I Got SHADOWBANNED on YouTube To Prove It's Not luck

0:00 So, in this video, I'm opening a brand new channel,

0:02 and I will go viral in 7 days.

0:04 Within the next 30 days, I'm going to try posting on a brand new

0:06 shorts account with the goal of getting it monetized.

0:08 This is a YouTube channel I started just 10 days ago to buy my dream car.

0:13 But to be honest, it was kind of easy.

0:15 Mhm, yeah.

0:16 If you're a YouTube creator and you've been looking to grow your own channel,

0:20 but I'm sure through your research,

0:21 you've come across these types of videos on a platform already.

0:24 The ones that have titles along the lines of I did something incredible

0:27 on YouTube in a very short space of time to prove it's not luck.

0:31 And let me be clear,

0:32 I'm not here to discredit any of these videos because if I'm honest,

0:36 we've used the same title ourselves.

0:37 But there is a harsh reality to all of this, isn't there?

0:41 For the vast majority of creators,

0:44 blowing up on YouTube just ain't going to happen.

0:47 So, I thought to myself, what if I did the complete opposite?

0:53 Okay, let's check out my analytics.

0:57 And oh, there we are.

0:59 One of 10 with zero views.

1:01 That's right.

1:02 What if I could get my channel shadow banned to prove it's not luck.

1:07 So, in this video, I'll show you the channel I created, the videos I made,

1:11 and the analytics that led to YouTube obliterating the reach

1:15 of every single piece of content I tried to publish.

1:18 But first, how do we get here?

1:20 Well, it came from a request from our boss,

1:23 who you may have seen on our YouTube channel audit

1:25 live streams or other places on YouTube many, many years ago.

1:30 Fixed camera somersault.

1:33 Yeah.

1:35 [laughter]

1:35 Now, he thought it would be good idea to start YouTube all over again,

1:39 a brand new channel completely from scratch to try and understand

1:43 and empathize with the plight of the new creator on YouTube.

1:47 Now, I'll be honest with you,

1:48 I was just too damn busy to take this project seriously.

1:51 So, I took the 2026 solution to this YouTube dilemma.

1:57 AI slop.

1:58 Page three says the dials go in first.

2:00 No, that's page four you're looking upside down.

2:02 I'm not upside down.

2:03 The paper is

2:03 pick a side and stop doing it?

2:05 After all, a lot of these videos that prove

2:07 it's not luck are based around generating AI shorts videos.

2:11 And if this video about cats, which,

2:14 if you remember, cats are stupid, got 41 million views,

2:18 then a YouTube short about man's best friend is bound to do better, right?

2:22 And with that, we already have the three

2:24 major pillars of this YouTube channel solved.

2:26 The next thing I had [music] to do is come up with a channel name.

2:29 And since this channel was going to be

2:31 all about the weird and wonderful life of dogs,

2:33 I thought it would be a nice play on the term it's a dog's life.

2:38 It's an AI dog's life, Jasper.

2:40 You get it?

2:44 Clearly not.

2:44 Content, we need some for our new AI channel,

2:48 and it's easier than ever to generate videos in 2026.

2:51 And that's exactly what I did with a simple and single prompt.

2:56 Pixar style animation dogs playing poker.

2:58 All right, let's see what you mutts got.

3:00 I'm raising.

3:01 Bold move, short legs.

3:03 I'll call that.

3:04 Wow, that was surprisingly quite easy.

3:06 I don't think I've ever made a video faster than that in my entire life.

3:10 But to be honest, I'm not sure how I

3:12 should feel about that as a creator on YouTube.

3:17 Okay, remix this video.

3:19 Same dogs at shopping sale.

3:22 Check out that sign, 70% off.

3:24 We're hitting the jackpot, pups.

3:26 Extra 20 if we buy two?

3:27 Done.

3:27 Same dogs stuck in commuter traffic.

3:31 I swear [music] we've moved 10 ft in the last 15 minutes.

3:34 10?

3:34 You're being generous.

