The Shorts funnel lie

The Shorts funnel lie
Heard this from two managers in the same week: clients were told "blow up on Shorts, funnel them to long-form." Sources say the conversion is brutal — often under 1% of Shorts viewers ever touch a long video.
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Why: Shorts viewers are in a different mode, and YouTube treats the two surfaces as nearly separate audiences. A million Shorts views can leave your long-form right where it was.
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What does this mean for a channel like yours? Treat Shorts as their own product with their own goal, or build genuine narrative bridges — not just an end-card plea. Confidence: high — the funnel collapse is widely reported.