Struggling with TrueView Campaigns: Inconsistent CPV and Audience Retention Metrics Post-Algorithm Update

hey guys, i've been deep diving into our youtube ad performance lately, specifically our TrueView campaigns, and we're hitting a wall with some really weird inconsistencies after what seems like a recent algorithm tweak on google's side.

the main issue is this wild fluctuation in cost per view (CPV) and a noticeable drop in audience retention metrics, even for our best-performing creative assets. we used to have a pretty stable benchmark for both, but now it's all over the place, sometimes spiking over 200% on similar audience segments where it was previously stable, sometimes even on the same creative running across different ad groups.

we've tried a bunch of things to diagnose it. initially, we thought it might be creative fatigue, so we A/B tested new hooks and calls-to-action, but the pattern persists across fresh content too. we've also experimented with different bidding strategies—switching from target CPV to maximum CPV, then back, even trying some target CPA campaigns just to see if the underlying optimization was different—but no consistent improvement. we've meticulously refined our audience targeting, excluding past converters, creating highly granular custom intent and custom affinity audiences, even layered in some remarketing lists with similar demographic profiles to our best performers, but the CPV volatility remains a headache.

what's really throwing us off is that the analytics dashboard sometimes shows a healthy view rate, but the actual watch time or retention graph just nose-dives almost immediately, indicating people are skipping faster or just not engaged, despite the initial click/view being registered. it feels like the targeting algorithm itself is either misinterpreting our ideal viewer or there's a new weighting factor we're completely missing. we've checked for impression fraud, bot traffic, all the usual suspects, but nothing conclusive. it's like our TrueView campaigns are getting shown to a less qualified audience despite our best efforts to narrow it down.

has anyone else noticed similar erratic behavior with their TrueView campaigns recently, particularly regarding CPV stability and audience engagement post-view? are there any advanced diagnostic tools or less obvious campaign settings we should be scrutinizing? could it be a change in how Google measures 'viewability' or 'engagement' for TrueView in-stream ads that's not explicitly documented? help a brother out please, this is driving us nuts trying to scale effeciently.