I spent around $700 promoting my YouTube channel through Google Ads and YouTube Studio, and gained nearly 11k subscribers. Once I stopped running ads, new videos barely got 30 views, and almost none came from subscribers. Engagement vanished fast. From my experience, ads can inflate numbers, but they don't always build a real audience.

If a platform knows you're willing to pay for views, why would it be in a hurry to give you the same reach for free? It's a bit like Amazon ads, once you stop spending, visibility can drop fast. That's why it's important to have a clear goal before putting money into promotion.

Slow and steady wins. Real engagement and loyal viewers are far more valuable than big numbers alone.

Ads can boost views for a while, but real growth usually comes from content people actually want to watch. In the long run, good videos and solid SEO tend to outperform paid promotion.

My podcast gets 300 downloads per episode. But 12% of listeners become clients. I'd take that over 10K passive followers.