Bold Content How to Increase Watch Time for your YouTube Video

One of the most important factors for how well your videos on YouTube rank is watch time. Watch time is widely considered to be even more important than the total number of views that the video receives. Here we’ll look at how you can determine the current watch time for your videos and increase it in the future.

How to analyze the current watch time of your videos

Before we can improve the watch time for your videos you need to have a baseline of how well you are currently doing. This process begins with analyzing the current watch time of your video. This can be found by looking in the analytics dashboard of your YouTube creator studio. Sign into your YouTube account and then click at the top right of the screen.

How to increase watch time

Next select Analytics from the menu on the left hand side of the screen.

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After you click on Analytics, select the Watch time under the Watch time reports section.

How to increase watch time

For each of your video there will be statistics relating to your video. This includes the total number of minutes your video has been watched, number of views, average view duration and the average percentage viewed.

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One of the most useful statistic is the average view duration for your videos. This gives you a guide to where people are dropping off during your videos. if you have any important marketing messages you want to convey you can make sure that they are placed before the average view duration is reached to ensure that the maximum number of viewers see them. And by analyzing where people are dropping off you can think about how to improve the video in order to increase watch time. Here are some techniques to get people to watch your video for longer:

Improve the editing

One reason that people stop watching a video is because it is dragging. Superfluous content adds little value for both the viewer and the business who is producing the video. Good editing will remove unnecessary content, keeping the video tight and the audience engaged.

Create intrigue

Give the viewer a reason to stick around. There are a number of ways that you can do this. In the introduction state that you will be revealing something important at the end of the video. This could be tips, strategy, resources or a giveaway. The viewer will need to keep watching the video if they want to find out what is are you going to reveal. Another technique is to create a sense of mystery at the start of the video. Making the video intriguing can keep people watching in order to see the mystery resolved

Keep your intro concise

Aim to keep your introduction concise. People often spend too much time introducing the content that is going to appear later in the video. Either skip the introduction altogether or briefly cover what will be in the video and why someone should keep watching.

Deliver the goods

When creating video content it’s important to ensure you are giving the viewers what they want. If you are sharing a tutorial video then you need to be present exactly the information that the viewer wants to solve their problem. Break down how you are going to help them solve them into actionable steps so that the viewer will follow through to try and fix their problem.

Bonus Trick

Finally, there is a little trick that you can implement in order to increase the average view time for your video. This involves embed it on your website, set it to autoplay and remove the controls. While your primary focus should be making your videos as engaging as possible this can help to lift your average view time. In turn this can increase your rankings and expose your video to more prospective customers.

To do this you will first need to copy and paste the embed code for the video. This can be found by clicking on the share button under the video and then selecting embed.

How to increase watch time

At the end of your embed code add in the following script before embedding it on your website:

“?autoplay=1&controls=0”