View bots are programmed to help inflate video metrics, such as viewership and engagement. Spotting them can be difficult, but watching for repetitive, generic comments and unrealistic subscriber-to-view ratios is a good start.
Other tools can also help you increase live stream viewers. These include catchy video titles, SEO and attention-getting thumbnail images.
Increased Viewership
View bots are the most common type of bot in the livestreaming and video content industry. These fake viewers are used to manipulate algorithms and artificially inflate engagement metrics. They can also perform other malicious activities such as spamming chat sections of videos with automated messages.
A high number of views to low engagement ratio is a telltale sign of a viewer bot. YouTube encourages users and advertisers to report these channels and take action by way of bans or demonetization.
Livestreaming on YouTube is a great way to engage with your audience in real time. You can run pre-roll, mid-roll and display ads on your videos to earn revenue and attract more viewers. It’s also a good idea to optimize your description and add links and information to improve your search ranking. You can even add a custom thumbnail to grab attention. Lastly, you can enable Super Chat and create an exclusive experience for your viewers.
Boosted Engagement
Using a view bot may boost your video views, but it doesn’t do much to increase the engagement on your channel. It’s a big red flag to YouTube if you have a large number of views without lots of comments or interactions, and it could hurt your SEO ranking.
To count as a view, the YouTube algorithm must detect that a person watched your video in a consistent sequence and that it played for at least 30 consecutive seconds. It’s also important that the video isn’t designed to take viewers away from YouTube to a website or another streaming platform.
Authentically growing your audience takes time and effort. However, there are several tools you can use to kickstart the process:
Increased Revenue
Using a view bot to inflate your video views is against the terms of service for almost all major streaming platforms. In addition, it’s a huge red flag to viewers who can spot fake viewership numbers.
Streamers that use view bots rob advertisers of the value of their advertising campaigns, especially if they’re running CPM or paid impression-based ads. If a video gets 1000 impressions and 15-20% of those are fake, that’s wasted money.
The motivation to use view bots is primarily financial, with newbies on video platforms looking to get a jumpstart on their subscriber count and manipulate algorithms to show their videos to more (genuine) users. Many of these bots also engage in chat impersonation to artificially inflate engagement metrics. This is particularly dangerous for branded content. It can damage the reputation of a brand and even result in litigation. It can also damage the credibility of a streaming channel if it is caught.
Reduced Stress
While entertainment and knowledge are the most common motivations for viewing streaming content, many viewers enjoy interacting with other streamers and viewers in chat. This often leads to people sharing personal experiences with mental health struggles or other issues. Seeing these stories can make viewers feel supported and not alone, especially when others in chat empathize or offer encouraging messages.
For some, however, this discussion can cause discomfort. As P3 (male, 18, Caucasian) puts it, they feel that “certain topics carry a weight with them and it’s hard to talk about those in the context of gaming.”
Nevertheless, some streamers find ways to address these concerns while still maintaining the focus of their content. For example, one participant described watching a streamer take a short break from gameplay to discuss mental health with her audience in the channel’s chat, but only after she had received backlash from chat. As a result, this caused her to stop playing for some time.youtube live stream viewers bot
