Youtube Long Form
The growth engine for YouTube long-form video in 2026. Use when someone asks to "grow my YouTube channel," "get more views on my videos," "plan/scr…
By Frank Heijdenrijk, MIT licence. Shared here with credit.
youtube-long-form
The growth engine for YouTube long-form — the opposite engine from Shorts. No swipe feed to win; instead a packaging gate (the click) and a retention gate (do they stay, and watch more). It's decoupled from Shorts, though the Short→long click-through is now tracked. (Sibling: youtube-shorts — don't run them as one plan.)
Read these first
- brand-profile — niche, positioning, non-negotiables.
- voice-builder — so the script and packaging sound like the channel (not generic narration).
The two-metric gate + the dominant signal
- CTR gets the click; AVD keeps it. High CTR + low AVD = misleading packaging → demoted; low CTR + high AVD = good content, fix packaging first.
- Session contribution is the dominant 2026 signal (it replaced absolute watch time). Videos
that extend the session get amplified in Suggested; videos that end sessions get buried.
Build each upload as a link in a chain. (Full mechanics:
references/longform-algorithm-2026.md.)