patient and all the way through. Consistency and hard work ( I had to use some Famester as well, and I don't regret it honestly) is the key! It always pay off. Good luck to all of you, you're gonna make it soon!

Thank you so much! I watched this video twice because it was so engaging and informative! I don’t get why people click away from videos before the creator does/says what the video will actually accomplish.

The trick is to have a separate channel or playlist which contains trailer videos. You can then put a card on this video which points to the content you actually want to promote. That way you'll still drive more traffic to the video and you are less likely to destroy the retention rate of the video as if someone has actually clicked a card on your 'trailer' video it means they are really interested.

Hi Christina, new subscriber here! Thanks for your video. And yes, spending a lil cash to help premote your vids is definitely something that goes through your mind as you embark on your great RU-vid journey. I started my first channel back on Oct 9th 2022 (last month) and am trying to learn all I can. I don't really have any metric to compare to so I am not really sure if its doing good or not, but either way, I am glad to see content like yours to help guide and build my channel to be bigger & better - I am in full sponge mood right now trying to soak up as much as I can! Thanks again for your video - looking forward to the next -

honestly this video helped me more than you realise so thank you for the transparency and keep going. this is just what I personally need!

Love the transparency here Christina! Been playing with some promo on my channel and had a very similar experience, testing new things out is the way to go also it's fun as hell hahaha thanks for sharing, I learned A LOT!

Great video and thanks for being honest. About your view duration, were you able to see which countries viewed your video the longest on average? If not, have you tried creating an ad for one country and excluding the others to see what the result would be? In the past, I've paid for ads and certain countries had a ridiculous amount of clicks, to the point where my daily budget was exhausted in a really short amount of time. But those visitors brought pretty much nothing. I ended up focusing on only some countries and excluding others. You might want to consider that. Good luck with everything!

I'm a small RU-vidr and just like in real life the demand for electricians is high and content about doing electrical work is also high. I have a few videos that have done really well and others not-so-much. I am fortunate in this way because I don't think I would ever pay to have my page promoted. I just don't need to, just like I don't need my own contracting business website. May seem crazy but in the construction trades demand for services is crazy. Fortunately I have a few friends help me with iMovie and Keynote so I think my videos are pretty good. Thanks for posting this video.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm probably gonna start doing Google ads. My channel wasn't accepted to make money because I do a lotta copyrighted stuff. But that's what I like to do. Last year I started putting my videos on Facebook fan groups. That worked for a while. The first week I got an extra 16,000 views but then died out over the months. I got blocked from posting on groups because I think they thought I was a spam robot. So, I guess it'll be Google ads to the rescue.

i found your video from google, after searching "can google ads help grow my RU-vid channel" your video was number 5 but with the most views, so i thought i would check yours out first, thank God i did because you answered every question i had and even showed real results, thanks for being so transparent, And you earned me as a new Subscriber, I have been trying to figure out a way to make $100 everyday online to eventually quit my job and never work a 9-5 job again, as i live in a small town and there is not many options besides fastfood or gas stations, anyways thanks again , im looking forward to growing my brand and my channel more.

I like this approach, but at the same time, it's tricky because a view can just be a simple " click." They may not have ever fully watched the video or even a minute . So yes, I definitely track the watch time and duration to ensure the Google ads I'd benefiting me on the long run .

Good luck with your channel. Keep trying different things and notice what working and make it happen. I could see you being on top. Don’t give up!!!!!!

You’re video was so helpful. I was considering signing up for Google Ads but in reading how everything declines once you stop utilizing it, I may reconsider but I’ve subscribed to your channel and will check out your additional content.

I'm about to run an ad but this video made me reconsider. All the info I need is right here. Really helpful, thank you very much!

Thanks for this info. I had a similar experience. I set my campaign for 7 days and my video got 12k views but only a few followers. Most of those views were from India but I realized some of them where expecting information about “how to move to Australia?” or something related so the retention was very low because my videos are more like city walks (POV) 😢 I think Google Ads were harmful to my channel.

