How Long Until Video / Channel Blows Up? Very High Relative Audience Retention

M

MCNE

Well-Known Member
I know this is a complex question, but any data driven insight or experience would help.

I have several videos that have an Above Average to High relative retention rate the entire video. It even hits the high line in places! They were just published over the weekend and have a few hundred views. How long does it usually take for a video or channel to blow up if the retention is super high? We plan on pumping out several more over the next few weeks and believe the retention will be similarly very high.

FYI: This is in the kids genre and similar videos are upwards from 1 million - 100 million views within a month. The space is not over crowded yet.
 
MCNE said:
I know this is a complex question, but any data driven insight or experience would help.

I have several videos that have an Above Average to High relative retention rate the entire video. It even hits the high line in places! They were just published over the weekend and have a few hundred views. How long does it usually take for a video or channel to blow up if the retention is super high? We plan on pumping out several more over the next few weeks and believe the retention will be similarly very high.

FYI: This is in the kids genre and similar videos are upwards from 1 million - 100 million views within a month. The space is not over crowded yet.
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I learned the hard way its not all about retention rate. I think minutes watched is a more important figure that will boost your video over retention rate. Ive had videos with 80% retention and i am sure they had higher retention rate than other videos with same keywords. But my video did not move up against those other videos. But i think its cuz my video was too short and the other videos had a longer view time.

I dont know how long your videos are, but if the high retention rate hasnt helped after a while, then the videos were probably too short.
 
It is weird. I have several videos that have a lover relative retention but are slightly longer and are getting thousands of views. This is so confusing.
 
MCNE said:
How long does it usually take for a video or channel to blow up if the retention is super high?
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The algorithms that control suggested video placement (which is the leading traffic source for any video "blowing up") are not perfect by any stretch. You cannot make super high retention videos and expect them at any point to automatically "blow up". A number of factors besides retention go into how a video is ranked, the most important (according to Youtube employees) being whether a video contributes to a longer overall viewing session. I asked a YT employee recently (email support) about this since it's been awhile since I've discussed it, and they confirmed that overall viewing session time is still the leading factor when it comes to the ranking algorithms. In addition to that, CTR is still a big factor, apparently. If all other factors remain constant, but no one is clicking on your video in that suggested video section, your ranking will drop. If they are clicking on it, your ranking will rise.

The title of this thread caught me off guard, primarily because there is absolutely no guarantee that your high retention, high quality videos will ever "blow up". The landscape of Youtube today is that you cannot reliably count on the adage of "if you build it, they will come". That's not to say you're not on the right track, but if you start to expect great things simply because retention is high, you will be in for a disappointment.

All of that being said, it can sometimes take weeks or months for the suggested video algorithm to notice your content, so if it was going to "blow up" at any point, it could be anywhere from next week to months down the line. I've had videos on multiple channels languish for months without views and then blow up. It varies from channel to channel and video to video.

Anyway, good luck with your channel!
 
WilliamRayWalters said:
The algorithms that control suggested video placement (which is the leading traffic source for any video "blowing up") are not perfect by any stretch. You cannot make super high retention videos and expect them at any point to automatically "blow up". A number of factors besides retention go into how a video is ranked, the most important (according to Youtube employees) being whether a video contributes to a longer overall viewing session. I asked a YT employee recently (email support) about this since it's been awhile since I've discussed it, and they confirmed that overall viewing session time is still the leading factor when it comes to the ranking algorithms. In addition to that, CTR is still a big factor, apparently. If all other factors remain constant, but no one is clicking on your video in that suggested video section, your ranking will drop. If they are clicking on it, your ranking will rise.

The title of this thread caught me off guard, primarily because there is absolutely no guarantee that your high retention, high quality videos will ever "blow up". The landscape of Youtube today is that you cannot reliably count on the adage of "if you build it, they will come". That's not to say you're not on the right track, but if you start to expect great things simply because retention is high, you will be in for a disappointment.

