YouTube Opinion What to do with underperforming videos?

[Goober]

I am curious as to what other people do about underperforming videos. I know that we put a lot of work into our videos and we are certain we are posting all the best content, but we really know not everything is gping to be a hit.

I am just starting to get into posting more videos, I did it very rarely in the past. The first video I made has the most views but the watch time is nothing.

My question is, when should you delete a underperforming video? Is there a certain amount of time? Or is it more up to me admitting, maybe no one is watching this because it wasn't what I thought it was (not sure I explained that right).

I'd rather cut things and start again, then risk havinh people not watch because of a video I thought was great, but isn't working for the community.

 

[TheShihTzuFamily]

DON'T DELETE underperforming video!!! First you need to understand why it not doing good. Is the CTR lower then 5% that mean change your thumbnail if the CTR above 5% but low impressed that mean change your title! Don't think using TubeBuddy tag explorer for your title that it will help u it doesn't work that way! for your next video try to do research before make that video to see if it worth your time to make!!! did another YouTuber make this video and did they get view if it yes and yes then make THAT video unique to your channel

 

[tropicthunder]

Yep, don't delete old, underperforming, or even not the same niche as they used to be. Just making another one or even a better one.

If you recognize any legendary youtuber, look for their oldest videos, sometimes their videos is not the same niche as they're right now, or even worse than the newest videos, but they made it to the top.

 

[lifeinplastic]

I agree with @tropicthunder and @TheShihTzuFamily --do NOT delete videos even if they are underperforming. Instead, use them as a learning tool. Study the analytics as well as the feedback from your viewers. I have a video that has terrible sound mixing--the background music is overpowering--but I've chosen to keep it on my channel as a comparison tool (and also to keep the paltry amount of views it gained).

 

[Goober]

Awesome! Those are some of the reasons I have kept my videos up as long as I have, but I wanted to see if maybe I should gave taken them down. I'm glad now I haven't!

I really appreciate the feedback. Thank you!

 

[Damon]

Nothing. Focus your effort on making new videos.

 

[TiltedTea]

I think it's not rare to re-visit the same subject as an old video for youtubers. If you want to give the same idea a try, try giving it a new spin now that you've learned more and have more experience than before. The important thing is to look back at what was good, what was bad and revise and re-evaluate for your next video I think.

But like others said, leave everything old, it's fine. If it's something that gets you in trouble however, then privating them is the first course of action.

 

[Drscottbland]

DonΓÇÖt delete those

 

[Kindred]

I would never delete because that video is part of your journey of learning and growth - it documents the process. There is no harm in keeping it but who knows maybe it will take off in a month or so

 

[Yly66]

It happened to someone like underperforming videos, to have very good performances after a period of time?

 

[Jatinder Singh]

DON'T DELETE underperforming video!!! First you need to understand why it not doing good. Is the CTR lower then 5% that mean change your thumbnail if the CTR above 5% but low impressed that mean change your title! Don't think using TubeBuddy tag explorer for your title that it will help u it doesn't work that way! for your next video try to do research before make that video to see if it worth your time to make!!! did another YouTuber make this video and did they get view if it yes and yes then make THAT video unique to your channel

thanks for valuable suggestion

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

I'll update thumbnails and metadata to see if it can be revived. But if not then I will keep that in the back of my mind. I don't delete or remove it; you never know when it could pop. But I will either revisit the video and do it again, or I'll learn my lesson and refrain from doing that video again depending on where I feel the fault lies.

 

[Beanie Draws]

Good question, because I have a lot of old under performing videos.

What I HAVE been doing is

1 - Check the audience retention graph. - usually if the audience retention graph is really low, it means not much can be done for the video, so there's not a huge amount of point worrying about it. I then just leave the video alone as a video gallery contribution which might be watched later

2 - check how my keywords are ranking. If they're not, it means less impressions meaning less potential views, and my old videos have really under optimised SEO, so I go through my tags to see if I can improve them, re-adjust my title, re-adjust my descriptions because maybe my title just stank, or maybe my description isn't optimised. Poor performing keywords means I can boost my impression possibilities, so i DEFINITLY change those if there's improvements that can be made.

3 - check your click through rate for your thumbnails. Bad topics are hard to save to begin with, but if you're getting large impressions, but your click through rate is low, it means people ARE searching your video topic, they ARE being served your video somehow... I look at my videos performance over the last 28 days, and if I'm getting a healthy amount of impressions, say 10,000 impressions, I look at the CTR, and if the CTR is something like 2%, that means my thumbnail isn't performing, and that's when I start looking to re-craft my thumbnails. I try to see if I can boost my CTR to 4/5% because even 4% CTR is a doubling of views over 2% CTR, and if you're getting 10,000 impressions, that's 10,000 POSSIBLE views that aren't getting clicked, so you know the audience is there, and it's the presentation of the cover that can be improved.

Before I completely forget about a video, I always check if the impressions are high and the CTR is low because that signals potential growth. But if your impressions are low, and your keywords are optimised, it just means the topic it'self wasn't worth worrying about, so you use it as a learning experience of what topics to avoid next time.

And never forget keyword research BEFORE making a video, always helps to know if a video has potential out of the gate.

looking at audience retention graphs does little to help search result boosting, but it DEFINITELY helps you know what stunk in your videos, and how to make new videos better.
But I always like to see if there's potential that I'm missing in my current gallery based on the fact after 6 years, I've learned a LOT about optimising, which I wasn't doing 6 years ago, so there's always the possibility to help boost older videos with some tweaking and deep diving.

 

[DIMTIPS]

Definately do not delete. I have thought a video of mine tanked and after giving it a few months the viewers came in. This video is now my top ranked. I did not change any tags, keywords or description. I think it may have been the algorithm and watch time.

 

[Boat Snoop]

DON'T DELETE underperforming video!!! First you need to understand why it not doing good. Is the CTR lower then 5% that mean change your thumbnail if the CTR above 5% but low impressed that mean change your title! Don't think using TubeBuddy tag explorer for your title that it will help u it doesn't work that way! for your next video try to do research before make that video to see if it worth your time to make!!! did another YouTuber make this video and did they get view if it yes and yes then make THAT video unique to your channel

Thank you! This was a helpful response.

 

[OceanShip]

Dont delete them. from my experience, they will eventually start preforming how you want them to, it may take a few weeks.

 

[Don Alabee]

i don't delete, i go back and change the title

 

[The Storm is coming]

Just let them exist. The most important thing is to learn from them