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Chat transcript for case: 5-0019000041466
Oct 16, 4:21 PM (Pacific Time)
4:21:56 PM Samantha: Samantha joined the conversation
4:21:56 PM Katrina McCaffery: Katrina McCaffery joined the conversation
4:21:57 PM Samantha: Welcome! Your Case ID is 5-0019000041466. Refer to this if you need to contact us again.
4:21:58 PM Samantha: Hi my name is Samantha, how are you doing today?
4:22:05 PM Katrina McCaffery: My support ticket from yesterday # is 4-6088000041789 I told my account would be reviewed and it was not. You can tell by the transcript there was not enough time to actually review my account and look into the issue i was asking about. I am still needing help that I was not provided yesterday. I need to escalate this case.
4:22:27 PM Samantha: Hello!
4:22:32 PM Samantha: Thanks for sharing your concern.
4:23:20 PM Samantha: Let me just review the case ID that you provided.
4:23:31 PM Katrina McCaffery: My made for kids content is over 30 days old for some of my videos yet youtube has not started to recommend them. I will write a full explanation of the issue. ok
4:23:44 PM Samantha: Please go ahead and share the details, and I will read through them carefully.
4:25:10 PM Katrina McCaffery: My channel @mooandmooey (YPP, 33K subscribers, case ID 4-6088000041789) has a distribution problem on its Made for Kids songs. Of 24 videos posted over the past ~5 weeks, only one ("Amen! Praise the Lord!") has received YouTube recommendations, after a Google rep manually reviewed it. The other 21 show almost no on-platform impressions. Views come from my own promotion, even though retention is typical or above typical.
Google reps have told us the videos are in a review/testing period (30 to 45 days), that Kids app indexing hasn't happened, and that a trust threshold applies. A support agent on Oct 15 said none of that exists and that everything is working as intended. I'm asking for:
A clear answer on whether any hold, review, or limit currently applies to these videos, and when it ends.
The status of my channel for YouTube Kids, and a submission for review if it hasn't been done.
Escalation to a team that can see recommendation eligibility data, with a written reply.
4:25:57 PM Samantha: Thank you for providing the detailed explanation and your channel information.
4:26:12 PM Katrina McCaffery: My channel is 17 years old and I have never had a video just sit with no distribution outside of my own promoting before until I started making made for kids content. My channel has always been a family channel.
4:26:33 PM Samantha: I understand your frustration regarding the recommendation performance on your Made for Kids videos.
4:26:42 PM Samantha: I can imagine the importance of having this concern addressed and I can definitely check that out for you.
4:27:00 PM Katrina McCaffery: thanks
4:27:20 PM Samantha: Can I have your channel URL please?
4:27:50 PM Katrina McCaffery: https://www.youtube.com/@mooandmooey
4:28:17 PM Samantha: Thank you for sharing your channel URL.
4:28:33 PM Katrina McCaffery: Welcome
4:28:56 PM Samantha: To help you better with this concern, I'll go ahead and check this matter further on my end. Is it okay if I place this chat on hold for 3-5 minutes while I look into this?
4:29:05 PM Katrina McCaffery: Yes
4:29:13 PM Samantha: Please stay connected.
4:34:27 PM Samantha: Thanks for waiting. Are we still connected?
4:34:35 PM Katrina McCaffery: Yes
4:34:53 PM Samantha: I need another 3-5 minutes to wrap things up.
4:35:14 PM Katrina McCaffery: Ok no problem. I am happy someone is actually looking into it
4:40:46 PM Samantha: Thanks for waiting. Are we still connected?
4:40:55 PM Katrina McCaffery: Yes
4:41:06 PM Samantha: I completely understand how stressful and concerning it is to pour your heart into creating content for your channel (@mooandmooey), especially when you have 24 videos posted over the past few weeks and want to see them reach a wider audience on the platform beyond your own promotional efforts.
4:41:12 PM Samantha: As my colleague previously informed you, there are no technical issues or blocks on your channel, which means everything is working as intended.
