Guide to YouTube Retention

This is one of the most important reports that you will see and gives you an understanding of the watchability of your channel as well as individual videos. It is a great indicator of if your videos require a change in structure and/or content going forward. Audience retention is the measurement of how long your viewers watched for. So if you have uploaded a 5-minute long video and someone only watches for 1 minute, then you have a 20% retention rate.

There are various different fixes for this, which ultimately comes down to creating great content. We recommend looking at:

•    Ensure your thumbnail is eye-catching and relevant
•    Have great content that engages people and is concise
•    Build trust and channel reputation
•    Use B-roll and graphics
•    Start your videos with a great hook; give them a reason to want to watch!
•    Be energetic

At Tube Spanner, we recommend this ratio:

•    Lower than 35% is poor
•    35% to 60% is good
•    60% and above is good to excellent