Wanna know what’s in your videos that is stopping you from getting views? Probably, your videos are unable to retain an audience for longer, affecting your watch hours and views. Now the question arises: how to increase YouTube audience retention to attain favorable view performance and watch hours metrics? 

Instead of seeing your videos dying slowly, apply the knowledge given in this blog to increase your audience retention on every YouTube video. So, let’s start!

What is Audience Retention?

Audience retention is the percentage that shows the average time of what your viewers spend on your videos. For example, if your audience retention is 45%, that means, on average, people watch 45% of your video. 

It is important to mention here that audience retention rate plays a significant role in deciding the rank and visibility of your videos on YouTube, as videos with higher retention rates highlight that it is engaging enough to be liked by the audience; thus, the YouTube algorithm gives them a higher rank on the search result page. 

How do you Check Audience Retention on YouTube?

To measure the YouTube audience retention statistics you are getting on your videos, you need to understand the difference between two things: absolute audience retention and relative audience retention. The performance of both these metrics is shown in graphical form in the analytics section of your YouTube Studio. Let’s understand the difference between the two;

While checking the audience retention rate, four types of moments are highly regarded;

• First, the intro stats. How well is your intro performing?  When you see that the line on the graph is flat, it means that you were being watched from the intro till the end. 
• Second, the gradual descent of the graph showcases a loss of viewer interest over time. 
• Third, spikes in the graph exhibit the moments where the interest of your audience was most high, or it is the point within videos that were most watched and frequently shared. 
• Fourth, the dips in the graph are the moments within the video that were skipped or it is the point where most of the viewers choose to hop off. 

What is Good Audience Retention on YouTube?

Well, this is the question most YouTube creators ask, especially the novice ones. The answer to it is not absolute or fixated. It varies in every case owing to the unique circumstances of each channel and video. As for the YouTube audience retention average, it is somewhere around 50-60%. So, to get a good retention rate for your videos, it needs to be somewhere around 70-80%. You must be wondering why not 100%. To be honest, 100% is more than good because it is a rare chance to get that. However, if you get that on any of your videos, consider that day your lucky day.

How to Increase Audience Retention on YouTube?

Catchy Hook

Don’t give viewers the chance to click away by pitching out interesting and valuable information within 10 seconds. Your intro is the brief summary or outlook of your viewers. When viewers are unable to relate to it, they never wait to watch the actual main part of your video, i.e., your video body. So, make it as engaging, persuasive, and valuable as possible. Now, to make it worth watching for the viewers, not just you need to work on your script but also on the tone, pitch, pacing, and editing of your content. 

Keep Your Video Within Ideal Pace

There is no ideal pace for YouTube videos. It depends heavily on the content and the audience. For example, younger audiences, those belonging to Gen-Z, have a shorter attention span; therefore, the video pace required to catch their interest must be quicker than for the older ones. So, edit out all the breaths if you can. 

Be Direct With Information

Sometimes, the length of the video is enough to scare people away. Life, in contemporary times, is getting too busy, and people rarely have time to give lengthy materials a watch unless it is something that is of the utmost importance to them. That is exactly why focusing and coming directly to the point can save you on YouTube. It is because it will help you get higher retention rates. Remember, if you go too deep, your viewers will likely click. However, the contrary case is also true. Too little means superficiality and no value, prompting the viewers to click away. The trick is to strike a balance.

Change Patterns

Another thing that can help you make people watch your videos for longer is to change what’s on your screen frequently. But make sure that the type of content you are making supports such frequent play with the screen. Things that work are adding a B-roll on your videos. You can also do crop-in, which is basically where you push in a little bit on the screen to change the mood of your audience. Slow zooms and change of pace can do wonders, too. Since YouTube is all about full-motion visuals, playing with it can be key to your success. Focus more on keeping the image interesting. Use different camera angles to keep things changing over time, especially in the case of informative videos, which can get boring.

Final Thoughts

Indeed, increasing your YouTube viewer retention is all about strategically crafting content. It does not involve one or two things, but the convergence of various interrelated factors plays a role in enhancing your YouTube audience retention statistics. UnityFilms professionals know and implement all those factors in their day-to-day YouTube projects. We know what works best for what type of content. That is why we are your all-time partner in YouTube success. 

So, contact us now to uplift your content and retain your audience’s attention.