3:35 Try five.

3:36 Same dogs walking their own dogs.

3:39 Yes.

3:39 Never thought I'd be out here doing this on a Saturday morning.

3:42 Walking a dog while you walk your dog?

3:44 It's a workout and a half.

3:45 Mhm, that's it.

3:46 I can't really think of anything else that goes on in a dog's life.

3:51 But since I am trying to outsource as much

3:54 of this as possible to my good friend here, let's try this.

3:57 The prompt to generate videos is same dogs playing poker.

4:01 Come up with 50 more prompt ideas for the same dogs doing everyday activities.

4:13 A few minutes later.

4:15 Okay, let's see what we have here.

4:19 Oh.

4:20 Mhm, all right.

4:22 Yeah.

4:23 Mhm.

4:24 Mhm.

4:25 Let's get it quickly.

4:26 Now, by accidental luck more than anything else,

4:28 because I had remixed all of my videos from that one source video,

4:33 the dogs had retained their character.

4:35 And that meant I was able to get AI to generate

4:38 a circular image with those dogs as my channel logo.

4:42 And with that, we're just about ready to kick off with this thing.

4:47 And that is when I bumped [music] into my first big problem.

4:51 If you've just started a brand new YouTube channel, you need to know this.

4:54 There is a limit on how many videos you

4:56 can upload to your new channel in a 24-hour period.

4:59 I just created a brand new channel

5:01 and was uploading shorts when I hit the limit, which was 10 videos.

5:05 Now, this channel was literally brand new,

5:07 not even a day old, and it wasn't even verified.

5:12 Yeah.

5:13 I didn't think of that.

5:14 Now, I did quickly realize that actually publishing 10

5:17 videos a day on this channel would be absolutely ludicrous.

5:20 So, what I did is uploaded my 30 or so videos over a few days

5:25 and then scheduled one video to go out

5:27 per day with the same type of titling strategy.

5:32 It's a dog's life {dot} {dot} {dot} whatever the dogs were doing,

5:36 and use three really popular dog-related hashtags.

5:40 So, I would say up to this point that the total

5:42 time spent on the channel was maybe around about an hour,

5:47 and that was mostly waiting around for videos to be generated.

5:49 And I suppose at this point, it's important to remind ourselves of what

5:52 the actual objective of this challenge is.

5:55 It's not to go viral, it's not to get monetized, it's not to build a community.

5:59 It's quite the opposite, in fact, to get as little views as possible

6:04 and to find out whether YouTube actually does,

6:07 quote unquote, shadow ban channels.

6:09 And at first, that didn't actually happen.

6:12 The first video published on the channel got

6:14 a very respectable 2 and 1/2 thousand views, which quite frankly surprised me.

6:18 And it continued like that for a couple more weeks.

6:20 Some videos got a few hundred views,

6:22 others around about [music] a thousand views,

6:24 and people were actually subscribing to the channel.

6:27 And it was very obvious from the moment

6:29 the channel was launched who was its biggest fan.

6:33 So, this initial success seemed to confirm two things.

6:36 Yes, YouTube will give your brand new channel

6:39 a chance to get discovered on the platform.

6:42 20,000 views in 3 weeks confirms that.

6:44 And furthermore, because these are YouTube shorts,

6:47 YouTube is pumping them through the shorts feed.

6:50 And that means there are any impressions because

6:53 there's no thumbnails or titles to click on.

6:56 [music]

6:55 So, instead, YouTube has to test new shorts with what we call a seed audience.

7:01 That is around about 1,500 to 2,500 viewers.

7:05 And this is why you'll typically see in the first 24 hours

7:08 of YouTube shorts life this surge in views seems to come out of nowhere.

7:13 It truly is the only way for brand new content

7:16 from a brand new channel to be seen on YouTube.

7:18 And quite astonishingly, when people did see a short from It's AI

7:22 Dog Life and decided to stick around to watch it,

7:25 they watched the entire thing and a little bit more.

