You may have heard the buzz about the YouTube 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours watch time debacle. Or, if you didn’t, in short, YouTube tightened its rules around the criteria needed to apply for channel monetization. In order to monetize, creators must have amassed 4,000 hours of overall watch time on their channel within the past 12 months and have at least 1,000 subscribers. This obviously sent many creators into a frenzy, but it also drew a lot of attention to watch time and other associated metrics. The following questions emerged? How is watch time calculated? How do I know how many hours of video viewers have watched so far? How many people need to watch my videos in order to hit 4,000 hours? How can I improve overall watch time? For creators and businesses alike, watch time became a proxy for success. “How many hours are you at?” But, should businesses really care? If so, how can they track their success or failure? In this report, you will find answers to these questions and much more. What is Watch Time on Youtube? 5 Strategies for Improving Your Watch Time on Youtube Let’s dive in. What is Watch Time on YouTube? It’s important to note that watch time is not simply the percentage of your video being watched. Unfortunately, many marketers attempt to game the algorithm and increase their watch time by making their videos shorter. This doesn’t work. Instead, watch time is a measurement of how long viewers watch your videos, measured in actual minutes and seconds. Watch time also refers to YouTube content that increases a viewer’s time spent watching videos across YouTube in general, not just videos on your channel. As you can see, the metric is a lot more expansive than just your channel. According to YouTube, “we are actually optimizing for how a video contributes to a longer viewing session on YouTube. So, your video isn’t more likely to be seen just because it’s shorter.” So, simply making your videos shorter is not going to help increase watch time. This got us curious as to how long the average video is from brands and marketers, so we asked… While most of our respondents (62%) are creating shorter videos under 5 minutes, it’s clear that a lot of time is being invested into video creation. Since watch time is so important, how can marketers go about creating content that indeed improves this metric for its viewers? Editor’s note: The first step in improving watch time is having a clear handle on how all of your video content is currently performing. Grab this YouTube Watch Time Performance Dashboard Template and visualize your watch time on YouTube in seconds. 5 Strategies for Improving Your Watch Time on Youtube How to improve your watch time on Youtube? According to YouTube, the answer is simple: “The best thing creators can do to be successful on YouTube is to make videos that people want to watch.” But how do you go about that exactly? Here’s what we learned. Open with a preview Take advantage of YouTube Analytics Take advantage of YouTube playlists Optimize your YouTube videos Tell good stories Editor’s note: Find out everything you need to know about your videos’ watch time and views with this YouTube Watch Time Analysis Dashboard Template. 1. Open with a preview Many of the marketers we talked to had a simple piece of advice for increasing watch time: start your video by telling people what you’re going to talk about. A simple overview can make a big difference. Think of it as a quick table of contents at the beginning of your video. Or “Think of them like bullet points in sales copy,” says James Pollard, digital solution manager at The Advisor Coach. “That’s essentially how they work.” Sean Si founder of Seo Hacker, says you’ll need to give this overview right away. “The most crucial part of your video is the first 15–30 seconds . . . this is the window you have to convince the audience that your video is worth watching further.” On a related note, you can organize your video by breaking it up into small parts. “For example, if you’re working with an explainer video, structure it like ‘our 3 step-process,'” says OptimizePrime‘s Harris Schachter. HealthLabs‘ Lauren Crain included another important point. “It’s simple, but it can make a big difference: put your most important point at the end. Viewers will know to stick around longer once you’ve told them what to expect.” (Just keep in mind that you’ll have to tell them that the most important point is at the end.) So, why does this strategy work? Why is a simple overview so effective? “One of the biggest reasons users drop off is because they don’t think there is any value left in the video,” says Cat Crawford with Cat Crawford Marketing. “If you include the points that will be addressed early on in the introduction, viewers are more likely to stick around to get the information they need.” 2. Take advantage of YouTube Analytics Besides offering a quick preview of what’s in the video, we also received some technical tips. “Take advantage of YouTube’s analytics,” says John Z Wetmore of Perils For Pedestrians. “You can see exactly what percentage of your initial viewers are watching one of your videos second by second. Is there a place where many people are clicking away?” John gave an example from his own analytics: “In my case, I discovered that a third of my viewers were clicking away during my 17-second title sequence. The title is necessary for cable TV, but is expendable on YouTube. So now I trim off the title sequence on YouTube and people stay a little longer.” Mackenzie Thompson, marketing associate at National Health Care Provider Solutions gave similar advice. “We utilize Google Analytics to pinpoint where the peaks in user retention are in our videos. Once we identify where in the video the peak is, we go back and review the video to see what we did at that time frame and try to