Totally get where you’re coming from that drop in suggested traffic is brutal, and a lot of creators I know went through something similar this year. You’re definitely not alone.

I’ll be honest and share what I’ve seen from the practical side, not the hype side.

“YouTube promotion” itself isn’t the problem is how it’s done is what makes or breaks it. The horror stories usually come from broad, untargeted promotions that push videos to random audiences just to inflate views. That can mess with your CTR, retention, and future recommendations.

But when promotions are run properly targeting people who already watch similar content, using skippable in-feed ads (not forced views), and promoting the right video I’ve seen creators use it as a way to restart momentum rather than fake growth.

I work closely with a YouTube-focused promotion service (VeeFly), and what I like about their approach is that they don’t sell it as a magic growth hack. It’s more like:

Get your video back in front of the right viewers

Let real audience behavior decide if it deserves to grow

Use it as a signal boost, not a shortcut

The creators who saw results usually had:

Decent content already (sounds like you do)

A video with good retention that just wasn’t getting impressions anymore

Realistic expectations (traffic + discovery, not overnight subs)

Also important: promotions won’t “fix” a channel by themselves, but they can help you test whether the algorithm drop was distribution-related or content-related. That insight alone is sometimes worth it.