Don't stress about audience retention too much early on.

[MiketheDbacker26]

Decided to make this since I've been reading topics and talking to other YouTubers who are stressing about their audience retention rate.

I won't argue against the fact that it's important. In fact, I'd agree that it is the most important stat on YouTube. However (and this primarily applies to newer YouTubers), odds are your audience retention won't be very high.

Think about it. You spend so much time showing people your videos, sharing it on websites. You'll get views and exposure, but you'll inevitably get hordes of people who'll watch your video for 5 seconds, say "great video" and leave hoping you'll come to them because you're desperate. There are people like this on every channel, but when you don't have a high number of dedicated subs, your stats will fall pretty harshly. So even though it's good to care, don't let it bother you. You'll have low numbers because you're new, and so it may not reflect how good or bad your videos are. So just be patient, put stats aside, and focus on improving your channel, and once you get to the point where you start getting more subs and views, then you can start looking at stats like this to get accurate feedback

 

[Kevin8789]

Excellent post and very true.

Subscribers actually WATCH your videos and usually all the way through or at least 80% of the way through.

Why? Because they LIKE you and your videos (hence the subscription).

In the beginning a lot of your views are 1-10 seconds long as people who are NOT interested in you or your videos happen to stumble across them.

 

[DeathJohnson]

The key to YouTube is to make videos that are 3 seconds or less, therefore giving people virtually no chance to leave before the end.

 

[Kevin8789]

Oh did that make me chuckle. Thanks for that

 

[MazaParaza]

The key to YouTube is to make videos that are 3 seconds or less, therefore giving people virtually no chance to leave before the end.

Just make a really high pitched screaming sound to scare the heck out of them

 

[SauceOne]

Just make a really high pitched screaming sound to scare the heck out of them

So.... be PewDiePie, right?

 

[TheBatteryChicken]

But audience retention isn't the most important thing, watch time is the most important

 

[Munchito696]

Decided to make this since I've been reading topics and talking to other YouTubers who are stressing about their audience retention rate.

I won't argue against the fact that it's important. In fact, I'd agree that it is the most important stat on YouTube. However (and this primarily applies to newer YouTubers), odds are your audience retention won't be very high.

Think about it. You spend so much time showing people your videos, sharing it on websites. You'll get views and exposure, but you'll inevitably get hordes of people who'll watch your video for 5 seconds, say "great video" and leave hoping you'll come to them because you're desperate. There are people like this on every channel, but when you don't have a high number of dedicated subs, your stats will fall pretty harshly. So even though it's good to care, don't let it bother you. You'll have low numbers because you're new, and so it may not reflect how good or bad your videos are. So just be patient, put stats aside, and focus on improving your channel, and once you get to the point where you start getting more subs and views, then you can start looking at stats like this to get accurate feedback

But audience retention isn't the most important thing, watch time is the most important

My lifetime average view duration is 47 seconds, and the retention rate is 61%. I do short videos though most of the time, the only long ones are my mountain biking videos. I am fine with those stats.... My long videos don't have very many views because I'm not jumping over canyons or doing backflips off of 50 foot jumps. My dog videos do well and they are normally pretty short. One of my videos has had tons of likes, hardly any dislikes, and has been my highest earning video even though it's shorter than my most viewed video. It has earned more than a video that has over 3 times more views somehow and also has longer view duration. Somehow I think there are other factors people don't know about.

 

[Kevin8789]

But audience retention isn't the most important thing, watch time is the most important

Excellent point. Also very true. I have just been watching a video about that from YouTube Creator. Watch time is KEY!

That is why the popular channels always get their videos to the top of the search results - because they have 1000's of their subscribers WATCHING their videos pretty much as soon as they upload.

Also, I'm really glad YT/Google now realise LIKES / DISLIKES are pretty much a joke in terms of assessing video quality. Too open to abuse. But watch time. Well, it's a clear indicator of video quality.

 

[HumbleZeus]

So true great advice and definitely something new youtubers should consider