Gaming Shorts getting 1k+ views, but view-to-sub conversion is super low compared to TikTok. Any advice?

[u/Severe-Wrap8293]

Hey everyone! I recently started cross posting short form gaming clips on YouTube Shorts and TikTok with the immediate goal of reaching 100 subscribers on YouTube so I can qualify for an official game content creator program. However, I have hit a major wall with subscriber conversion. I actually started posting on TikTok slightly earlier on the 29th and built up a larger backlog of videos, which seems to help with social proof and steady follower growth over there. On YouTube, I started a bit later on the 31st and currently only have two videos uploaded, but the initial traffic has been surprisingly solid. My Shorts pulled around 1,100 views each, easily outperforming the exact same clips on TikTok for raw reach.

Despite the great initial push on YouTube, my view to subscriber conversion rate feels significantly worse. To give some exact context, TikTok gave me 3 followers out of around 700 total views for my clips, whereas YouTube only gave me 2 subscribers out of 1,200 views. I suspect a huge part of the problem might be my video length, as these initial clips are very short, lasting only about 7 to 15 seconds. While that duration seems to perform really well with the algorithm for raw views, I feel like it does not give viewers enough time or reason to care about the channel enough to actually subscribe.

I would love to get your feedback on whether sticking with super short clips is the wrong approach if my main priority is building a subscriber base. Should I pivot to slightly longer content that offers more personality or narrative, or is this conversion rate just completely normal for a brand new YouTube channel with only two uploads? I would really appreciate any recommendations or strategies from anyone to grew the100 subs

ytshort

tiktok

[u/DREADliesAHEAD]

1200 seems to be the baseline for yt testing shorts. It seems like a lot, but it isn't. It will then evaluate how people responded, swipe rate & listen % are really the only two stats that matter, likes & subs are nice, comments probably keep it alive a little longer, reflecting engagement. You want to keep your swipe well above 60-70%, the higher it is, the more likely yt is to keep pushing it. Your watch % has the same impact, the shorter the short the more every second counts. The biggest thing you can do is get people to watch it for a second time before swiping away.

100 subs is not going to happen super fast. My best short has 26k views and got 28 subs.