REALLY Low Average Viewer Duration!

[nathan32]

I've been looking through my analytics, and seeing really low avarage viewer duration percentages such as 12%, 17%, and 20% on a lot of my videos. I realize that could be due to bad titles. I have a music channel where I upload background music for videos, and perhaps I'm getting it wrong with how I describe the feel/style of the song.

I have subscribers, and I do get the occasional positive comment, with little to no negative comments. My channel Like To Dislike average is apparently about 94% and so that seems pretty good. I'm not sure if there's anything else besides the title that could be causing people to leave that fast.

I'm thinking about changing the titles, but I want to ask a question. I know that YouTube tends to promote videos with higher watchtime, so what does promote mean in that case? Will you have a better chance of ranking you video in YT search if your watch duration (and I understand that doesn't necessarily mean watch time) is higher? Or instead does YouTube suggest your video more if your watch time is higher?

Also, I want to add that I have a fair amount of videos, but only a very few of them are getting any kind of decent traffic. The ones that are seem to get the traffic by ranking well for a certain search term.

 

[ellelletalk]

I'm thinking about changing the titles, but I want to ask a question. I know that YouTube tends to promote videos with higher watchtime, so what does promote mean in that case? Will you have a better chance of ranking you video in YT search if your watch duration (and I understand that doesn't necessarily mean watch time) is higher? Or instead does YouTube suggest your video more if your watch time is higher?.

From my understanding - promote means showing up higher in searches, appearing in "related videos" or "suggested videos"

 

[nathan32]

Just saw that we answered each other's questions in different threads

Anyways, thanks.

 

[ellelletalk]

Just saw that we answered each other's questions in different threads

Anyways, thanks.

We're pretty much best friends.

 

[XXLRay]

As you didn't link your channel can you give examples for titles and thumbnails?

 

[WilliamRayWalters]

As you didn't link your channel can you give examples for titles and thumbnails?

Yeah, how are we supposed to know how awful his videos are LOL nah I'm just kidding him. But seriously, the symptoms he describes are indicative of some kind of content issue. It would definitely help to see what he's got going on there.

 

[Kate's Adventures]

Are the videos for the music the sort of thing where you can take a listen and download it for use in videos? If so it could also be due to the nature of the channel.
When I'm looking for music I know in my head what sort of style I want for the video and although the title and description help to find what I'm looking for, after listening to a few seconds it can sometimes be very clear that the song I'm listening to isn't what I'm looking for.
I haven't seen your channel myself to know if there's other things that might need improving but that could be part of the issue.

 

[xingcat]

Background music, I tend to listen to for about 10-20 seconds, to get the vibe about whether or not I want to listen to the whole thing, and then I move on. So that may very well be exactly what your viewers are doing. I know when I'm seeking out background music for a video or a stage show, I'm not going to listen to the entirety of the song to begin with.

You may want to put several snippets of various songs with various moods into each video, with links to each full video/song in the description. That may get you longer views.

 

[RichGuitarGamer]

Maybe its how you come across in your videos? (haven't seen channel so I don't know) but people tend to have short attention spans.. probably need to get to the point of your videos faster - also how long are your videos? over 5 mins? if they are you need to edit more as not many people sit through long videos nowadays