Increase Viewer Engagement with High Retention Views

Increasing your YouTube video’s audience retention can make it much more likely to rank higher in search results on the platform. It can also help your videos attract more subscribers and boost overall Watch Time. However, it’s important to note that boosting retention alone won’t necessarily make your videos more engaging to viewers.

To understand your audience retention, log into YouTube Studio and click Content in the left navigation menu. Choose the video you want to analyze and scroll down to view the viewer retention graph at the bottom of the page.

Watch Time by Video

This metric shows the average number of minutes viewers watched your video in total, and is useful for comparing your performance with other creators in your genre or niche. You can use this information to identify trends and patterns in your audience’s viewing habits, and find out what type of content is most compelling for them.

Moments of Low Retention

Using the audience retention data provided by YouTube, you can identify moments in your videos where viewers lose interest or click away. These can be spotted as dips or spikes on your video’s viewer retention graph.

For example, if you notice that your audience retention drops off during the first 30 seconds of your video, it may be time to revamp your intro or include a more enticing sneak peek. Conversely, if you have spikes where almost no one clicked away, try replaying those portions to see what was so appealing about them.