When you spend time marketing your videos on YouTube, it can be very easy to get obsessed with your view count. Many people view total views as “votes” for their video. It is the easiest metric to see, as it is displayed prominently on your video’s page. But there are other YouTube metrics that are actually more important than total views when it comes to measuring success.
YouTube is giving more and more weight to watch time and engagement in order to determine just how well a particular video is performing. And as a video marketer, these metrics can be critically important. If a video has a high view count but nobody is watching it past the halfway point, something is wrong. And if hundreds of thousands of people are viewing your video but are not liking, commenting, or sharing it, is the video actually contributing anything to your marketing strategy?
Why Watch Time Matters
Since late 2012, watch time has been a major YouTube ranking factor. This was partly an effort to make search results better for users and to push them towards a better user experience. By rewarding content that is engaging rather than rewarding content with a lot of views, YouTube hoped to weed out those who were trying to game the system. It’s easy to buy views. The bigger your budget, the more views you can buy. But videos that users choose to watch from start to finish should carry more weight. The assumption is that a viewer is getting something out of that content. And when those viewers subscribe to your channel, or when they consistently come back to consume more of your content, YouTube sees your videos as more authoritative and will rank them accordingly.
Keep in mind – in order to increase your view time you do not need to increase the length of your videos. If you’re producing 30-second videos that are useful and engaging, and people watch them from start to finish, you will benefit. It’s not the length of the video that matters for this YouTube metric, but the length of time you hold your viewers’ attention.
You can track watch time in your YouTube analytics. Study the videos that hold users the longest. What did that content look like? What specific strategies did you use to produce those videos? And conversely, for your content that isn’t holding users’ attention, note where they are dropping off. Notice trends and capitalize based on the taste of your core audience.
You also want to be sure you are removing all possible barriers to watching your video the whole way through. The most common reasons viewers abandon a video before it’s finished include:
- Unexpected buffering
- Viewer sees a more appealing video in the sidebar
- The content doesn’t answer their question
- The content doesn’t hold their attention
- The video doesn’t get straight to the point
You want to make sure that you’re uploading videos properly and you test them for loading and buffering issues. Always get to the point quickly and do your best to create content that leaves people interested in viewing the entire piece.
Why Engagement Matters
In order for your video marketing to be successful, your content must resonate with your target audience. And the best way to measure whether or not you are connecting is through engagement. How do you know if your viewers are engaged? Through:
- Likes
- Shares
- Embeds
- Comments
- Subscriptions to your channel
- Adds to playlists
- Visits to your website from YouTube
- Increased product sales
- Increased leads
It’s great for the ego when a video has lots of views. But if there is no other activity outside of views, is that content really working for you? Viral video is fun, of course, but it’s not always an effective means of increasing your sales.
The products and services you offer do not appeal to everybody in the world. So why should your video content? You only need to appeal to your core audience and if you’re motivating them to take action based on your videos, then your content is successful.
Earning subscribers is a great way to increase your engagement and get your YouTube videos working for you. The average watch time among subscribers is much higher than watch time among random viewers who find you in search. But a lot of people don’t put much effort into earning new subscribers. Just as you put calls to action in your blog posts and video content, add a call to subscribe to your channel somewhere in your video description to encourage viewers to connect with the rest of your content.
The same way you study your watch time metrics, you should also keep a close eye on engagement. What are the trends? Do you have more success with a certain topic? Or are particular formats more appealing to your audience than others. Each month take stock of your YouTube metrics on engagement to plan your future content.
Focus On The YouTube Metrics That Matter
YouTube can be a great enhancement to your online marketing campaign, but if you’re focused on the wrong goals, your efforts will likely be for naught. Instead of obsessing over total views, study and learn from YouTube metrics like watch time and engagement to make your content work for you.
Do you find yourself focusing too much on the wrong YouTube metrics? Why do you think people are still so obsessed with total views? How can you adjust your approach to increase watch time and engagement? Let us know in the comments!
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