YouTube Audience Retention: How To Measure And Maximize It In 2022

What Is Audience Retention On YouTube?

Audience Retention is related to the viewer’s retention and it is the average percentage of the video that users watch. When your videos have high audience retention then it means the ranking of your channel will improve on YouTube. It is helpful for those creators who want to convert their leads or views into paid customers.

Why Is YouTube Audience Retention Important?

YouTube loves to recommend those videos that the audience loves, to keep watching again and again. YT rewards those videos with good ranking in search results that have more engagement rate and watch time.

YT declares that audience retention is one of the big factors of its algorithm that notices every activity on your videos. The high retention videos appear in the top search results and recommendation section on YouTube.

How To Measure YouTube Audience Retention?

When the audience clicks on your videos and if they watch at least 5 minutes out of a 10-minute video then the retention rate will be 40%. To improve the ranking of the channel, you have to optimize the channel with proper keywords. YouTube audience retention rate can be measured in 2 ways that are given below:

1. Absolute Audience Retention

The absolute audience retention shows the exact percentage of views on your videos. You can use this metric to improve the quality of the videos to gain more views.

2. Relative Audience Retention

The relative audience retention will show the exact metrics that have the ability to keep your target audience to keep watching the content. It represents a percentage of the videos which shows how your videos are doing when compared to the same frame of other videos.

What Is A Good YouTube Audience Retention Rate?

The average audience retention rate should be more than 50%. It indicates that the videos will appear in YouTube search results. You can increase retention by increasing the length of the videos and improving the quality of the content.

The bad retention rate means the chances of ranking the videos are low. It is advisable to keep trying to improve the audience retention rate to achieve your goal.

How To Increase Or Maximize YouTube Audience Retention?

1. Create An Eye-Catchy Hook To Grab The Attention

YouTube recommends creating the first 15 seconds of the content engaging and attention-grabbing in order to encourage the audience to keep watching the videos.

If the starting is weak then people will leave the channel and the audience retention will also decrease. So the beginning of your content is crucial to growing your channel.

As per research, the audience has a short attention span time, which means they decide to consume the content or not at the beginning of the videos. Thus you should avoid long intros. Your intro should include a reason to keep watching your videos.

That’s why it’s important to create an eye-catchy hook to increase the audience retention of your videos. It gives a reason to the audience to continue watching the videos.

2. Include The Interrupts Pattern

You have hooked the attention of the audience to keep watching your videos. The next step you have to follow is the strategy to keep them engaged with your content. It is possible only with interrupt patterns.

Pattern interrupts are tactics that you can use to change the thought process and behavior of the viewers to achieve your desired results.

Interrupts can be anything that is attention-grabbing, it can be a light joke, entertaining picture, and the camera angle of every 30 seconds of the videos. It can change the thought process in positive ways and make him or her keep watching longer videos.

3. Do Proper Keyword Research For Better Engagement And YouTube Audience Retention

Before starting the keyword research, you have to identify the problem and pain of the target audience and which type of content they like to consume. Then you should target the potential people to increase the retention of your videos. 

Proper YouTube keyword research is one of the effective ways to improve the retention of your videos by including the focus keyword in the video’s title, description, and tags. Try to create relevant content with the keyword. YouTube algorithm considers it a positive factor to improve the ranking of the videos and channel. Your videos will also appear in the YouTube auto-suggest recommendation section. This increases the YT audience retention. You can use tools like Google keyword planner, Ubersuggest, TubeBuddy, VidIQ, Ahref, Semrush, YouTube, and Google auto-suggest feature to find more powerful and relevant keywords with less competition and high search volume.

Finally, include the main keyword in the title and description of the videos to drive a more relevant target audience on your channel.

4. Create Script And Use YouTube Cards And End Screen

Before recording the videos, it is recommended to write an effective and well-written script that helps you to provide unlimited value in your content for the audience. If you follow this approach then it will boost YouTube audience retention and the number of views will also increase.

You should also use the YT cards and end screen at the end of the videos to encourage them to keep watching your other video. When your audience spends more time watching content on a channel, then the watch time, views, and ranking of the videos will also improve.

5. Leverage Playlists Feature

You should organize your videos in one place with relevant content with YouTube playlist features to increase the YT audience retention and watch time on your channel easily. 

Because viewers do not want to spend time searching for relevant topics or content, it is better to practice organizing your videos in the form of a playlist.

6. Include Graphics And Visuals

Including the pictures with visual graphics in your content looks more effective and attention-grabbing. If you implement this strategy then YouTube audience retention increases and the audience will continue watching the videos on your channel.