YouTube Question Question about CTR and Average View Duration

[ForgottenCovers]

When you click the CTR stat next to a video in the Studio Dashboard, it tells you some details about your videoΓÇÖs CTR.

My question is about the times it says something like ΓÇ£your viewers are watching for less time than your other videosΓÇ¥. It seems that this is based on length of time and not % of video watched.

For example, if I upload 4 videos that are 4 mins long each, and the average view duration is 1 minute, people on average watched 25% of those videos. However, if my 5th video is only 2 minutes long and the view duration stays at 1 minute, people are actually watching 50% of my video, a huge improvement.

It seems to me that the ΓÇ£average view durationΓÇ¥ measured in seconds/minutes is not relevant really unless all your videos are exactly the same length? Am I missing something?

- David

 

[Islamic Status TV]

Islamic Status Tv

When you click the CTR stat next to a video in the Studio Dashboard, it tells you some details about your videoΓÇÖs CTR.

My question is about the times it says something like ΓÇ£your viewers are watching for less time than your other videosΓÇ¥. It seems that this is based on length of time and not % of video watched.

For example, if I upload 4 videos that are 4 mins long each, and the average view duration is 1 minute, people on average watched 25% of those videos. However, if my 5th video is only 2 minutes long and the view duration stays at 1 minute, people are actually watching 50% of my video, a huge improvement.

It seems to me that the ΓÇ£average view durationΓÇ¥ measured in seconds/minutes is not relevant really unless all your videos are exactly the same length? Am I missing something?

- David

When infind my Channel ctel faid

 

[Islamic Status TV]

Please help me...

 

[noCode]

You are correct that the average view duration metric is not always the most relevant measure of video engagement, especially when comparing videos of different lengths. As you mentioned, a viewer watching 50% of a two-minute video is actually more engaged than a viewer watching 25% of a four-minute video, even though both videos have the same average view duration of one minute.


To get a more accurate measure of video engagement, it is often more helpful to look at metrics such as:

• Average view percentage: This metric represents the average percentage of the video that viewers watched before dropping off.
• Audience retention: This metric shows how many viewers are still watching the video at different points in time.

These metrics provide a better indication of how engaging a video is, regardless of its length. For example, a video with a high average view percentage and strong audience retention is likely to be more engaging than a video with a low average view percentage and poor audience retention, even if the average view durations of the two videos are similar.


In addition to these metrics, it is also important to consider the context of the video. For example, a tutorial video that is watched to completion may be considered to be more engaging than a news video that is only watched for a few minutes.


Ultimately, the best metric for measuring video engagement depends on the specific goals of the video creator. However, by considering a variety of metrics, creators can get a more accurate picture of how their videos are performing and make adjustments accordingly.

 

[ForgottenCovers]

Thanks so much for the response!

I was thinking more about this in the context of what YT really wants out of a viewer, and I would think it's probably session length of each of it's viewers. More time people spend on YT = the more ads they see, more videos they click, etc.

So I guess this raises a question - if you have a 1 minute video that gets 100% view duration and then a 10 minute video that gets 30% view duration, is the much lower 30% view duration actually "better" in YT's eyes?