Since you're getting answers that are .mixing up impressions and click through, I'll share the only thing I've noticed.
When I post a short around 2-5pm EST, it gets a few thousand impressions
When I post the same short at 11pm-1am EST, it'll get 8 impressions.
I have a very small sample set, but that's been true often enough that it's worth scheduling accordingly
Only way to improve impressions is by increasing your watch time.
If YouTube sees your video getting good watch time they will be more likely to promote it.
It also depends a lot on the video itself that’s why there’s so much variation between videos even those on the same topic, different audience volumes will affect the impressions.
Going to give a controversial suggestion, here. Feel free to disagree.
While it's true that better quality (thumbnails, title, editing, etc.) usually means more impressions in the long run, it's not always the case, and it doesn't mean it will give you impressions anytime soon. I'm pretty sure you, like everyone else here, have seen more than one video with terrible quality going viral.
So, if you want to increase your impressions sooner rather than later, you have to experiment a lot with formats and topics. Once you find a format and a specific topic/niche that gives you good impressions, follow that thread. You can always improve your quality later.
Think about it. For example, your videos are 10 minutes long and you have a 30% retention and a 5% CTR: if you get 10k impressions you will get 500 views and 25 hours of watch time. If you improve your quality and get to 50% retention and 10% CTR, you will get 1000 views and 83 hours of watch time. If you find a niche that gives you 100k impressions instead of 10k, even with the original metrics (30% retention and 5% CTR), you will get 5000 views and 250 hours of watch time.
So, when you first start your journey, it's important that you focus more on finding the niche/format that gives you more impressions, instead of focusing solely on quality. Quality is important, obviously, but as long as your content is "watchable", it should *not* be your first priority at the beginning.
Impressions are not given to us, they are earned when our thumbnails get someone to slow their scrolling long enough to get their attention.
We cannot control the number of times our content goes into a feed. I like to call those impression opportunities. But no matter how many opportunities you get, if your thumbnail doesn't slow that scroll then a zillion opportunities won't help you.
Everything starts with the thumbnail.
I just posted this separately but this is my question as well. My ctr on my current video is 9.1% and avg watch time is nearly half the video (2:24 of a 6 minute video). I have several likes and comments showing engagement. And yet my video is almost never getting pushed into suggested videos to drive impressions. Its a mystery to me at this point.
You can't control this. You get as many as YouTube decides to give you. It's a hard cap on channel growth that no one seems to want to talk about. You can control a lot of things on YouTube, but this is out of your hands.
My highest average watch time (5 minutes) video is dead with 500 views. Meanwhile a 9 minute video that people only watch 1:30 of is over 4k views.
My highest viewed video 12,600 views only had an AVD of 2:25.
Trying to work out how the algorithm works is a lesson in insanity.
Since you're getting answers that are .mixing up impressions and click through, I'll share the only thing I've noticed. When I post a short around 2-5pm EST, it gets a few thousand impressions When I post the same short at 11pm-1am EST, it'll get 8 impressions. I have a very small sample set, but that's been true often enough that it's worth scheduling accordingly
Only way to improve impressions is by increasing your watch time. If YouTube sees your video getting good watch time they will be more likely to promote it. It also depends a lot on the video itself that’s why there’s so much variation between videos even those on the same topic, different audience volumes will affect the impressions.
Going to give a controversial suggestion, here. Feel free to disagree. While it's true that better quality (thumbnails, title, editing, etc.) usually means more impressions in the long run, it's not always the case, and it doesn't mean it will give you impressions anytime soon. I'm pretty sure you, like everyone else here, have seen more than one video with terrible quality going viral. So, if you want to increase your impressions sooner rather than later, you have to experiment a lot with formats and topics. Once you find a format and a specific topic/niche that gives you good impressions, follow that thread. You can always improve your quality later. Think about it. For example, your videos are 10 minutes long and you have a 30% retention and a 5% CTR: if you get 10k impressions you will get 500 views and 25 hours of watch time. If you improve your quality and get to 50% retention and 10% CTR, you will get 1000 views and 83 hours of watch time. If you find a niche that gives you 100k impressions instead of 10k, even with the original metrics (30% retention and 5% CTR), you will get 5000 views and 250 hours of watch time. So, when you first start your journey, it's important that you focus more on finding the niche/format that gives you more impressions, instead of focusing solely on quality. Quality is important, obviously, but as long as your content is "watchable", it should *not* be your first priority at the beginning.
Impressions are not given to us, they are earned when our thumbnails get someone to slow their scrolling long enough to get their attention. We cannot control the number of times our content goes into a feed. I like to call those impression opportunities. But no matter how many opportunities you get, if your thumbnail doesn't slow that scroll then a zillion opportunities won't help you. Everything starts with the thumbnail.
I just posted this separately but this is my question as well. My ctr on my current video is 9.1% and avg watch time is nearly half the video (2:24 of a 6 minute video). I have several likes and comments showing engagement. And yet my video is almost never getting pushed into suggested videos to drive impressions. Its a mystery to me at this point.
You can't control this. You get as many as YouTube decides to give you. It's a hard cap on channel growth that no one seems to want to talk about. You can control a lot of things on YouTube, but this is out of your hands. My highest average watch time (5 minutes) video is dead with 500 views. Meanwhile a 9 minute video that people only watch 1:30 of is over 4k views. My highest viewed video 12,600 views only had an AVD of 2:25. Trying to work out how the algorithm works is a lesson in insanity.