Very insightful, thanks! I grew organically in my niche channel in Spanish, up to 76k in 6 years. Now I’m starting an English channel from scratch and planned on doing ads. But my goal is rather to fill my email list, to sell courses later.

Hi Christina, a good video and I appreciate the thought and how genuine you were. I am a small Content Creator/Entrepreneur as well. I liked the video and subscribed (as I am well aware of RU-vid analytics and wanted to help out your channel). Thanks.

Thanks for ALL of this! We had a very similar experience with a lot of extra views from ads but a lower retention rate which I think hurt the success of the promoted videos. Still trying to hone-in on how to find a more accurate target audience so our retention rate isn't so low but for now...still a mystery lol.

Finally !!! someone adressing the real thing, not saying thesame things like inorder to grow "ou need to create better content and yada yada" but knowing the right way of promotion that is through campaign creation...thank you.

Ty for the info. I feel that my nicho it’s not the best (Spanish poetry, my own poetry. Because if you read another authors books or poetry, you don’t get monetisation). For all of those trying to growth, remember it takes time. And something it’s a lot, but you’ll get it. ❤️

Yoooo, love your energy and straight-forward explanation! You gained a new sub! I don't think advertising is for me. My channel is small, which I consider a good thing. Gives me the time to work on my editing and story-telling techniques so that when the channel does grow, I will know what I am doing. Really appreciate you!

thank you for your video and your explantations. I've been posting videos every week for a few months and the organic growth is very slow. Sometime discouraging for the amount of time it requires...but I keep working on it. I'll try the ads. Thank you

As a new subscriber, I must say, I have DEFINITELY thought about paying for promotion after so many failed attempts of manually promoting, and after watching this video of yours, I only want to do it more. One thing you said that really got my attention is you " thinking small RU-vidrs should stick together" and..... I couldn't agree more. I am a struggling novelist and I am trying so hard to promote my novel, which is on Amazon. I do have an animated trailer based on my novel, which has almost 300 hundred views but, that's not enough. I say all that to ask.... will you...possibly help a small youtuber out? My book is only 15 dollars on Amazon and even a short honorable mention of my trailer and book would most helpful. Thank you for reading! :)

hi cristina! i'm about to start youtube ads but after watch your video maybe i will stay to grow my channel organically for a long run. really great video! you got 1 new subscriber :)

A great video !! Good luck to everyone with your journey

This is a very good video. Pros, cons, personal example, and all packed into 9 minutes. good job :)

This is wonderful.. I’ve had and preached the very thought to fellow young creators .. Am glad you experimented and giving us what the data says

Thanks for your honesty! Lots of youtubers just boast and don’t tell the truth! I have the same problem with my channel, the retention rate drop after I used Google ad video promo, which made me so frustrated! However, I have another video which the Google ad helps to draw more viewers, while the retention didn’t drop…….maybe I need to keep a good quality of all of my videos. By the way, your video has just pop up in my feed suddenly, I wish your channel is getting popular. Me subscribed already!

Us small players have it rough, and I've discovered that newer art channels like mine really have a tough time getting built up, I keep getting told that there's still massive interest in art videos, not just learning it but sitting back and just watching the works come together, but the way my channel has performed hasn't convinced me that statement is entirely true, at least from my view point, I've been tempted to run an ad campaign like this to see if it can spread further and reach those that are interested in the content I'm making, but after seeing the results, I'm a bit hesitant as, yes I'm likely to find the right audience, but it could also attract those that aren't interested and a bunch of trolls and haters that just want to cause trouble, I have a feeling my already struggling channel will definitely get thrown to the wolves as I'd get similar results, I might as well keep watching my channel slowly fail rather than pay google to do more damage than good! Anyways thanks for doing this experiment, have a great day :)

Thank you so much!🙏Really insightful! I also tried Google ads and indeed got tons of views but very little engagement.