4:41:16 PM Samantha: First, I want to clarify that the patterns you are seeing in your views and distribution are not something to be concerned about. Often, shifts in viewership are a result of a video experiencing an initial wave or spike in viewership, followed by a natural leveling off once the immediate pool of interested viewers has been reached. While this performance pattern can create the perception of a concerning drop or limited reach, your channel's underlying system and viewership are not impacted by a technical error.
4:41:20 PM Samantha: Our recommendation system carefully evaluates and narrows down the best set of videos to offer your audience by paying attention to several key signals:
- What they watch
- What they don’t watch
- What they search for
- Likes and dislikes
- ‘Not interested’ feedback
4:41:23 PM Samantha: Ultimately, we really rely on the interest of the viewers to decide whether they would like to watch and engage with your videos or not.
4:41:27 PM Samantha: I know how much dedication you bring to your children's music channel, and I am right here cheering you on as your community continues to grow!
4:41:30 PM Samantha: To know more about this, you may visit this help center: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/141805?hl=en
4:41:40 PM Samantha: Please take time to read and let me know if you have questions.
4:43:51 PM Katrina McCaffery: OK but how come Amen! Praise The Lord was stuck with no recommendations either and then after we sent it personally to be reviews, it was "lifted" and automatically started getting recommended and blew up....it did very well. However, none of the other videos have even been tested with an audience yet to know if anyone would like them
4:44:15 PM Katrina McCaffery: All the views and likes have come from my own distribution and no help by youtube at all to show them to people
4:45:28 PM Samantha: I completely understand why you're drawing that comparison, especially after seeing how well "Amen! Praise The Lord!" took off following its review!
4:45:32 PM Samantha: However, I want to gently clarify that content discovery ultimately depends on the interest of the viewers if they would like to watch your videos. Because every video appeals differently to viewer search habits, preferences, and watch patterns, the system picks up on those specific engagement signals dynamically.
4:45:37 PM Samantha: Please note that there is no manual intervention that we can do to force-test or push the remaining videos into recommendation feeds. The recommendation system runs automatically based entirely on organic audience interest and interaction.
4:45:59 PM Katrina McCaffery: That is what I am saying, I have never seen youtube just not show a video at all. It is there for me to send people but Youtube is not trying to show it to anyone at all. and since there are restrictions on made for kids content, like no notifications etc, if youtube doesn't even try to recommend it to viewers, how will they know if people would like the content?
4:47:15 PM Samantha: I completely hear your point, and you raise a really valid question—especially given how unique "Made for Kids" content is and the strict privacy restrictions (like no notifications) that surround it. It is completely understandable why seeing zero impressions makes it feel like a video is sitting in a vacuum with no way for an audience to find it.
4:47:23 PM Katrina McCaffery: Ok so when we did a test having over 50 various people search our videos by name and then watch them in full, that still did nothing to trigger youtube into recommending the videos. All our efforts have been fruitless
4:47:32 PM Samantha: Unlike regular content, the recommendation system cannot rely on personalized user tracking or push notifications to test "Made for Kids" videos. Instead, the system relies heavily on metadata—such as your titles, descriptions, tags, and contextual signals—to understand what the video is about and figure out who to recommend it to within the YouTube Kids ecosystem.
4:47:55 PM Samantha: Sometimes, indexing or finding that initial matching audience for Kids content can take a bit longer, or requires very clear, distinct signals in the metadata so the system knows where the video fits. While we can't manually force a recommendation test, I completely understand why this waiting period and lack of early impressions feel so frustrating when you are pouring effort into every upload.
4:48:45 PM Katrina McCaffery: that's what my social media manager said that is why he used tending tags and keywords on each video. We copied Listener Kids on the tags and keywords they use as well since they are massive on Youtube but that hasn't helped
4:49:08 PM Samantha: I understand your concern, but please know that we have thoroughly investigated your request and there is nothing more I can add.
4:49:35 PM Katrina McCaffery: Ok, how long does it take before Made For Kids content shows up on Youtube kids. especially when we had the one song be so successful with Googles help.
