How to improve my CTR?

Acerthorn

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My channel: https://www.youtube.com/acerthorn

My youtube analytics is as follows:

Last 365 days - 3.0% CTR and 6:59 Average View Duration
2019 so far - 3.4% CTR and 7:36 Average View Duration
Last 90 days - 3.8% CTR and 10:14 Average View Duration
Last 28 days - 4.3% CTR and 12:41 Average View Duration
Last 7 days - 5.2% CTR and 15:12 Average View Duration

So as far as average view duration is concerned, it seems that I've got that down to a science. What I really need right now, in order for my channel to really take off, is CTR.

All the sources I have consulted tell me that the trick to getting good CTR is having colorful, easy-to-understand thumbnails, and titles that intrigue viewers and make them want to see what the video has to say about that topic.

I thought I was doing that.

"Could Fallout 76 Invent a New Form of Storytelling?" What, that's not an interesting topic to talk about? That video only has a 2.2% CTR.
"Super Mario RPG vs. Paper Mario - Who Nostalgias it Better?" has a measly 2.0% CTR, and here I thought that was a cool topic to discuss, seeing as both of those games are many people's childhood games.

Are my thumbnails the problem? I certainly make sure to add a lot of bold colors in the thumbnails to make them stand out.

Again, if my average view duration is any indication, the few people who do click on my videos tend to enjoy the videos enough to stick around for a long time. It's getting them to click in the first place that I seem to be having trouble with.

How do I boost my CTR?
 

Bruman

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So I don't know much about the details of CTR but what I can tell from looking at your channel is that your thumbnails are over crowded.
you include your name, the game name, random text as well as a picture. In my experience with my old channel and new, this is too much
to attract any clicks. I would say that a solid thumbnail I click on only has 2 points of interest in it. For vlogs its usually the vlogger and a catchy title.
For games, definitely leave your name out of it and try to stick with an interesting background along with a catchy but short text. If you'd like I can
photoshop a thumbnail for one of your videos to demonstrate what I mean. Maybe that will help explain visually why it would be more appealing.
 

Bruman

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So after looking at my statistics on the few videos I do have, My CTR is at 15.7%. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the difference
in what content we produce or if that's decent for a vlogging channel. But more on my previous point, My thumbnail for the video in my
signature is super simple but seems to be a good video that people like to click on. If I had to sum up what I think does it for people I would
say the simple text pops with the background, my white hat on the wooden canopy just pops. I accidentally created a really nice thumbnail
where all the colors mix well.
 

Acerthorn

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Which of my thumbnails did you consider to be the worst? The Fallout 76 video has a pretty simple thumbnail: Just the Fallout 76 helmet and some text on the left side. The "Super Mario RPG vs. Paper Mario" video has a thumbnail that I actually had some people critique before I posted the video: http://yttalk.com/threads/please-rate-my-thumbnail-any-suggestions-for-improvements.289196/#post-2326815

My five most popular videos in terms of watch minutes - "Skyrim Retrospective: Does it Still Hold Up" "Fallout 4 Retrospective," "Should you forgive Baron Blade? - WWE 2k19 Story Analysis," "Are the Stormcloaks racist? - Elder Scrolls Discussion & Lore," and "Why Saadia is Innocent - Elder Scrolls Lore and Discussion" all have relatively simple thumbnails too. So how come they have CTRs of less than 10%?

Excluding unlisted videos that are only accessible via playlists, the only public video that has a CTR greater than 10% for the month of June 2019 is this video:

That video has a CTR of 10.9% for the last 28 days.

How do I get more videos with CTR greater than 10%?
 

Bruman

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Which of my thumbnails did you consider to be the worst? The Fallout 76 video has a pretty simple thumbnail: Just the Fallout 76 helmet and some text on the left side. The "Super Mario RPG vs. Paper Mario" video has a thumbnail that I actually had some people critique before I posted the video: http://yttalk.com/threads/please-rate-my-thumbnail-any-suggestions-for-improvements.289196/#post-2326815

My five most popular videos in terms of watch minutes - "Skyrim Retrospective: Does it Still Hold Up" "Fallout 4 Retrospective," "Should you forgive Baron Blade? - WWE 2k19 Story Analysis," "Are the Stormcloaks racist? - Elder Scrolls Discussion & Lore," and "Why Saadia is Innocent - Elder Scrolls Lore and Discussion" all have relatively simple thumbnails too. So how come they have CTRs of less than 10%?

