- The only way this video is going to make sense,
is if you follow it all the way to the end.
So yeah, you might call this,
watch-time-bait,
but there's a very good reason for this.
(Snap)
Oh, and another news...
New merch.
(sound effects)
All right folks, I'm going to level with you right now.
This video is all about end screens.
And I know that the mere mention of such an old tool,
may switch you off this video.
Up until a month ago, I would have probably have had
the same attitude, after all,
they contribute so little traffic to the channel.
To be honest, I've always treated end screens
as an afterthought.
Make the video, upload it to YouTube,
and then stick on loads of assets
on that end screen template.
You know, videos, subscription links, associated links,
chaos. And to be honest again,
it's all down to a lack of planning,
not really thinking how I'm going to end each video.
But recently I saw a couple of other YouTube educators
talking about the topic, and I thought they had
really interesting things to say.
And so, I've started experimenting.
I started making changes to my videos and yep.
I think there might be something to all of this.
Now, by no means is this a perfected strategy.
But I was so excited by that first test, I wanted to
share with you, what I found out so far.
Oh look, more merch.
For all of this talk of the creator economy
has got you excited but you're not yet monetize,
then this is a video for you.
So then, this end screen is now sending views to this video
and you can see the immediate impact
it's having through real-time analytics.
Yes, this video is already getting views
from YouTube search, but now it's getting an extra boost
from a single end screen.
So you know what too we're talking about.
You can see the impact it's having on videos...
What about the results?
Well, to be quite honest, they are pretty astonishing.
This is what happens when you neglect
a part of the creative process.
It lets the video down.
And this is what happens when you put
a little thought and effort into it.
And this is what happens when you improve your technique.
A five-fold increase in views.
And so in... short summary...
it's time to start taking end screens seriously,
and these are the three strategies I've implemented.
(funny music)
Sometimes choice isn't always a good thing.
I mean, imagine if you're confronted
with four different options in the last few seconds
of a video, which do you choose?
The likely answer is none at all.
This is decision paralysis. The more choices you offer,
the more you dilute the impact of each one.
So what we want to focus on here is a single,
very intentional, call to action.
And a new T-shirt to try on.
Give the viewer a single option
and tell them exactly why they should watch that video.
Keep. It. Simple.
Now I will agree; this strategy sounds a little scary,
especially if you are hell bent on getting more watch time,
but allow me to explain.
Here's the inescapable truth.
The longer the video is,
the worse your audience retention will be.
And since end screens solely rely
on people still being around at the end of a video,
you need as higher audience retention as possible.
If people are still watching
and if you are successful with your end screen,
this keeps the viewer on YouTube.
And that is what's commonly referred to
as session watch time.
YouTube wants users to stay on the platform,
and if they're doing that while binge watching your content,
it's only natural for YouTube
to start recommending your content even more.
Here's a problem from the creator's point of view.
There is a knowledge gap.
There is no session watch time metric
for creators to take a look up.
But there are other ways you can get an idea
of how your viewers are watching your content.
Return viewers will give you some indication
of when users are watching multiple videos on your channel,
but it's not an exact metric, and it actually replace one
I'm starting to pay close attention to.
As you can see, you need to go into advanced metrics
and add average views per viewer,
and just pay attention to the total count.
And so this is vidIQ's current benchmark.
My goal is to drive this number to two and beyond
through end screens and other techniques that will build
audience, trust, loyalty, and hopefully stickiness.
Here's the first rule of YouTube:
Viewers will not listen to a word you say
after you say the phrase "thanks for watching".
Except in this case... hopefully.
When you do this, viewers assume there is no value left
and will abandon your video faster than a sinking ship.
I mean this audience retention data is a perfect example,
and you can learn so much more from those graphs by watching
this video over here.
Makes sense now, doesn't it?