4:49:56 PM Samantha: I understand, would it be helpful if I transfer your concern to our team supervisor who can take a second look? They will get back to you here in a chat shortly.
4:50:04 PM Katrina McCaffery: Yes please
4:50:20 PM Samantha: Please stay connected.
4:50:55 PM Samantha: Samantha added participant(s): Ava
4:50:55 PM Ava: Ava joined the conversation
4:51:00 PM Samantha: Samantha left the conversation
4:51:02 PM Ava: Hi! I hope you're doing well. My name is Ava. One of the managers from the YouTube Support team.
4:51:24 PM Katrina McCaffery: Hello Ava. Are you able to read what all has been said?
4:52:41 PM Ava: I hear your concern loud and clear. Navigating zero-impression distribution issues across 24 "Made for Kids" uploads while dealing with the unique limitations of the Kids ecosystem leaves you in a very difficult spot.
4:53:19 PM Ava: Don't worry, we will review your channel data together so you have absolute clarity.
4:53:35 PM Katrina McCaffery: Yes and since this started, now even my not made for kids short did not get recommended and I have never had that happen.
4:54:50 PM Ava: Let me take a closer look at your channel's recent performance metrics and traffic signals on my end right now so we can sort this out together.
4:55:00 PM Katrina McCaffery: OK thank you
4:56:03 PM Ava: Just to be sure, is this your channel ID? UC2felo4ZaVqH_HVDZDgX2bg
4:56:22 PM Katrina McCaffery: I have been told so many different things. A google rep said wait 45 days before made for kids content is recommended. Another one said about 60 days before made for kids content is added on youtube kids. I was told I had to past a trust score and then another rep so no score existed...
4:56:35 PM Katrina McCaffery: https://www.youtube.com/@mooandmooey
4:57:31 PM Ava: Thank you for sharing your channel. I completely understand how frustrating it is to receive conflicting information from previous support interactions, and I am here to provide you with clarity.
4:58:43 PM Ava: Let me pull up your channel, Katrina.
5:00:04 PM Ava: To assist you more effectively with this concern, I will investigate this matter further on my side. Can I place our chat on hold for 5 minutes?
5:00:13 PM Katrina McCaffery: Sounds good
5:00:40 PM Ava: Great! I'll be back in 5 minutes.
5:05:55 PM Ava: Thanks for hanging in there. I’m doing a deeper dive into my resources to get this right for you. I should have an update in just a few minutes.
5:06:07 PM Katrina McCaffery: thank you
5:11:23 PM Ava: I appreciate your patience. I'm still checking this for you. Do you want to stay in chat, or would you like to convert our conversation to email?
5:12:18 PM Katrina McCaffery: I am good waiting. I am desperate for answers. I have sponsors ready to help invest in this adventure with me but not until Youtube starts recommending my videos. They think I have done something wrong... sigh
5:13:16 PM Ava: Thank you so much for your patience while I carefully review all the backend data and traffic sources for your channel. I'll be back in 5 minutes.
5:13:24 PM Katrina McCaffery: ok
5:17:45 PM Ava: Thank you for your patience. I'm still reviewing my resources for you. I'll be back in 5 minutes.
5:17:55 PM Katrina McCaffery: ok
5:22:30 PM Ava: I appreciate your patience, Katrina. I've carefully checked your issue, and here's what I can share. Let me know once you're ready.
5:22:43 PM Katrina McCaffery: I am ready
5:23:57 PM Ava: I completely understand how stressful and overwhelming it is to manage sponsor expectations and build a children's music channel when you feel your recent uploads are stuck at zero impressions, especially after receiving conflicting information from previous support interactions.
5:24:20 PM Ava: You deserve absolute clarity on how your traffic is performing, and I appreciate your patience while I conducted a comprehensive backend audit.
5:24:56 PM Katrina McCaffery: I really appreciate it. Another rep said it may be due to the changes I made on my channel when i started posting the new Made for kids content
5:25:08 PM Ava: The first thing I did was to confirm that there is no technical report related to your concern. Furthermore, please know that the view distribution on your channel is driven by viewer and audience interest.
