Let's talk audience retention times

[TwoTakes]

I try not to look at these part of the analytics (yes I know it is important) because it can just be depressing. After you work hard on a video, you don't want to find out the average watch duration is a low percentage...

So. Should the retention times be cause for a alarm. These are averages of course so they could never be 100% but what percentage do you consider reasonable?

 

[Hazzador]

I tend to get under 50% for most of my videos which is pretty bad. Sometimes having a 3-4 minute watch time though so looking at in with that perspective makes me feel a little better ;D

 

[TwoTakes]

I tend to get under 50% for most of my videos which is pretty bad. Sometimes having a 3-4 minute watch time though so looking at in with that perspective makes me feel a little better ;D

Yeah, I notice that longer videos have a lower percentage- which makes me think that a lot of it is due to short attention spans. Or maybe there is a certain amount - say 2 minutes- that somebody will watch, before they decide whether they like it or not?

 

[Lightsen]

its well known that short vids get high percentages and long vids get low. so the longer your usual videos the lower percentage you should expect. It doesn't mean your content is any lower in quality though!
for me, having short videos, its 66% which isn't what I would like, having over 70% is my goal, but my retention has been going down as my video length has been going up, from 2-3 mins to 7-8mins.
also dont forget your old bad vids will be reflected in the percentage too. my super old vids have like 17-30% lol

 

[EVO]

My average watch is 3 mins from my 9 min videos

 

[PureDangles]

Same here, my longer videos (18-20 minutes) average around 3 minutes of audience retention. It has to do with people having shorter attention spans, and probably a little bit on my end with doing a long commentary, and keeping it entertaining the entire time.

 

[TheDutchTexan]

I tend to get about 1/3rd audience retention on my content. It's ok though, I primarily do it for myself, and I think it's still pretty good. People are spending time watching your content, and even if it is just 1 minute I appreciate their time!

 

[xingcat]

My audience retention times vary depending on the videos. I find that a good number of them have pretty high retention times, but they're the shorter, funnier videos. The more informational videos tend to have lower retention times. I've noticed on my recipe videos that most folks drop off right after the cooking part is done, which makes sense.