What percentage of your subscribers actually watch your videos?

[babyteeth4]

I see tons of channels that have a high number of subscribers but the videos themselves are viewed by a very small fraction of the subscriber base. Many channels with 100,000 subscribers show only about 10,000 views after a few days, sometimes the ratio is even worse than that.

On the other hand, I'll see very few channels that get more views per video than subscribers. Sometimes it's due to the nature of the video--a short simple video that's easily repeat-viewed, for example, but not necessarily something you'd want to subscribe to (Charlie Bit My Finger, etc.) For a long time I was not monetized and was doing this as a hobby, so I did very little to try to get more subscribers. So I've always had a disproportionate number of views compared to subscribers. But since being monetized, I am more interested in trying to get more views out of my subscribers as quickly as possible.

I guess I have a few questions:
1. Is there a stat in YouTube Analytics that shows the percentage of subscribers who have viewed the video?
2. Why are people subbing but then not watching videos?
3. What percentage of subscribers are not even real?
4. How can you get a higher percentage of subscribers to watch your videos, and sooner?
5. Do subscriptions mean as much now as they used to? I know personally I have a lot more subscriptions and I can't always keep up with viewing all the content.

I have some of my own theories but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

 

[Cody Bowers]

I'm not really sure how many of my subs watch my videos, but each time I make a video I make it with the thought in my mind that all of them will see it at some point, and even if they don't, at least I make the ones that do happy Now as for if subscriptions are as heavily weighted as before, I think not as much. Now SUBSCRIBERS are still the foundation of any good channel, but general subscriptions kind of lost some value when google took over.

 

[Crown]

I guess I have a few questions:
1. Is there a stat in YouTube Analytics that shows the percentage of subscribers who have viewed the video?
2. Why are people subbing but then not watching videos?
3. What percentage of subscribers are not even real?
4. How can you get a higher percentage of subscribers to watch your videos, and sooner?
5. Do subscriptions mean as much now as they used to? I know personally I have a lot more subscriptions and I can't always keep up with viewing all the content.

I have some of my own theories but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Hey, well your channel is much bigger than mine, but I have a few theories myself

1)In some of the reports, there is a checkbox at the top to only show "subscriber views." For example. Go to view reports -> traffic reports and then at the top left, you'll see the "Show only subscriber views" checkbox. Disclaimer - I am not sure how accurate this is. I have heard not very. If you are good with excel, you can also download various analytics data using the download report button top right and in there, I've noticed there is a "sub view field" but same disclaimer about its accuracy.

2)Good question. When I look at how many channels people sub to, it doesn't surprise me. I think some people sub in the same way they bookmark a website "to check out later." Surfers are very free and easy who come and go. Today they'll be passionate about cats and watching 20 cat videos, tomorrow, it'll be watching Justin Bieber vids, next week, they'll decide they want to learn Spanish....

3)I'm sure they are all real, but I estimate probably only 20% of people's subs watch a channel's videos regularly, and 20% might be generous.

4)Some ideas: - regular schedules, periodic videos with messages to the subs (Question and answer vids, channel milestone thank-you vids)

5)I gain subs quite quickly ( a sub for every 50 views) and I don't promote or do anything to get those subs (other than create content for them ), but I'm conscious that most daily views come from people passing through (search and suggested video list). I love every single one of my subs, but I quickly realized that they are not the key to a channel's growth I have seen traffic source stats for very big channels and it was the same.

 

[mcfluffers]

woah!! Time out.

10k views in 1 day on a 100k subscribers channel is huge. 0_0

That's massive retention considering it takes 2-3 days before the subscribers feed gets out to everyone.

Normal retention for that is like 1k views in a day. (I think, I'm not entirely sure)

 

[WolfWraith]

I am sitting at 117 subs and only get around 0-1 views on some videos as the average and I'm lucky if I get past 5 on average.

I guess I have a few questions:
1. Is there a stat in YouTube Analytics that shows the percentage of subscribers who have viewed the video? No, you have to use math.
2. Why are people subbing but then not watching videos? A lot of people do it to try to get your attention, they sub and just don't watch and some subscribe because of a specific type of video or expectation and these expectations are probably no longer being met.
3. What percentage of subscribers are not even real? The 1s who don't watch the stuff you make or the 1s that don't interact? lol
4. How can you get a higher percentage of subscribers to watch your videos, and sooner? Consistency, but I've grown careless about this the past few days since I can't even get simple answers to questions that I try to ask to my viewers to get an idea of what to do. I'd say coming up with ways to engage your audience, I tried but cbf, I just want to have to fun, don't really care too much about whether I put too many videos out or not enough anymore.
5. Do subscriptions mean as much now as they used to? I know personally I have a lot more subscriptions and I can't always keep up with viewing all the content. No retention and views are more important.