5:26:22 PM Ava: When I checked your channel traffic sources for the last 90 and 28 days, it shows that 37.4% of your channel views came from Browse features (traffic from the homepage, subscription feed, and other browsing features) and 20.4% came from Suggested videos (views from suggestions appearing alongside or after other videos).
https://studio.youtube.com/artist/a_3HrA4VFLiUw/analytics/tab-build_audience/period-default/total_reach-all/explore?c=UC2felo4ZaVqH_HVDZDgX2bg&entity_type=ARTIST&entity_id=a_3HrA4VFLiUw&time_period=quarter&total_reach_state=all&explore_type=TABLE_AND_CHART&metric=EXTERNAL_VIEWS&granularity=DAY&t_metrics=EXTERNAL_VIEWS&t_metrics=EXTERNAL_WATCH_TIME&t_metrics=AVERAGE_WATCH_TIME&dimension=TRAFFIC_SOURCE_TYPE&o_column=EXTERNAL_VIEWS&o_direction=ANALYTICS_ORDER_DIRECTION_DESC
5:26:42 PM Ava: This clearly shows that your videos are actively out there and being recommended by YouTube.
5:26:45 PM Katrina McCaffery: I find it fascinating (if that is the case) that I uploaded a Noah's Ark Song during the time that the Ark story was viral all around the world and most sunday school teachers were preaching on it due to the popularity but yet my video got hardly no views
5:27:27 PM Katrina McCaffery: Oh yeah totally! All of my old viral views are still getting a tons of views like always
5:27:46 PM Ava: Fluctuations in key metrics, like watch time and views, can be a part of everyday performance. These ups and downs may be related to the time of year, upload frequency, or even the age of your most popular videos.
5:28:22 PM Katrina McCaffery: "SO FUNNY!!! Bryson scared to hear a baby laughing" has always been a viral video that has never really slowed down. It's only my new made for kids content being treated differently
5:28:42 PM Ava: Many factors help us connect viewers with what they want to watch. Setting your audience setting as "Made for Kids" does not put any age restriction on your channel or video; your content is still viewable by everyone, and Made for Kids videos are suggested the same way as other content.
5:30:11 PM Ava: Much like Google Search, YouTube's search system aims to surface the most relevant results for each keyword query. Videos are ranked using multiple signals.
5:30:15 PM Katrina McCaffery: OK how long does it take before youtube starts suggesting them? Because right now that isn't happening except on one video where a google rep "lifted the hold" that is what they said and whatever they did, it worked. That was on "Amen! Praise The Lord!"
5:30:42 PM Ava: Alongside audience engagement metrics to ensure viewers easily find content that truly satisfies their intent. Search results are never simply a ranking of the most-viewed videos.
5:31:18 PM Ava: Ultimately, YouTube's search and discovery system serves two core goals: helping viewers find the exact content they want to watch, and maximizing long-term viewer engagement and satisfaction.
5:31:55 PM Katrina McCaffery: I do not know if you can see my stats or not but all the views are external or from my playlist or my own test searches using friends and family. We were trying to figure out what was happening ourselves. There are no youtube suggestions or recommendations through this app.
5:32:01 PM Ava: To achieve this, the system evaluates hundreds of audience signals, including viewing behavior, total watch duration, and direct user feedback such as likes, dislikes, and 'Not interested' responses. You can learn more about Search and discovery in our Creator Tips. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/11914225
5:33:02 PM Ava: Moreover, I also looked into your analytics lifetime report (April 1, 2007 – October 15, 2026), and based on the data I've gathered, it doesn’t appear that there is an unusual decline in watch time you’re reporting.