7:29 As any creator starting out on their YouTube journey,

7:32 they would be delighted to see audience retention

7:35 of above 100% for most of their initial shorts, right?

7:39 Well, hang on, hang on.

7:40 We're getting a little ahead of ourselves here.

7:42 Isn't this all too good to be true?

7:45 Yes, yes, it is.

7:46 We need to remind ourselves of the type of content

7:49 and the volume of content this channel is pushing out.

7:52 Here comes the drop.

7:53 Hold on to your ears.

7:55 Tails in zero gravity.

7:57 So, yeah, it does look as if YouTube is

7:59 testing this content with thousands and thousands of people.

8:02 And if you was decide to stick around and watch the short,

8:06 they do stay until the end.

8:07 But there is a critical word in that sentence that we haven't yet addressed.

8:14 If.

8:14 From day one and indeed video one,

8:17 the It's AI Dog Life channel was doomed because

8:20 of two critical data points we haven't yet dived into.

8:24 The first one being engaged views.

8:27 Because while indeed this short did get 2

8:30 and 1/2 thousand views in its first 24 hours,

8:34 far more importantly, only 500 of them were classed as engaged views.

8:40 And the best way to demonstrate what I'm talking about is to do this.

8:44 It's clear at the speed that I'm skipping

8:46 through these videos that I'm not watching them, right?

8:48 I'm flicking through the shorts feed until I find something to watch.

8:51 But despite the fact that these clearly

8:53 aren't views as we would understand them, YouTube counts them as views.

8:59 Look, all of these Z's in the real-time

9:01 stats are a result of what I've just done.

9:03 An engaged view, on the other hand, would look more like this.

9:06 I'm watching it for a period of time,

9:08 essentially [music] engaging with the content itself.

9:11 And that engaged view metric leads us directly

9:14 onto the next mission-critical data point, stayed to watch.

9:19 This is set directly against swipe away.

9:22 So, think of it as engaged views versus views in total.

9:26 And for this first short on the channel,

9:29 it got a stay to watch percentage of just 25%.

9:33 I recommend, right now, if you make YouTube shorts to go look at that metric

9:37 because I guarantee you it won't be as disgraceful as 25%.

9:42 This is where I can explain the second part of that graph you saw earlier.

9:46 Absolutely, YouTube is going to test your short

9:49 with a seed audience to get the critical data it needs.

9:52 From that data, it's going to take the appropriate action.

9:54 And in In case, three out of every four

9:57 viewers flicked through the short without a moment's notice,

10:02 which told YouTube to Yeah, just kill it.

10:06 And that's where we hit this, what is often referred to as a views ceiling.

10:11 According to YouTube,

10:11 over 20 million videos are uploaded to the platform every single day.

10:16 And you can bet your bottom dollar that most of them are YouTube shorts.

10:19 As a result of this, YouTube doesn't want

10:21 to waste time with shorts that it's already tested

10:24 with a seed audience that's reported back

10:26 to the algorithm that they're not interested in the content.

10:29 There are tons more shorts ready to serve up to viewers.

10:31 And it worked all of this out within 24 hours of a video being published.

10:35 On day one, the short got 2,400 views.

10:39 Then, in the following 60 days, just 100 more.

10:42 It would seem as though the YouTube

10:43 algorithm is incredibly efficient or terrifyingly ruthless.

10:49 Choose your point of view.

10:50 But that is just video one.

10:51 And we already know that it's AI dog life has at least one super fan.

10:56 So, what about the other 30?

10:58 Well, as mentioned earlier, the first few weeks did bring views.

11:02 And as with any other channel,

11:03 there was a bit of views variance between each short,

11:07 but each one did get its shot in the shorts feed.

11:10 But inevitably, due to the nature of each of these shorts,

11:13 they had the same problem.

11:16 Each and every one of these shorts performed in exactly the same way.

11:19 The stay-to-watch number never climbed above 35%

11:22 and tanked to as low as 15% at times.

