Need Advice Why my viewers don't watch more than 1:56 minutes in my videos

[ZaraMagdalene]

Is not all about the views is about the retention how long your viewers stayed in watching your videos and not just a minute or two out a 10-20mintues video. Which absolutely makes it much longer to achieve your 4k watch hour

If your are struggling with this you may want to stay in the comment section and pick out the best solution that suits you better✌ from the professionals

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Please do give us (me)☝️your solution on this issue let's get to learn more

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Retention, man that is where it's at. The longer you can keep someone watching the better. Its not hard, but it takes sone knowledge to master this. You need to keep your video interesting. I'll break down my thoughts on this in a more at-length article but here are some quick tips to easily improve retention:

1. Hook 'em fast... you need something that is going to grab the viewer in the first 8-10 seconds. Period.
2. Something interesting needs to happen every 8 seconds. You can cut your clip and zoom in, show some b-roll, introduce a funny sound, tell a joke or throw up a graphic. But if you go 20 seconds without anything interesting you've lost a portion of your audience and they will not come back.
3. Cut the fat. Learn to trim your clips, cut out the 'umms,' 'ahs,' and dead air. Keep your content punchy and only make your video as long as it needs to be. You want to begin every clip late and end them early.
4. The kicker: you must have interesting content. What's going to keep your attention longer, a video about Minecraft or a video about a 747 crashing into a volcano filled with bikini-models? And if you make Minecraft videos and are offended by this why havent you made a minecraft video about a 747 crashing into a volcano full of bikini-models? You have the ability to cater your content to make it your own, interesting take on a subject!

 

[Damon]

Yup, it's basically a matter of learning the language of motion picture. I recommend to everyone the book "How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck," by Steve Stockman. There is over 100 years of movies and T. V. to learn from, but so few YouTubers take the time to learn the craft of communicating with motion picture.

 

[Kari B]

Go through your video analytics and see where people drop off, can you trim that bit out in editor? AVD does get longer the more subs you have as people who like you (and sub to you) watch more % of your videos, new viewers may not have found what they were looking for and click off early.

 

[Damon]

Also most videos can be done in two or three minutes tops. The fact that they're making to nearly two minutes is a good thing really. At this point, I would shorten your videos to no longer than three minute while implementing the method Stanley suggests above.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Yup, it's basically a matter of learning the language of motion picture. I recommend to everyone the book "How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck," by Steve Stockman. There is over 100 years of movies and T. V. to learn from, but so few YouTubers take the time to learn the craft of communicating with motion picture.

I could not agree more. Everybody is looking for 'How to Grow On YouTube' content... why is nobody looking at the models for great video production set by decades of experimentation and study through television, movies and cinema. Everything we do they knew well before us.

Go through your video analytics and see where people drop off, can you trim that bit out in editor? AVD does get longer the more subs you have as people who like you (and sub to you) watch more % of your videos, new viewers may not have found what they were looking for and click off early.

This is some 'Next Level' advice... but I would add that it is important not only to see where they are dropping off, but why. In some circumstances a video could be longer but a single event causes viewers to go away. Figure out what that event is and avoid it in future videos and you may be much better off than shortening the video.

Though in most circumstances I believe shortening the video (and cramming more value into that shortened version) to be the best approach.

 

[kitchen c/o ammama]

Check out this post

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[sadriercan]

first you must analyze your video type.

if its a tutorial, or how to or like this, it can be long as 10-20mins

But if its another content you can limit the video avarage 5-10 mins.

People get bored some long videos.

Tip : If you share any tip in your video, you can share this tip through the end of the video. So users will wait for it inside video.

 

[Gunjit]

It must be because they notice a change at that point of time that they don't like for eg. the audio might become lower or a boring part in the video begins at that time. You should look into the video as a normal viewer and check why are people clicking off

 

[VenGame]

I found something groundbreaking for my channel

Before i started putting captions the audience retention was close to 1 minute out of 15 minutes

But after i put captions people started watching up to half of the video minimum!

 

[Blessing]

All the remarks above are insightful. I dont know how new you are on YouTube but we all have passed through moment when people drop off at that time. As you grow and people identify you with your niche including everything advices above it will increase. One thing I will say, if you are new it is better to do short videos max 5 mins. As you grow then you can target the 10 mins ones for more ads. Keep at it, consistancy pays after a long run. I still have videos that dont do so well, one thing about YouTube is one day, it will pick based on a world event around the topic.

 

[Beanie Draws]

I'm still trying to figure out how to get my retention up. Part of me thinks it's just that my voice is annoying, or maybe my editing style is too boring for today's YouTube style of video. Some people seem to think you need a new shot or angel or b roll every 5-10 seconds of video, it's gotta be punchy and exciting. It's a bit overwhelming to think about, especially when filming.

 

[Damon]

@Beanie Draws Telling ya: Buy the book "How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck," by Steve Stockman." It will totally change your YouTube channel. (not an affiliate link.) It isn't about today's style of video for YouTube. It's about 100 years of motion picture and hard-won lessons that most YouTubers totally ignore. To quote the back of the book:

How to Shoot Video that DoesnΓÇÖt Suck teaches you how to shoot video that people will actually want to watch.

That sounds like more watch time to me.

One of the principles in the book is always shoot from your good side. Actors and actresses often have a good side of their face that almost always faces the camera. Go back and watch Black Panther. You'll notice the father eyes are a bit off on his left side. You will almost never see him on that side.

Your voice may be annoying, don't use it. That's not your "good side." Again when you study motion picture, you learn these things up front. Most YouTubers will never learn these things. They'll just beat themselves up over something that was learned in the 1940s and is a fairly simple fix.

For me I hate talking, so I don't talk much in my videos. I use as much vertie cinema as I can. When I do talk it's usually through evidentiary editing methods that are peppered through out the video. As a result people don't hear me as much, but I have still communicated the information. Not all of us can be David Attenborough or James Earl Jones.

 

[espio]

I think a lot of it depends on the type of video you are releasing as well.

Just for example, I make "Type Beat" videos , and average watch time is just 0:30
I asked around and it seems this is pretty typical in this category.

Maybe find some people with a similar amount of subs that make similar videos,
then ask them what their average retention is. See if yours stacks up.

Good luck

 

[Laurenk]

This keeps happening to me too It's so disheartening when you realise people aren't staying for the full video when you have put so much effort in. Ah well, we can only get better I suppose. Good Luck Guys

 

[Ragulsundaram]

This happens to me a lot. Viewers are most likely to stay if your content is good. So make better and unique contents.