https://studio.youtube.com/artist/a_3HrA4VFLiUw/analytics/tab-build_audience/period-default/total_reach-all/explore?c=UC2felo4ZaVqH_HVDZDgX2bg&entity_type=ARTIST&entity_id=a_3HrA4VFLiUw&time_period=lifetime&total_reach_state=all&explore_type=TABLE_AND_CHART&metric=EXTERNAL_VIEWS&granularity=DAY&t_metrics=EXTERNAL_VIEWS&t_metrics=EXTERNAL_WATCH_TIME&t_metrics=VIDEO_THUMBNAIL_IMPRESSIONS&t_metrics=VIDEO_THUMBNAIL_IMPRESSIONS_VTR&dimension=VIDEO&o_column=EXTERNAL_VIEWS&o_direction=ANALYTICS_ORDER_DIRECTION_DESC
5:33:33 PM Katrina McCaffery: OK I understand that. I found that on the support forum. However, I have about 6 made for kids videos with excellent retention, CTR, likes vs dislikes..etc.. and yet still after weeks, no recommendation or suggestions from youtube on those videos with all green check mark stats
5:33:47 PM Ava: What you're seeing is not a drop in views. It just so happens that you have outlier videos that drove the performance for your channel for the said period.
5:34:48 PM Ava: Meanwhile, as YouTube continues to feature these videos, the audience that has not yet viewed them becomes smaller and more difficult to reach in the long run, resulting in a gradual decline which is completely normal. You may want to check the videos and see what you have done well and apply it to the future videos you are going to create.
5:35:11 PM Katrina McCaffery: Yes, I know I had some videos go viral and even made it on various tv shows. However, I have never posted videos and have them just sit without Youtube testing them to an audience like I have with this past 24 uploads of made for kids content
5:36:33 PM Ava: Since your channel content is a mix of long-form videos and Shorts videos, let me break down how the impression works for this content.
Shorts
YouTube Analytics registers impressions when your Short’s thumbnail is visible to the viewer. It's normal for a video to have more views than impressions due to the following factors:
- Shorts thumbnails are only visible on Short’s Shelves. A few places that shelves can trigger are on home, subs feed, search and more.
5:36:44 PM Katrina McCaffery: I pay a social media expert to put trending tags, trending keywords, the most popular titles based by our genre and still nothing. Youtube acts like the videos do not exist.
5:37:06 PM Ava: - Majority of Shorts views come from the Shorts feed where thumbnails aren’t shown, therefore impressions aren’t logged when your Short appears there.
5:37:43 PM Ava: Long form-videos
A video thumbnail is the first thing your audience will see on search results. It allows viewers to see a quick snapshot of a video while browsing YouTube. For these reasons, it plays a role in helping you get more views on YouTube.
5:38:01 PM Katrina McCaffery: OK appreciate that but the shorts is the least of my worries. It is my Moo and Mooey song videos that are my top priority and part of my family business
5:38:13 PM Ava: Titles and thumbnails are like billboards, as they help viewers determine if they will watch your videos on YouTube. A well-designed thumbnail and a video title will undoubtedly attract more followers to your channel. In turn, more people will watch your videos.
5:39:04 PM Ava: Additionally, this will make your content appealing to many YouTube advertisers.
To increase CTR, consider where your thumbnails appear, how to optimize them and where they need to stand out.
5:39:46 PM Ava: The title of your video can make the difference between someone watching and sharing it, or scrolling right past it, and it's best to create titles that accurately reflect the content.
5:40:09 PM Katrina McCaffery: Right, which is why every thumbnail is bright and colorful with the most popular things kids are interested in placed in the thumbnail. I have been a PR and marketing agent for 24 years and I am working with a seasoned marketing agent. So we understand all this. We just do not know Youtube is choosing to now show the new videos to anyone on the platform through suggestions or recommendations
5:41:19 PM Katrina McCaffery: Last questions because now we are just getting to generic responses. I am starting to think maybe there is a secret YouTube doesn't want people knowing on why christian kids content is being held back....