Very intersting results, thank you for sharing your experience! 👍👍

Thank you for this! Really enjoyed learning about how running a campaign altered the views! Thanks again, Arlo the good doggo

Very thorough video, thanks for sharing the knowledge. Since I’m here, I’m just going to go through peoples channels in this comment section and give some love and see what everyone is doing👍🏿💯🙏🏿

You are so good. I see you are doing everything by the book.

Just Thought Id Leave A Comment Being That This Made Me Feel Like Its Time To Give It A Try Myself Great Video & Quality Thanks 🙏🏽

This was a very straightforward and insightful video. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for this interesting experiment, it looks like you got a few more subscribers but you retention suffered which means that those extra subs might not be active which could do harm to the channel thanks for bringing us this info

I pray that we all become successful youtubers ❤

Love your channel and I just binge watched 3 videos 😂 thank you ❤️

Absolutely correct observation, This happened to my 2 channel and one of my friend channel. It seems like 2 things. 1. If you are putting your challenge videos for promotion through Google ads then certainly RU-vid reduces your organic reach. RU-vid understand that if you are willing to spend money in RU-vid then why to give you organic reach. 2. As soon as you start promotion from Google ads, RU-vid algorithm start goofing up you organic views and stop showing your video naturally. My channel was doing good before putting on Google ads and was getting views organically, i thought to speed up the things and use Google ads and that's where movment I started the ads RU-vid brought down my Organic views. Shameful act. Thank you for making this video, atleast we are understanding now and speaking this about dirty tactic of Google/RU-vid Same happened with my previous channel also. My content was good, thumbnail was good, explanation was good, we have put 180 videos but RU-vid did not give organic reach. Looks like it's a tactic of RU-vid to munch more and more money. But it's a shameful thing as we small youtubers spend our hard earned money and spend our life to grow channel, our time and life is just wasted by RU-vid Goofing up with organic reach.

You don't need ads if you use Famester.

You nailed it Retention rate dips significantly as they are sort of spamming your ads everywhere including those who aren't interested. Careful with the geographic regions . That can get skewed heavily

Keep going christina you’re amazing and i wish you all the best

Love the content. Am corrently looking into different ways to promote my channel so this was very helpful thank you Christina.

Growing a channel naturally has always been the best, thanks for the info though 👍

Grateful for the tips. Much appreciated

I'm just considering Google ads but maybe not after listening to your experience. Strangely I promoted video on my YT channel on Facebook and it registered over 1000 likes 18000 views and counting and over 5000 engagements BUT even though it was linked to YT and I received many comments on FB the views subscribers did not change on YT. It's like the algorithm was not counting views and subscribers from FB. Very weird and frustrating.

Thanks for explaining. I’ve been considering advertising for my business (not RU-vid) . And I didn’t exactly know how it worked. I think I’m going to try it out.

Great Vid!! Thanks for sharing your expereince here! Quick question - When you did you Google Ads, are you able to target people based on their interests?? This way, perhaps the ads would start to show up for people who were interested in the specific topic that your video was talking about, rather than just purely based on their age, gender...etc.

Thank you for the sharing. I was thinking should I go for the ads and this helps me a lot❤

Very helpful video. Considered google as sense but decided against it, at least for now. Focusing on growing organically, getting better at content creation, storytelling etc. Subbed!

Thanks for the video. I will start advertising after seeing your video. Normally even normal popular videos, retention rate drops if google pushes it to more people.

Im curious when you set your ads campaign did you you used skippable ad or in-feed ad ? The reason im asking this is because most of the times skippable video ads will most likely pop on other youtubers videos as an ad and of course viewers will skip it so they can watch they clicked on . I think if you go for google ads best is to use in-feed so they show up in search results and recommended videos and also it might even show on youtube homepage.

Your video came into my proposals, after I set up an ad campaign for in-feed last week. My current data: 5% click rate, 0.01 € CPV and about 300 views to one new subscriber. But still no data on how many views for one new shareholder.

