While all the big players are hyper-focused on providing a new CLIPPY for AI on all apps, in every website, inside GMAIL, we need to talk about something that is hard to me to understand.
Why are YouTube marketing tools (YouTube Studio) and Meta Business Suite so bad? Is it because they don’t care? Don’t have staff? Are going to get our business even if their tools suck?
I’m going to do a very short walk through of a few of the biggest UX gripes I have from these two massive platforms.
This one is really bad. And as Meta tries to tie all their apps and platforms together it’s getting worse, not better. Now, I can respond to Instagram comments, Facebook comments, Reels comments, etc. But here’s the deal. IT SUCKS. I don’t use it at all.
Here’s one pet peeve. I run several pages, several groups, and several businesses (for clients) on Facebook. My “alert” flag is always up on Facebook. The little red three is down from seven earlier this morning. And my short dip into MBS triggered me enough to write this post. When I open my comms tab on Facebook it defaults to MBS. NO. And NO thank you.
Inside the Meta Business Suite I can reply to my Messenger, Instagram, Facebook comments, and Instagram comments all from the same window. But, it’s awful. I don’t want to manage or see my Instagram ALERTS when I’m looking at Facebook. I don’t need your Business Suite, it’s more like the business suite at a crappy Motel 6.
As META tries to force us to use their tools, don’t you think they would give more consideration to UX? How about giving me an option to OPT-OUT of all MBS admin tools? That would be a great start.
YouTube Creator Studio is a little better, but not much. There is a HUGE disconnect between Promotions here inside the studio and Google Ads or even Google Analytics. Why? Google owns the entire universe of online content. Why can’t I start a campaign in Studio and see the results in Analytics? Why, when a promotion is disallowed (Spam and Clickbait are the two terms they use for my content) can’t I get tech support on a chat or on a call? It’s all EMAIL. Well, you know what happens when a campaign scheduled for Father’s Day gets delayed for several days? You miss Father’s Day.
Of course, Google and YouTube are too big to care.
The promotions tab shows different VIEWS and LIKES than the content tab. It took me a good five minutes the first time I wanted to promote a YouTube video to locate the PROMOTIONS tab. Don’t you think that would be a useful MENU item? Why is it hidden behind the content tab and not a MAIN NAV item?
Then, if you have dreams of becoming a bonafide YouTube content creator, look at their metrics to even allow you to apply to the program.
When I started my YouTube channel growth journey three months ago I didn’t understand what this meant: “public watch hours.” Here’s the higher metric for being able to show ads and earn from your videos.
Let’s explore this concept of watch time (hours) in my analytics ON THEIR PLATFORM vs. “public watch hours” in the criteria for becoming a monetizing YouTube creator.
Here are my 90 days of stats.
So, let’s see. It shows I have 2,100 hours of “watch time (hours)” and 4,400 new subscribers. Okay, so how is my HOURS in the EARN tab showing 257 “public watch hours?” How does that work? A call the tech support didn’t really provide the answers.
The non-Engish speaking person was unhelpful. He kept saying, “Your “public watch hours” is working correctly.”
“Um, so how come it is not growing in alignment with my statistics in your own reporting tool?”
Well, here’s the hidden secret in some “eligibility” tab of a document for creators. Promotional hours do not count towards your “public watch hours” total. Wait, what? So, I can spend money to grow my channel, but you’re not going to count any of those hours toward my total on the EARN tab?
That is a scam. And when I do a little math, I can see the METRICS ARE NOT TRACKING.
Let’s say the overall number is correct. 2,100 “watch time (hours)” in the report above. According to Studio analytics 94.5% of my recent growth has been due to YouTube advertising. Okay. When I started about three months ago, my EARN total was 121 hours.
How is it only in my 2,100 hours of watched video did I just add 36 hours of “public watch hours?”
Even just adding their reported hours up I get 89 hours.
Sure, they have a disclaimer in the EARN tab. And here’s the page for the Expanded YouTube Partner Program. And they say, the numbers may not match between the PROMOTIONS tab and the ANALYTICS tab. Um, why is that? And why doesn’t my advertising on YouTube automatically sync with my Google Ads account or my Google Analytics account?
Don’t you think the metrics tools should ALWAYS BE IN SYNC? How do I know which number to trust? And why does support on YouTube Creator Studio dump me into the Google Adwords support team, when they know almost nothing about this YouTube Partner Program? I wait, get transferred, and wait again. Only to learn, they are different numbers.
I’m pretty sure, even with my strong growth, I’ll NEVER get to EARN status.
What gives? What’s your experience with YouTube promotions vs. Google Analytics?
John McElhenney — let’s connect online
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Related content:
A few of my creative ai motions:
- waltwhitman.ai < a book of “whitmanesque poetry” with zero AI
- Radio No Head < *ai* parsed music for you to sing and dream with
- poətic.com < my page about the ai poetry conundrum
- hyper-soul < the science fiction exploration and world-building project
- clickthis.ai < my team for *ai* marketing and sales acceleration
Please check out a few of my books on AMAZON.
