6,000 views, 10 clicks, 1 subscriber
What two weeks of automated content actually got me
Cristian Lascu
October 22, 2026
Over the past two and a half weeks I've been running an experiment on the side, and this week I want to share the results with you. Mostly because they turned out quite different from what the dashboards suggested at first.
The short version: lots of views, very little attention.
The setup
I built my own content pipeline for Instagram and TikTok. It runs almost entirely on free and open source tools, and it produces short reels and carousels in the same style as the rest of The Sovereign Technologist.
The part I'm a bit proud of is the voice. I recorded my own voice and remapped it (pitch, frequency and so on), so the pipeline can reproduce it exactly without me sitting in front of a microphone every evening.
Since October 2 it has posted around two times a day, apart from roughly five days where I skipped. Around 30 posts in total, all about the topics I write about here: missed calls, slow replies, AI recommending your competitors, the hours lost on paperwork.
The numbers (two and a half weeks later)
Views: almost 6,000 across both platforms. For a new account with no paid promotion, that's more than I expected.
Average watch time: between 1.5 and 3 seconds, depending on the post.
Website visits from the links: around 10.
New newsletter subscribers: 1.
So roughly one website visit for every 600 views, and one subscriber for the whole run coming from this.
Instagram vs TikTok
Same posts on both platforms, very different reach.
TikTok: the 12 posts I counted brought around 4,800 views, about 400 per post. The best ones were direct questions about AI. "Your next customer just asked AI who to call" got close to 800 views, and "Is your firm in the answer?" around 760.
Instagram: 18 posts brought around 1,080 views, about 60 per post. The best one here was the post that simply showed the product: a new lead coming in and being scored in seconds.
As far as I can tell, TikTok is much more willing to show a new account to people who don't follow it yet, while Instagram mostly waits until you have an audience. The numbers are still small, so I wouldn't build a strategy on this, but the difference was bigger than I expected.
What the pipeline got right
I don't want to be unfair to it. It did exactly what I built it to do: around 30 posts, consistent and on brand, in my own voice, for almost no money and very little of my time.
What it can't do yet is make someone stop scrolling. That needs more work, most likely a much stronger hook in the very first second.”Engaging and captivating”. Last week I wrote that the tools can build, and you still decide what's good. I probably should have read my own issue a bit more carefully.
What I'm changing for the next two weeks
This is the Validate step of the Building Loop doing its job. The data says the plan was wrong, so the plan changes.
The first second. Start with the moment itself, a phone ringing or a new enquiry popping up, before any headline. Something to watch before there's anything to read.
The call to action much earlier. Say the one thing to do within the first few seconds and keep it on screen, so even the people who leave early have seen it.
Fewer posts, more testing. Two versions of the same hook on the same day, to see which one keeps people watching longer.
I'll measure the same four numbers again (views, watch time, visits, subscribers) and share them here in two weeks, whatever they show.
If you're posting short videos for your business
Check your average watch time before you look at your views. Both Instagram and TikTok show it for each post in the insights.
If it's under three seconds, posting more won't change much. Fix the first second first.
If you'd like help with this
If you're putting time or money into content and can't see what it actually turns into, book half an hour with me. We'll follow it from views to enquiries, with your own numbers.
Or just reply with your own average watch time, and I’ll tell you the first thing I’d look at.
The One Thing
Views tell you the platform showed your post. Watch time tells you whether anyone stayed. Two and a half weeks of automated content got me almost 6,000 views, people stayed for less than three seconds, and one person joined the list. Fix the first second before you post more.
Count the seconds before you count the views.
What I'm Thinking About This Week
Whether automation and attention can really go together. A pipeline makes posting cheap, which is great for me. But it's cheap for everyone else too, so the feeds get fuller every day and the first second becomes more and more expensive. I don't know yet where that balance sits. That's what the next two weeks are for.
If you post short videos for your business, reply with your average watch time.
What resonated? What did I get wrong? Hit reply: I read everything and I'm building this with you and with your input.
P.S. The toolkit, in the order I would use it: Scout → Visibility Audit → GEO/AEO Audit Checklist → How to Get Cited by AI → SEO Strategy Playbook → Title & Meta Audit → Sovereign Idea Workflow. All free.
P.P.S. Know someone posting every day and wondering why nothing happens? Forward this. They can subscribe at thesovereigntechnologist.com.
That’s all for this week.
See you next Thursday.
