Shorts bring reach; long videos bring watch hours and better earnings. The trick is building a bridge between them.
Use the "Related video" link on every Short
When uploading a Short, you can attach a related video from your channel. It appears as a tappable link on the Short. This is the single most effective bridge — use it every time, pointing to the long video the Short came from or relates to.
Cut Shorts from long videos
The best Shorts for this purpose are a single great moment from a long video: the reveal in a review, the key trick in a tutorial, the punchline in a podcast. The viewer who enjoyed the moment has an obvious reason to watch the full video.
End on an open question
"…and the third setting is the one that actually fixed my battery" — then link the long video. Don't hide the whole answer, but leave a reason to tap.
Pin a comment
Pin a comment on the Short with a short line pointing to the full video. Some viewers check comments before deciding to tap through.
Make long videos easy to start
A viewer arriving from a Short expects the same pace. Long videos with slow intros lose them. Start with the moment they saw in the Short, then expand.
Measure it
In Studio, check the long video's traffic sources for Shorts feed and related video traffic. If a Short's link brings very few viewers, try a different Short format or a different long video to link.
Watch-hour impact
Shorts watch time doesn't count toward 4,000 hours, but the long-form views that Shorts send do. A channel getting a few lakh Shorts views a month can add meaningful watch hours this way — use the watch-time calculator to see what a given number of long-form views adds up to.