Disclaimer: This Article was written, designed and published with a bias for better serving the concerns of OGAds users that commonly use content locking incentives in conjunction to YouTube Videos.
-
Having a YouTube video removed can be not only frustrating to deal with but can be detrimental to your ROI (Return on Investment) as well to being very discouraging. Who wants to spend the time and money ranking videos only to have it removed? We know the feeling all too well. In this Article we will identify what are the factors that cause videos to be removed, how to avoid it from happening and how to properly appeal the decision if it ever does happen.
That being said, it is worth mentioning that many members take account for video removals into their equation and still manage to profit whilst anticipating a percentage of their videos to be removed over time, sometimes being removed only 6 months or later after the video has been uploaded. However, many of these takedowns can be avoided entirely, generating traffic for years thus increasing profitability of the YouTube equation. Without further ado, let’s dive right into it.
The Three Main Vulnerability Sources
-
Corporations, Copyright, Legal Mechanisms
So here let’s say you upload a video on How to get unlimited gems in clash of clans for free.
YouTube and Supercell (clash of clans parent company), will perceive your video as a liability. More specifically, Supercell will assume your video is a threat to the integrity of their game and most importantly their ability to generate revenue via the sale of in game gems. You are after all claiming to show players how to exploit their business model.
-
Why does YouTube care more about companies like Supercell over more obscure Games/apps?
The reasons are pretty straight forward. Firstly, Supercell is a multi billion dollar company that spends many millions of dollars advertising with Google, thus they will naturally be more protected by Google and YouTube. Secondly, Google does not want to allow any legal friction to develop with a multi billion dollar company and wants to maintain a great relationship with all potential brands / advertisers. So if Supercell wants a video removed, there is a good chance it will be removed. In these cases, the uploader of the video would need highly compelling evidence and social weight to reverse the decision. These underlying legal implications are no joke!
-
So the question is, how do we get around this obstacle? can we even monetize these keywords?
YES! we can indeed work around this with a little bit of creativity and ingenuity. The ultimate golden rule here is: Make it clear you are NOT a threat to their business model or the integrity of their products in any way whatsoever.
For example, in your video you explain how Supercell will still get paid for all the gems being allocated to users, they are only “free” to the user because the purchase is sponsored by another company such as a reward app like “FeaturePoints” that pay users in gift cards for completing actions.
(You should make your own hypothetical “feature points” system so you can earn from OGAds).
Doing this, Supercell will not only avoid removing your video but potentially appreciate it’s existence because they perceive it as probably generating more sales via these third party sponsors that otherwise wouldn't have happened.
(You could also claim the gems are only unlimited in a special offline version of the game and not the real online ecosystem)
This YouTube phenomena of protecting corporate interests is obviously not just true for Supercell. Any major brand or company holds the power to moderate videos to a similar extent however, you will notice that not all companies will actively moderate videos as much as companies like Supercell or Netflix does.
-
Finally when it comes to copyright claims, it is highly recommended that you make sure your video does not infringe upon any copyrights (audio, video or digital contents). If it is a legitimate copyright claim there is absolutely nothing you can do about it and continuous infringements can lead to legal pursuit by the holders.
However, in some cases an actor or competitor will try to get your video removed for one reason or another and can falsely claim copyright infringement. If you know that the copyright claim is fraudulent, you can definitely appeal the decision and successfully bring back the video.
-
Automated Removals (Terms of Service)
YouTube has a broad range of rules for videos that are allowed and not allowed on the platform. They also have various initiatives brought upon by themselves and sometimes even international governments to achieve a specific goal. This can range from fighting what is deemed as misinformation, spam, scams, undesirable content in general.
Your objective here is to become aware of these underlying policy rules and avoid raising any red flags that the algorithm can detect. YouTube has an automated algorithm that essentially watches your video and feeds the input to their Machine Learning Protocol. If the video is determined mathematically likely to be a liability by the algorithm, it will be removed. You can appeal this decision if you have the grounds for it and explain your case appropriately.
-
For the most part this automated system is a wonderful piece of technology that secures the integrity of the YouTube platform we all love. However, sometimes the system will make a mistake or flag a video in a bit of a grey area (many member videos are in the grey area).
You can appeal this and succeed every time but you must make sure to make a high quality appeal request. You must provide them with a compelling explanation to why your video is legitimate and that it is purely for educational purposes, with evidence addressing the takedown bias such as, proof there is no copyrighted material or proof there is no malicious software, concluding that the removal was a mistake. If sufficient proof is provided, the video will be restored. If not enough quality evidence is provided, YouTube is likely to ‘play it safe’ and reject the appeal.
Something worth mentioning that I have noticed happening, is the fact that successfully bringing back a video seems to provide it with a shield against future reports or red flags. The algorithm seems to mark your video with a ‘trusted’ status on some of it’s calculus parameters and thus increases the risk threshold required for it to be removed again. Food for thought anyway.
-
Viewers Reporting and Flagging
For a variety of reasons, viewers may decide to take offense to your video and begin reporting it. (unfortunately some people will do this just for fun). Depending on the circumstances, YouTube may send your video to be manually reviewed by an employee or outright removed.
If it is a real human assessing the reports, he or she may rely on the comment section for context and the actual video contents to determine his or her decision. If your video is made in a clear cut promising way with no loose ends or room for the employee to speculate the possible risks claimed by the reporter (scam, malware etc). The reasonable decision will be to mark your video as safe. If the employee is unsure, they may simply remove it in which you could appeal the decision and as mentioned above there is an effective, reliable way to successfully appeal the decision. The same principle applies if the video is removed by an automated system.
So how do you make your video bullet proof against these reports and insure it won’t be so easily taken down?
The largest and most frequent recurrent theme here is the fact many of the videos published by members are low quality in nature, horrendous risks of speculative dangers from the video. Most videos are extremely gimmicky and do not seem genuine. YouTube does not like to risk liability and will play it safe.
You need a video that is undoubtedly safe to YouTube’s eye. Only instructing your viewers to visit highly trusted websites that wont ask for an email or to download software.
-
Here is a cool concept and tool all the pros use:
For example: You can download the popcorn time app from this trusted website. Once downloaded you are good to go. (You never mentioned the content locker in the video!). This will make the video clean and more legit to both YouTube’s eye and the actual target audience. (Nobody likes to see content lockers in a video).
Once they download the app you linked or merely mentioned in the video (iOS profile / APK). They will be met with your content locker upon opening the app despite you not having a content locker in your video! crazy!
You can easily create and deploy these custom app profiles using this tool: https://ogapk.net/
It was developed by an OGAds member for this very purpose and is being used by many of the top YouTube publishers. The advantages this strategy provides is simply game changing. So if you haven’t used it yet you are totally missing out on increased ranking potential and a shield against various reports.
Over the years I have managed to successfully appeal and reverse the decision by YouTube to remove many of my videos across various channels. Takedowns have now become a very rare occurrence.
- Marshall
-
"Hey YouTube this video does not infringe upon any rules or terms of service regarding the 'spam and scams' policy that apparently warranted this strike removal. Please take another look at this video, there is nothing to call spam or identifiable as a scam, this program was even approved under the rules of the App store and Supercell partnership. I believe this video has been mass reported by a YouTube competitor of mine under false grounds. I put a lot of time into this video for my fanbase and find this matter rather upsetting."
-
Disclaimer: This Article was written, designed and published with a bias for better serving the concerns of OGAds users that commonly use content locking incentives in conjunction to YouTube Videos.
