- So, recently YouTube added some channel analytics cards
to be mobile version of the YouTube Studio app.
And it makes it look a lot more like the desktop version,
which is absolutely awesome.
But I'm not here to talk about that.
I'm here to talk about this.
(finger clicks) (bell rings)
Typical performance metrics were first introduced
a couple of years back,
when YouTube moved to the brand new Studio.
They are a fantastic snapshot-way
of seeing if a video is over or under performing
versus your channel's average.
And, of course, such metrics leave us creators saying,
"Oh, I really like that.
Can I have some more of this please?".
Well, thankfully and fortunately, on this occasion,
YouTube's answer to such a question is,
"Yes, yes, you can.
Let's go even more granular".
And so the result is that, if you scroll down
the overview page of a video's analytics,
you will now see the average view duration
displayed both as the actual and typical performance.
So, in this example, this particular video,
to begin with, had higher audience retention
than usual for a vidIQ video,
but that advantage was quickly lost
after which point the video performed as normal.
And so, this cursory glance of the data
leads to two questions.
What did we do right in the first 30 seconds,
and then what did we do wrong immediately afterwards?
Well, if we review the video a little bit,
Dan did an excellent job of delivering
the promise of the very intriguing,
click-worthy title and thumbnail.
In the first 20 seconds, he's telling the viewer
that creators can now get access
the community tab with 500 subscribers
instead of a thousand subscribers.
This is great, awesome news delivered
at the very start of the video.
There's also some nice pattern interrupts
going on to re-engage the viewer,
but then, after a fantastic start
with audience attention well above typical,
this happens.
- Personally, I've always wondered
why the community tab was locked
behind this 1000 subscriber threshold.
We've had it for a very long time now.
- It seems as if Dan saying "personally"
was a trigger word for some viewers to abandon a video.
And, on top of this, Dan talks to the camera
with no pattern interrupts for a extended period of time.
Now, let me stress at this point,
this is not a critical attack on Dan.
He actually did an excellent job with this video.
One of the things we pride ourselves on here at vidIQ
is bringing important YouTube news to you, the viewer,
in a fast and easy to understand way,
and Dan did exactly that.
The video's overall performance is above average,
and it's got some great browse traffic
two weeks after launch, which really is
a testament to that title and thumbnail.
This is an example of Dan executing
99 things out of 100 perfectly,
but the one thing that just needed a little bit of tweaking
caused the audience retention to drop significantly,
and when you've made enough videos,
and you have enough experience being a creator,
that is a level of detail you're going into
to try and get those marginal gains from your content.
Your ultimate goal as a creator
is to satisfy the viewer as much as possible,
which in turn sends more positive signals to YouTube.
So, if you can tweak your content
to improve audience retention,
that in turn should mean that YouTube
shares your content with more people,
thus leading to more views.
Anyway, it's enough of the Dan bashing.
It's time to take a critical look at myself.
(hands clap)
(suspenseful music)
(camera clicks)
I don't think there is any question
that this video has a cool intro,
but what has it achieved by the end of it?
The viewer hasn't really learned anything
and they're probably not even sure
they're in the right place.
The problem is I got far too wrapped up
in making a very fancy intro
at the expense of the viewers needs,
and it shows in this very mediocre average view duration.
But here's the real hidden cost of all of this
that none of you probably even noticed.
This intro took me hours to make.
I think it was about three hours in the end,
just for 20 seconds of content
that non of you were really fussed about.
And that is a really critical lesson
for me to understand.
You, as viewers, are not particularly interested
in artistic and creative expression on our videos,
and that is completely understandable.
What you really want from us
is YouTube education and value.
Everything else is secondary.
And once I started talking
about the value of the daily ideas tool
and how it can help you as a creator,
the audience retention recovered
to the higher end of our videos' typical performance,
but unfortunately the damage had already been done.
What audience retention percentage should I be aiming for?
That's a question we often get asked here at vidIQ.
Unfortunately, just like the click-through rate question,
it's impossible to answer.
There is no magic number.
But what I will now say
is that this is the best next alternative answer.
Previously, you could view relative audience retention
that compared your video to other videos
of a similar length on YouTube,
but such benchmarking feels awfully vague.
But now you have the power to benchmark against yourself,
and this is the purest form of data
that will drive insights into future improvement.
You've probably heard me talk about this concept before,
improving 1% with every video that you make.
Well, benchmarking your average view duration
is the perfect place to start
improving your content 1% at a time.
And of course, as always, this metric
leaves me wanting even more.
YouTube, can you do exactly the same thing
for click-through rate?
Actual performance versus typical performance.
And surely, everybody agrees now
that the new YouTube Studio,
is it new anymore?
Is awesome.
It's got so many things,
many of which you might not even be aware of,
so, check them all out over here.