Excluding unlisted videos that are only accessible via playlists, the only public video that has a CTR greater than 10% for the month of June 2019 is this video:

That video has a CTR of 10.9% for the last 28 days.

How do I get more videos with CTR greater than 10%?
Give me a couple minutes to inspect your channel completely and I'll comprise a list(in my opinion) of your thumbnails from best to worst. If my list happens to correlate with the CTR then I might be onto something. Also on the topic of making the thumbnails more simple, I think you need to change your editing style for them. But again just constructive criticism
 

Acerthorn

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Give me a couple minutes to inspect your channel completely and I'll comprise a list(in my opinion) of your thumbnails from best to worst. If my list happens to correlate with the CTR then I might be onto something. Also on the topic of making the thumbnails more simple, I think you need to change your editing style for them. But again just constructive criticism
Change it to what style?
 

Bruman

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So in my opinion, your best thumbnails are:
Why Fallout 4 Didn't Fail
And
Harry Potter retrospective

There are others that are okay but there's too much going on like I said prior. Too start I would not have such a large stroke around the lettering. There is too much outline. I would also stray from the colorful backgrounds with swirls and random colors. It just doesn't fit the vibe of the game or videos. On my old channel I would put an interesting snapshot that is included in my video somewhere or grab a royalty free hd photo from the game off of Google. Then with your text choose something that pops in a good way off the photo. Like I use white text with a very small stroke around the lettering. Not only does this make it pop but my choice of don't also makes it look better. That's my next point, your choice of font is too blocky Imo. I recommend searching for similar videos to the ones you upload and comparing all of them. Upon searching you will see what I mean. Some of these popular YouTubers stay popular for good reason. They make quality content with catchy thumbnails that are simple but pop. Again I offer my services in Photoshop to give an example of how I might go about making one.
 

Acerthorn

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Why Fallout 4 Didn't Fail
Only 4.8% CTR for the videos lifetime

Harry Potter retrospective
You mean the introduction video? That has a lifetime CTR of only 2.5%.

In the last 90 days, my Top 5 Highest CTR videos (again, excluding unlisted videos) are as follows:

Space Emperors - Let's Play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on Max Difficulty Sec. 1, Ep. 1 - 10.6% CTR
Let's Play Fallout New Vegas Blind #01 – Ack the Amnesiac - 9.5% CTR
Why Nuka-World is a Bad DLC for Fallout 4 – Fallout Lore & Discussion - 9.1% CTR
What Is the Eye of Magnus? - Elder Scrolls Lore & Discussion - 8.5% CTR
Skyrim Retrospective - Does it Still Hold Up? - 8.3% CTR
 

Bruman

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Only 4.8% CTR for the videos lifetime


You mean the introduction video? That has a lifetime CTR of only 2.5%.

In the last 90 days, my Top 5 Highest CTR videos (again, excluding unlisted videos) are as follows:

Space Emperors - Let's Play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on Max Difficulty Sec. 1, Ep. 1 - 10.6% CTR
Let's Play Fallout New Vegas Blind #01 – Ack the Amnesiac - 9.5% CTR
Why Nuka-World is a Bad DLC for Fallout 4 – Fallout Lore & Discussion - 9.1% CTR
What Is the Eye of Magnus? - Elder Scrolls Lore & Discussion - 8.5% CTR
Skyrim Retrospective - Does it Still Hold Up? - 8.3% CTR
So effective titling as well as thumbnails should be your goal on your next video. Then see what CTR you get
 

Acerthorn

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For the month of June 2019, I don't even have five videos that aren't unlisted in my Top 50 videos when I sort by CTR (and currently, youtube studio analytics doesn't even give me the option of seeing more than the Top 50, or the ability to sort them from lowest to highest, so I'm stuck working with what I've got). The top 4 highest CTR for non-unlisted videos are ...

What Is the Eye of Magnus? - Elder Scrolls Lore & Discussion - 10.2% CTR (as mentioned earlier)
Space Emperors - Let's Play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on Max Difficulty Sec. 1, Ep. 1 - 9.5% CTR
Olfina Gray-Mane's Character Makes No Sense! - Elder Scrolls Lore & Discussion - 9.2% CTR
Are the Stormcloaks racist? - Elder Scrolls Discussion & Lore Episode 1 - 9.1% CTR