All of that being said, it can sometimes take weeks or months for the suggested video algorithm to notice your content, so if it was going to "blow up" at any point, it could be anywhere from next week to months down the line. I've had videos on multiple channels languish for months without views and then blow up. It varies from channel to channel and video to video.

Anyway, good luck with your channel!
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Its reassuring to read this response. Especially the ctr part.
 
WilliamRayWalters said:
The algorithms that control suggested video placement (which is the leading traffic source for any video "blowing up") are not perfect by any stretch. You cannot make super high retention videos and expect them at any point to automatically "blow up". A number of factors besides retention go into how a video is ranked, the most important (according to Youtube employees) being whether a video contributes to a longer overall viewing session. I asked a YT employee recently (email support) about this since it's been awhile since I've discussed it, and they confirmed that overall viewing session time is still the leading factor when it comes to the ranking algorithms. In addition to that, CTR is still a big factor, apparently. If all other factors remain constant, but no one is clicking on your video in that suggested video section, your ranking will drop. If they are clicking on it, your ranking will rise.

The title of this thread caught me off guard, primarily because there is absolutely no guarantee that your high retention, high quality videos will ever "blow up". The landscape of Youtube today is that you cannot reliably count on the adage of "if you build it, they will come". That's not to say you're not on the right track, but if you start to expect great things simply because retention is high, you will be in for a disappointment.

All of that being said, it can sometimes take weeks or months for the suggested video algorithm to notice your content, so if it was going to "blow up" at any point, it could be anywhere from next week to months down the line. I've had videos on multiple channels languish for months without views and then blow up. It varies from channel to channel and video to video.

Anyway, good luck with your channel!
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Great insight! It makes a lot of sense. Last Jan we made a very low quality toy video. I posted it and never checked it again. It was our first video. I get an email a month later saying I had reached 10,000 views. I checked the video and it was at 20,000 views. It continued to get 10k views a day until it reach 500k then it just dropped way down. I wasn't ready to pursue YouTube then and did not jump on the momentum.

A year later we are back at it. And the growth is slower. I say all this because that video has terrible retention, but it is long. I have no idea why it took off. I didn't even have a custom thumbnail. Ahhhhhh! I need to get a MIT PhD in Algorithim Science just to figure this out.
 
MCNE said:
It continued to get 10k views a day until it reach 500k then it just dropped way down.
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Out of curiosity, was there a particular current news topic or a holiday that may have correlated to it doing so well? Or was the toy itself in the news or a big story at the time? And how long were you getting those 10k views/day? Also, did you happen to check your analytics to see exactly where those views were coming from? That many views is almost always from the 'suggested video' traffic source, but it's possible it was something else.
 
WilliamRayWalters said:
Out of curiosity, was there a particular current news topic or a holiday that may have correlated to it doing so well? Or was the toy itself in the news or a big story at the time? And how long were you getting those 10k views/day? Also, did you happen to check your analytics to see exactly where those views were coming from? That many views is almost always from the 'suggested video' traffic source, but it's possible it was something else.
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I just checked the analytics. There was nothing special about the toy. Nothing in the news. most of the views came from suggested videos. It literally had 0 views for a month. Then it got six views exactly a month after it was posted. Then that number just 100x everyday after. It seems like it was suggested along side the manufacturers video. Their video was older and so were the few other videos about the toy. So maybe because it was new and there aren't a lot of videos about the toy it went crazy.

I really need to study it more.
 
MCNE said:
I just checked the analytics. There was nothing special about the toy. Nothing in the news. most of the views came from suggested videos. It literally had 0 views for a month. Then it got six views exactly a month after it was posted. Then that number just 100x everyday after. It seems like it was suggested along side the manufacturers video. Their video was older and so were the few other videos about the toy. So maybe because it was new and there aren't a lot of videos about the toy it went crazy.

I really need to study it more.
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Perhaps if you tell us the toy we can offer some more suggestions ;-)
 
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