11:26 As a quick comparison,

11:27 the stay-to-watch percentage for the main VidIQ channel is 70%,

11:31 and the best shorts channels often see numbers north of 80%.

11:35 And so, as predictably as night following day,

11:37 the short would get its views often

11:39 in the first 12 hours and then completely flatline thereafter.

11:43 Now, if you've learned anything over the years here at VidIQ,

11:46 it's consistency in all its forms rewards success.

11:49 So, that can also work both ways.

11:51 If you are consistently uploading AI slop that an audience

11:55 clearly isn't interested in, something is eventually going to give.

11:59 And the first red flag on the It's AI Dog

12:02 Life channel came with the 17th video that got 16 views.

12:08 And it got just five views in the first 24 hours,

12:12 or 485 views less than typical,

12:15 or just 1% of the views you would typically expect

12:21 on this channel for a short in the first 24 hours.

12:24 Now, I think we'll all agree that this doesn't feel like

12:26 the typical peaks and troughs of video performance on a channel, does it?

12:32 [snorts] Oh, yeah, that smells like a shadow ban to me.

12:34 But hang on, hang on, we're not there just yet.

12:37 A few more shorts afterwards returned to the typical numbers.

12:40 But not long after that, the views really started to slide.

12:44 And then, from the 26th video onwards,

12:47 the It's AI Dog Life channel got well and truly savaged.

12:54 Let me just read off the view counts for every short from here onwards.

12:58 Six views, seven views, eight views,

13:00 five views, three views, one view, three views,

13:03 four views, three views, four views,

13:05 six views, no views, two views, three views.

13:10 And to be quite honest, many of those views will have come from me just

13:12 casually swiping through the shorts around about five minutes ago.

13:15 The channel seemed to go through three stages of life: the testing stage,

13:20 the suspicious stage, and finally, the shadow ban stage,

13:24 which it's been in ever since.

13:26 And all of this has allowed me to enjoy a most unique YouTube experience.

13:35 A few moments later.

13:37 Okay, I think it's time to check the studio once again.

13:41 Uh oh, look.

13:42 There we are.

13:44 I appear to have done it again.

13:45 This is a literal cheat code to get one of 10 on your videos every single time.

13:52 And I've proved it's not luck.

13:58 So, to summarize my achievement here,

14:00 I've basically managed to shadow ban a brand

14:03 new YouTube channel in 25 days with 25 videos.

14:07 And I did it by basically provoking the most

14:10 dangerous word in the YouTube lexicon right now.

14:14 Inauthentic content.

14:15 It is content that is essentially made with a simple prompt template

14:18 with little to no variation across videos

14:21 that could easily be replicable at scale.

14:23 This channel would absolutely,

14:25 positively never get monetized for those reasons alone.

14:29 But to be honest, it would never reach the monetization

14:32 requirements of 10 million shorts views because it's been shadow banned.

14:37 But let's look at it from this point of view.

14:39 As YouTube creators, as viewers on the platform,

14:43 we actually want the algorithm to do this, don't we?

14:45 To identify trash content, AI slop,

14:49 and given how the audiences reacted to the content so far, remove it from view.

14:55 I know shadow banning, or shadow ban, is a filthy word at YouTube headquarters.

15:00 But this test does seem to suggest that there is some sort of trigger,

15:05 some sort of switch that suppresses the reach of content

15:10 if the audience has already decided it's very unsatisfactory.

15:15 And all of this leaves me with just one final task.

15:19 Hello, everybody.

15:21 This is Jasper, the mastermind behind It's AI Dog Life channel.

15:27 And he would just like to apologize profusely

15:30 for the aggravation he has caused to the YouTube users,

15:37 YouTube creators, and YouTube themselves.

15:42 He did not realize he was going to get his channel shadow banned so quickly.

15:47 And he's just pleading with anybody out there who

15:51 will listen to reinstate the algorithm to his content.

15:58 Jasper, do you have any final words?

16:07 Thank you.

16:09 Look, Jasper, you got some views.

16:11 You fixed it.

16:14 You just don't care, do you?