What is Audience Retention?
Audience retention is the amount of time you get people to spend on your content. If you make a 5 minute video and only get the people to spend only 30 seconds, then your audience retention is 30 seconds which is low. On the other hand, if you get the people to watch for 4 minutes, then your audience retention is 4 minutes and this is good. This is very good for your video and it is going to reflect well on YouTube algorithms.
Why is audience retention important?
Audience retention is important when it comes to making money with YouTube. For you to understand this you need to understand how YouTube works. YouTube is a video streaming platform that allows advertisers to advertise on it. This means that advertisers can pay YouTube and display their ads on YouTube. When these companies display their ads, they pay YouTube. Then YouTube pays the content creator since the ads are playing along the content creator’s videos. Now that you understand that, you know that a short video can only be able to display only one or two ads.
On the other hand, if your video is long, then more videos can be placed on your video. But placing ads is one thing. The next thing is do the viewers play the video all the way? If they watch only the first few seconds, then your video shows a few ads. Similarly, if the viewers play the entire video to the end, then they will definitely see a lot of ads per video. Hence you make more money from the long video retention.
That’s not the only reason why retention is important. There are many other reasons. However, we will only focus on just one of those reasons. The reason is YouTube algorithm. YouTube algorithm monitors the viewer engagement with your content. The longer the retention then the video is assumed to be useful to viewers. Shorter retention means that that the video is not useful to the viewer. Hence the YouTube algorithm will only promote the videos with longer retention. Thus longer retention will result in more YouTube promotion of your videos.
How to Increase Audience Retention on YouTube Videos?
Now that you know what is audience retention and why it is important, it is time to understand how you can increase it.
1. Buy YouTube views with high retention.
We start with the easiest way to do it. If you are someone who just wants a quick way to succeed, then you can just buy the retention. There are sellers of YouTube views such as MediaGeneous that allow you to determine how long you want the people to watch. All you need to do is when you get on the order page, select a higher viewer duration. Say for example if your video is 5 minutes long, then you can select a viewer duration of say 4 minutes long. This means that each viewer will watch your video for a guaranteed minimum of 4 minutes.
You need to note that its not all YouTube views sellers who allow you to determine how long you want them to watch. Some of those sellers will just sell you views with their own retention of choice. This can be a risk if they end up providing you with a small viewer retention such as 30 seconds.
2. Use YouTube’s video chapter feature to gain retention.
Over the years, YouTube has been adding more features. One of those features include the chapters function which allows you to divide the video. What you do is divide your video into specific time parts depending on what each part is all about. For example you can have the introduction part, blah blah part, …, … then finish it with the conclusion part. This division is very useful in guiding the viewers on how to interact with your video. Say they want to revisit a particular section, then they just click on the timestamp.
3. Use very powerful hook to keep the audience interested.
The first 30 seconds of the video, can determine if the people continue watching or leave. This is because the first 30 seconds tell the person what the video is all about. Thus you have to use those first seconds properly to keep the people interested. Use the first 3 seconds to let the people know what the video is all about. Throw in some interesting hooks to keep them waiting. Mention some of the most interesting parts of the video so that they can keep waiting.
4. Give a sneak peek of upcoming content in the first few seconds.
You can even use the first few seconds of your video to give the people a taste of the video. In the first few seconds, cut the best parts of the rest of the video and play them in the beginning part. This is giving the audience a sneak peek of your video. This will catch the attention of the audience and keep them waiting for that part. YouTube is all about entertainment. Hence you need to keep them waiting for even better parts. You do that by using sneak peeks.
5. Make great content.
This is actually the most important point on how to get higher retention. No matter what you do, you can never get retention if you do not make great content. People come to your video or channel to get great content. If you do not make great content then what will they come for. If the video is great, the people will definitely stay for long for the whole video. On the other hand, If the video is bad don’t expect people to stay for long. It doesn’t matter how loyal your fans are, if your content is not good then no one will stay.
6. Make good use of storytelling and great narrative.
This is closely related to the above point. People watch content on YouTube for entertainment. Hence the content must be entertaining. One of the best and easiest ways to make entertaining content is using great narratives. The story line of the video must be really good and entertaining. It needs to be a story that you captivates the peoples mind and keeps them watching.
7. Make videos with high quality.
One of the most important things that affects the peoples impression of your video is quality. Good quality will keep the audience watching. On the other hand, if the quality is bad, most of the audience will leave. No one wants to watch some dull video or low quality audio. Focus on great audio quality and also video quality. Both need to be good.
8. Use pattern interrupts.
Use strategic disruptions in your video flow to recapture your audience attention. Some of these disruptions include sudden changes in graphics, unexpected transitions and music. These things interrupt with the attention of the audience and make them focus again. Others want the content to resume for them to continue watching hence keeping them attentive.
9. Make videos of the right length.
Long is not always good. Some YouTubers make the mistake that they should always make a long video. Well what you need to understand is that its not just about a long video. Its about the right length. Remember its always quality over quantity. If the content of your video require a long video then okay. If the content is short, then let the video be short. You do not have to extend the video just for the sake of a long video sake. Optimal length is the right thing.
10. Analyze viewer retention on YouTube analytics and optimize.
YouTube provides analysis of your videos and channel. It provides you with analysis on your subscribers and related information like where they are coming from. In addition to that, it provides you with information on your videos. It provides you with a lot of information such as the location, retention and more. Hence use this data to understand how the audience is relating with your videos.
Conclusion.
Now you know what is audience retention and why it is important. You also know 10 ways to increase your audience retention. Utilize those 10 points to improve your video retention and make money with YouTube.
All the best!