replicate it in future videos.” It’s a simple formula, but it has increased watch times for the National Health Care Provider Solutions. Related: How to Measure YouTube Analytics Using Only Google Analytics 3. Take advantage of YouTube playlists Two marketers suggested something that we weren’t expecting: taking advantage of playlists. James Nuttall of Healing Holidays suggests that marketers “Create an enticing playlist running order so your audience opts for a linear viewing experience.” Sequencing is important, he says. “For a longer watch time, you need to have an interesting sequence, which flows naturally from one video to another.” Colibri Digital Marketing‘s Andrew McLoughlin said the same. If your playlists “Follow a more or less linear flow, each video will follow the last and lead to the next.” This creates a better viewing experience, Lenney says, and leads to increased watch times. George B. Thomas, Inbound Evangelist at Impulse Creative, echoes the sentiment of creating a high volume of content for your viewers to get “lost” in. “Create, Create, Create,” said Thomas. “You need to have a bank of helpful videos that your viewers can get lost in. Businesses can not think that they can produce 5 or 10 videos and immediately see improved watch time. Give your viewers a journey they can travel on. I have gotten lost for hours on content from Nick Nimmin, Peter McKinnon, and Gary Vaynerchuk because of the sheer amount of videos.” Thomas added, “The same thing happens with our Sprocket Talk community. There is always another update, tutorial, interview, or strategy for HubSpot users to watch and educate themselves.” Editor’s note: Hubspot and Databox create a powerful marketing reporting software duo together. You can also track and combine data from different sources like YouTube, Google Analytics, Wistia, and more to get a better understanding of how your videos perform across different platforms. 4. Optimize your YouTube videos “The first step to increasing a company’s video watch time is actually getting seen,” says Steve Pritchard of Ben Sherman. To do this, he says, you’ll need to optimize your keywords. “Keywords apply to YouTube videos just as much as they do on Google,” and you should include them in both your title and description. Pritchard also noted that your description should grab people’s attention and get them to watch. Channel Factory‘s junior marketing specialist Matthew Bianchi suggests using a third-party tool to help you out. “Channel Factory’s ViewIQ is free for Creators and offers powerful features that allow for creators to identify trends at the channel, video, and keyword level.” Using these insights combined with information on similar channels, genres, and relevant tags lets creators see what their audience is looking for. PRO TIP: Analyze Your YouTube Channel Performance Like a Pro To find out what types of video content perform best with your audience, you may track video engagement metrics such as watch time, number of views, likes and dislikes of each video individually using a variety of tools, including YouTube itself. Now you can quickly monitor your video content performance in a single dashboard that monitors fundamental metrics, such as: Average watch time. How much time do viewers spend watching your video content? Watch time by video. Which videos drive most of your audience watch time each month? Subscribers gained vs lost. How quickly are you gaining or losing subscribers? Number of likes, comments and shares. How engaged is your audience? Now you can benefit from the experience of our video marketing experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template showing the most important metrics for measuring your YouTube channel performance. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports! You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required. To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps: Step 1: Get the template Step 2: Connect your YouTube account with Databox. Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds. Try this template 5. Tell good stories In the end, capturing viewers’ attention comes down to telling good stories. Michael Hammond, founder and creative director of Storyboard Media Group, lays it out: “If your videos are scrumptious, memorable, delivers on a promise, has some intrigue, the journey makes sense… people will stick with it by spending more time-consuming.” Colorful Eyes with Stacy Caprio gave a simple tip to help you tell better stories: script your video in advance. Scripting makes sure your video “clips along at a good pace and is interesting in a way you can’t achieve when you just film off the cuff.” Of course, you still have to get people to start your videos so they appreciate your stories. JLenney Marketing recommends boosting views and watch time by posting at the right time of day. In his experience, that means posting your video mid-afternoon on a weekday. But you should also test post time, storytelling techniques, keywords, and everything else. “Test video lengths, test types of content, test filming styles, test everything you can,” says Amy from Content Career. “Every creator’s channel is different. The audience is different, the content is unique, and the reasons people watch are diverse. There is no one size fits all, so the need to create, test, and measure metrics like watch time is vital.” Related: 9 Ways to Improve Audience Retention on YouTube Editor’s note: Not a fan of written content? George B. Thomas of Impulse Creative provides a detailed walk-through of the key metrics around watch time as well as strategies for improving them in the video below. Want to discover which videos create the most buzz about your brand? Visualize the performance of your YouTube channel in minutes by pulling your data into Databox. Connect Youtube and Databox now.