How to Learn about Retention Rate and Average Watch Time of your Competitors

[SweetsAndCandy]

I always love to compare the performance of my youtube channels with the performance of other channels in my niches. Since retention rate and average watch time per click are (likely to be) important factors in the youtube algorithm it would be nice to learn about these numbers of competing videos. however, until now, I never figured out how to know what the retention rate as well as average watch time per click of your competitors is.

Yesterday I noticed that you are able to see some statistics of (most) youtube videos including total watch time. Since you also know the number of clicks of the videos as well as the video length in minutes, you can calculate the retention rate as well as the average watch time of other videos using a simple excel sheet anyone can build in 5 minutes .

I am sure lots of you guys already know this. however, since I never saw a discussion about it in this forum I thought I let you know about this.


So, what about you? are you also interested in the statistics of competing channels?

 

[KiddieToysReview]

I think vidIQ gives you this info, for channels that have 'statistics' enable for public view. Since the kids vertical is hyper competitive, most of the "serious" channels have the data disabled. The less info you give out to your competitors, the stronger your competitive advantage. Having said that, I used to be very interested in all that stuff. But the longer I do this gig, the less I think any of those things are relevant. Some of our best videos have 25-35% retention, some of our worst videos have 70% retention. Watch time, or what we gather from that statistic, is not usable in any practical sense. Your video had 98 seconds watch time, mine 76 seconds and xyz 123 seconds, and... so what. It's not usable in any way. The only things that matters is the #views and subsequently the #ad impressions, which is what gives Yt revenue. Yt will promote those channels that maximize its revenue. The only thing I look at is the views and the trends driving those views on other channels.

 

[Grass Daddy]

Yeah it's all relative. I do lawn videos. The top guy in lawn care does 20-30 minute videos. I do a 3 minute video and get "this video is too long" comments. Some people will like longer, others will like shorter, so I just worry more about whether the end product fills a need or is a waste of time. ("entertainment" videos fill a need too, don't forget)

 

[KidsCorner]

I think vidIQ gives you this info, for channels that have 'statistics' enable for public view. Since the kids vertical is hyper competitive, most of the "serious" channels have the data disabled. The less info you give out to your competitors, the stronger your competitive advantage. Having said that, I used to be very interested in all that stuff. But the longer I do this gig, the less I think any of those things are relevant. Some of our best videos have 25-35% retention, some of our worst videos have 70% retention. Watch time, or what we gather from that statistic, is not usable in any practical sense. Your video had 98 seconds watch time, mine 76 seconds and xyz 123 seconds, and... so what. It's not usable in any way. The only things that matters is the #views and subsequently the #ad impressions, which is what gives Yt revenue. Yt will promote those channels that maximize its revenue. The only thing I look at is the views and the trends driving those views on other channels.

While I agree with you that it doesn't seem to be the key driver to what gets picked up by the algo to promote, high retention is important to reach end cards of your video which increases the chance they will watch another of your videos. For this reason alone, I do my best to keep % retention as high as I can, more end cards shown=more views&subscribers.

 

[Forbesman]

I have found after 2.5 months of a non-stop everyday fresh video upload and competitor research in my niche that:

IT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING.

there are channels in my Play- Doh/Learn Colours niche with a 15+ long videos with 10mln+ views and only average between 1:20 - 1:50 minute watch time.

 

[KiddieToysReview]

While I agree with you that it doesn't seem to be the key driver to what gets picked up by the algo to promote, high retention is important to reach end cards of your video which increases the chance they will watch another of your videos. For this reason alone, I do my best to keep % retention as high as I can, more end cards shown=more views&subscribers.

Absolutely. The videos should be as fun and engaging as possible. I've found that our End card clickthrough rates are in the order of 6% irrespective of videos length or retention, which doesn't really make sense.[DOUBLEPOST=1495941026,1495940943][/DOUBLEPOST]

I have found after 2.5 months of a non-stop everyday fresh video upload and competitor research in my niche that:

IT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING.

there are channels in my Play- Doh/Learn Colours niche with a 15+ long videos with 10mln+ views and only average between 1:20 - 1:50 minute watch time.

These days getting a 2 minute retention of a video, irrespective of length, is golden. Most kids swipe, click, drop the phone or give it back to Mom after 10 to 20 seconds.

 

[KidsCorner]

Absolutely. The videos should be as fun and engaging as possible. I've found that our End card clickthrough rates are in the order of 6% irrespective of videos length or retention, which doesn't really make sense

My average end card click rate is a little higher (6,7%) but I like to look at this metric a bit differently, I like to see how it compares to the total views too. Let me detail it below:

Statistics of last 28 days:
- 18.399.737 end screen elements shown
- 1.232.996 End screen element clicks (6,7%)
- 11.465.429 views

If I divide end screen elements shown by 4 (I show 4 elements in each end screen) I get to 4.599.934. Divide that number by the amount of views and you get the number of times the end screen page was shown in average per view (4.599.934 / 11.465.429) = 40,1%.
Also, of the 4.599.934 end screens, the end screen clicks is 1.232.996 which is an effective click rate percentage of 26,8% per view hitting the end screen section (4.599.934 / 1.232.996).
Looking at end screen clicks per view, I get to 10,8% (1.232.996/11.465.429).

So in short, 40,1% of the views manage to get to the end screen section and of those people, 26,8% click on one of the end screen button.
Average end screen click per view is 10,8%.

If you apply the same math, what would your average end screen click be per view?