I have some of my own theories but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

It's actually normal for people to get around 10% of active users. Like Pewds averages around 1-2m views. It's partially because people just sub for no reason anymore. I was actually kind of liking the idea of YouTube removing dead subscribers, even if I lost 100 subs, at least I'd know it's because the <20 left are the active 1s. Or even if it dropped to 1. I was grateful for hitting the 100 mark but the views aren't increasing so I kind of want the dead subs gone.

 

[Crown]

That's massive retention considering it takes 2-3 days before the subscribers feed gets out to everyone.

That is very interesting and I didn't know that. That might explain why my surge in views continues through until Monday when I upload a video on Saturday, for example. Is that true? Not doubting you, but I'd be interested in knowing the source

 

[babyteeth4]

1)In some of the reports, there is a checkbox at the top to only show "subscriber views." For example. Go to view reports -> traffic reports and then at the top left, you'll see the "Show only subscriber views" checkbox. Disclaimer - I am not sure how accurate this is. I have heard not very. If you are good with excel, you can also download various analytics data using the download report button top right and in there, I've noticed there is a "sub view field" but same disclaimer about its accuracy.

Whoa. That was an eye-opener! Subscribers make up less than 2% of my daily views. That is just nuts. I know that views are what earns the bread, not subs, but still, that is huge. This makes me wonder if I'm wasting real estate on my videos when I put up a subscribe annotation--why even bother? I'd be better off just directing them to another video or playlist of mine.

H
5)I gain subs quite quickly ( a sub for every 50 views) and I don't promote or do anything to get those subs (other than create content for them ), but I'm conscious that most daily views come from people passing through (search and suggested video list). I love every single one of my subs, but I quickly realized that they are not the key to a channel's growth I have seen traffic source stats for very big channels and it was the same.

Looks like point #1 confirms point #5.

Now I guess the question is, what have I been doing to get on the suggested video list? I'll have to do more research, this is fascinating stuff....

 

[Crown]

Whoa. That was an eye-opener! Subscribers make up less than 2% of my daily views. That is just nuts. I know that views are what earns the bread, not subs, but still, that is huge. This makes me wonder if I'm wasting real estate on my videos when I put up a subscribe annotation--why even bother? I'd be better off just directing them to another video or playlist of mine.



Looks like point #1 confirms point #5.

Now I guess the question is, what have I been doing to get on the suggested video list?

Good audience retention (view time) will get you there consistently

 

[WolfWraith]

Whoa. That was an eye-opener! Subscribers make up less than 2% of my daily views. That is just nuts. I know that views are what earns the bread, not subs, but still, that is huge. This makes me wonder if I'm wasting real estate on my videos when I put up a subscribe annotation--why even bother? I'd be better off just directing them to another video or playlist of mine.
Looks like point #1 confirms point #5.
Now I guess the question is, what have I been doing to get on the suggested video list? I'll have to do more research, this is fascinating stuff....

I've very recently stopped adding videos to my outros, I just chuck in the outro and leave it. I'm thinking of removing the outro though, it's like a waste of 17 seconds lol I'm also not going to really bother adding a sub annotation, I was doing it before to create a more user friendly experience and really work to pushing my channel somewhere, I noticed the more work I put in the less I get out of the channel haha but if someone really wants to sub they can just look for the button, it's not that far. I do add playlist annotations though as I find it annoying when I'm watching someones LP series and I have to click through their channel then look for the playlist to find the next video, so I add the playlist annotations on every video that's part of a LP incase they want to watch more.

 

[JustSomeGermanDude]

Good audience retention (view time) will get you there consistently

And that's why subscribers are important. Their retention is higher than the retention of random viewers. And they watch videos in the first couple of days after upload, those are the most important days. For the first week videos get ranked mainly by tags and such, retention/watch time comes into play after the first week has passed.

2% is rather low. Around 10% or lower would be normal. But those high retention subscriber views are key in getting ranked in searches, suggested videos and high paying ads.