If you are reading this keep up the hard work your consistency will pay off

Very informative and genuine video, thank you for the help

Thanks dear. I was searching for exactly this!

Christina, the people like you at the first 3seconds the reason the audience retention dropped is because the higher the views the lower the retention it's just like that to every creator you are so awesome and sweet how can people not like you!

I did google ads last year for my song called quest. It brought in 3.2k views over a couple days but it wasn’t leading to conversation so I quickly stopped. One of my friends laughed at me, and I had to explain to him, they don’t disclose this type of stuff, I wouldn’t of had an issue not getting views, versus what feels as fake views, but either way it’s motivation to press forward.

Thank you for this video. Yes, I like to know more about side hustle and more - subscribed :) I wish you all the best and to all watching your channel. God bless ❤

Thanks much for sharing this information, Christina.

Exactly that is what I discovered, my audience retention dropped to 20% on 3 videos, and that is when I decided to pull the plug on ads

We love your content 🥰

I just started my first Google ads campaign today. Hopefully it works and helps our channel grow 😊

Great stuff. We are planning to start a channel for language learning, will definitely try this. Thanks for the content. We've liked and subscribed. 😊

Thank you so much for the insightful video! I was about to run an ad campaign before I realized I should do more research, and this video really put it into perspective for me. I just released an animated cartoon intro which has a higher retention rate than my last animated project, so I thought it would be good to take advantage of a promotion but at the same time I wouldn't want to hurt the retention too. Still thinking about what to do, but this really helped get the cogs turning! What you said about small youtubers needing to stick together resonated with me, though it looks like you're not a small youtuber anymore I went ahead and subscribed! Haha

Thank you for this. I may try to see if I get similar results with engagement.

Well done. Honest review

Hi Christina. Thank you for sharing. If you don't mind me asking, you're estimated revenue at the end shows $14.93. What was the estimated revenue before you started the Google ads campaign? Can I also assume you spent $12 ($3 per day over 4 days)? Thanks in advance.

That's an informative video. Thanks!!!

I have never clicked on any promotional videos before because most of them are videos i am not interested but this changed my look and from today i will support small youtubers

I appreciate the insight! I think I might try this. Subscribed.

We have been thinking of advertising to grow the channel. So great to see how you did

really a valuable information is "Audience Retention". Much helpful. thank you...

THIS IS SO VALUABLE!!! THANK YOU

You awesome homie, thanks for your work👍

Yah small youtube in the kids space. Engagement is really tough but. I'm gonna give it a try for 5 years. Yes I'm also using the Google ads to propel my self and get the search optimization of my channel so it's more recognize. There are lot of good things but one thing is a lot of money will be spent. But if it worthwhile and the content has quality then its worth the effort. I still got a long way to go.. Good luck to you and everyone here. Its a tough journey for sure. If you dont wanna spend. You just gotta wait till one of your content really picks up.

Fell in love with your channel. Amazing content. 👍 Thanks

Love your no fluff approach!

Appreciate the honesty and explaining the metrics. Quality over quantity.

Thank you, i have thought about paying as well. Great and very informative video, Ms. Christina. ❤

Excellent video. Informative!

The way you set up this video with all the editing, it’s a masterpiece. I don’t usually spend more than six minutes watching a single video but I watched your old video. Only because I saw Malaysia in your video, are you Malaysian? I used to live there for seven years. Started working for Air Asia X before running my own small language centers. Back in USA now but I just want to say this video is very useful.

Doing a campaign now & I’m seeing the same thing. I did hai. Subscribers & the video is doing way better than my others I think I’m going to stop it today. I’ve worked too hard to get here to lose it you know 😂

we need a part 2!

Great Video, Learned A Lot - Thanks

Thank you for sharing your insight!

Much love and support Sister, all the way from Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬 1❤️💯✌️👉