5:42:26 PM Ava: I completely recognize your extensive marketing background and how frustrating it is when professional optimization doesn't translate into the expected recommendation impressions for these specific uploads. Looking at your channel analytics, your Thumbnail impressions (recommended by YouTube) are 154,331, while your Thumbnail click-through rate (viewers who clicked after being recommended) is 5.8%:
https://studio.youtube.com/artist/a_3HrA4VFLiUw/analytics/tab-build_audience/period-default/total_reach-all/explore?c=UC2felo4ZaVqH_HVDZDgX2bg&entity_type=ARTIST&entity_id=a_3HrA4VFLiUw&time_period=4_weeks&total_reach_state=all&explore_type=TABLE_AND_CHART&metric=EXTERNAL_VIEWS&granularity=DAY&t_metrics=EXTERNAL_VIEWS&t_metrics=VIDEO_THUMBNAIL_IMPRESSIONS&t_metrics=VIDEO_THUMBNAIL_IMPRESSIONS_VTR&dimension=VIDEO&o_column=EXTERNAL_VIEWS&o_direction=ANALYTICS_ORDER_DIRECTION_DESC
5:42:26 PM Katrina McCaffery: before 2019, my account was verified. I got an email saying that they were changing requirements from 10k followers to 100k followers but if you got your badge before the change you could keep it. They took mine anyways
5:43:46 PM Ava: Setting your audience doesn't put any age restriction on your channel or video. Your content is still viewable by everyone. Made for kids videos are suggested the same way as other videos on YouTube.
5:44:12 PM Ava: I completely understand your issue regarding your verification badge.
5:44:17 PM Katrina McCaffery: Yeah you are looking at the one video google to the hold off of that got 69k impressions combined with the tiny bit from the other videos thanks to my own promotion and my old videos combined. I can see my own stats
5:45:14 PM Ava: Let's tackle each issue one at a time to keep everything organized and avoid any confusion.
5:46:05 PM Ava: Would you like to continue with the performance issue first or the verification badge issue?
5:46:14 PM Katrina McCaffery: OK, are you able to answer why they took my verification badge when they said they would not? I also need the transcript to this emailed so I can show my attorney because I feel this may be a discrimination issue towards my type of content. I could be wrong but I am getting a run around with no solid answer when I can see my own stats.
5:46:19 PM Katrina McCaffery: Yes please
5:46:30 PM Ava: Which one?
5:47:23 PM Katrina McCaffery: Let's discuss why my badge was removed after I was told that would not happened. You obviously do not have an answer for my other question.
5:48:21 PM Ava: Regarding your verification badge, the eligibility criteria and requirements for creator verification, I will need to convert this chat into an email so I can transfer you to our dedicated team, who can further assist you with this concern.
5:48:32 PM Katrina McCaffery: ok
5:48:38 PM Ava: Is this your best contact email for updates? [email address redacted for privacy]
5:48:43 PM Katrina McCaffery: Yes
5:49:03 PM Ava: Thank you for confirming. Expect an email update from our team within 24 hours.
5:49:11 PM Katrina McCaffery: Ok thank you.
5:49:44 PM Katrina McCaffery: All done? I can disconnect now?
5:49:44 PM Ava: On the other hand, for your chat transcript request, you have the option to request our chat conversation via email after the chat.
5:49:51 PM Katrina McCaffery: ok
5:50:16 PM Ava: To summarize, the current performance is within normal fluctuations, but is highly influenced by different contributing factors related to viewer behavior and interests.
5:51:34 PM Ava: By keeping on doing what works, you have a very good chance of success. These articles may also help you grow your channel further:
Discovery and performance optimization tips https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/141805?hl=en
Promote your videos https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/141808?hl=en
Get an overview of channel performance https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/92725?hl=en
New & returning viewer https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/13615784
How recommendations works https://www.youtube.com/howyoutubeworks/recommendations/
Impressions and click-through rate FAQ https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7628154
5:52:02 PM Ava: And here about frequently asked questions about “made for kids” https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9684541
5:52:22 PM Ava: I wish you luck for your channel and I really appreciate your time. For now, is there anything else I can help you with?
5:52:43 PM Katrina McCaffery: OK thank you Ava. I am not upset with you. I want you to know that. I appreciate you time.
5:53:02 PM Ava: Thank you so much for your patience and understanding today, and I truly appreciate your kind words.
5:53:11 PM Katrina McCaffery: Katrina McCaffery ended the conversation
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