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YouTube Question Subs or Views?
- Thread starter SimulatorMike
- Start date
Neither, watch time. How long are people watching? Does your content keep people on YouTube and watching more? That's what matters. That's why YouTube shifted from views to watch time in 2013 and hasn't looked back.
OP
OP
As Andrew has already stated, watch time and "engagement" is king. The longer you can keep eyes on your video, the happier YouTube will be. Let's face it, they're in the business of selling eyeballs to advertisers.
I have one thing to add. I dont have any proof but i feel like it still matters.
Having subs can actually harm your algorithm in youtube. If you do sub4sub or buying subs you basicly get deads subs. If you post a new vid your subs wont watch it and this will tell youtube that your content is not interesting. Therefor Youtube wont promote it.
So im desperately staying away from this sub gaining tactics.
Having subs can actually harm your algorithm in youtube. If you do sub4sub or buying subs you basicly get deads subs. If you post a new vid your subs wont watch it and this will tell youtube that your content is not interesting. Therefor Youtube wont promote it.
So im desperately staying away from this sub gaining tactics.
It only matters if your subs are active in your content. They ultimately though CAN give you watchtime, which is the real thing YT cares about
OP
OP
Yea I would never do the pay for sub thing, and I only sub to channels that actually pique my interest. I don't want to fill up my feed with nonsense and I don't want people to sub if they are not really going to be engaged if you know what I mean.
Here are my current stats
Subs 17
Views 333
Watch time Hours 29.1
YT search traffic 37%
CTR 3.1%
Impressions 6k
Watch time by:
Subs: 36.7%
Non Subs: 63.3%
Watch Time/Retention are the most important with the next being engagement. YouTube wants you to keep viewers on the platform, if you succeed at that they will like you . Your subscriber number to my knowledge should be pretty much irrelevant to just about everything. If you're getting views and your retention and watch time are good I'd say your in over all good shape.
. Your subscriber number to my knowledge should be pretty much irrelevant to just about everything. If you're getting views and your retention and watch time are good I'd say your in over all good shape.
It's not irrelevant, it's jut not controllable compared to things you can, getting better at creating content, and the stuff you make next
YT says only about 10% of subscribers actually watch the content in the first 48 hours, so that's so low. IT's why focusing on what's working and how to be searchable is SO important!
How about a video having good click views, good watch time (absolute) but bad average watch duration? Say 3 minutes AVD out of 20 minutes total length. Is that very bad even if it has good click views?
Depends, the content type itself, that's pretty common for gameplays, but YT takes it into account.
The vast majority of my 20+ minute videos get about 10% watch time. Everyone keeps saying to aim for 50% which while true, is also a bit disheartening when people say you "can't" grow with that kind of watch time. Then again, my videos with the lowest watch time consistently perform better than my short videos with 20-30% watch time. But they do say if your videos have "massive watch time" that you'll see "massive growth"