No matter how good content you have in your channel, it means nothing unless people watch it.

I’m sure you don’t want your audience to watch only the first few seconds of your video, as you work hours for it to give your best.

As you probably know, audience retention is one of the important ranking factors on YouTube.

Don’t yet Know What Audience Retention is?

Well, it is the average percent of your YouTube video watched by the people. Let’s say there is a video that is 6 minutes long, and people watched it to an average of 3 minutes, then the audience retention is 50% on that video.

You can get a better retention rate by making people stick to your video for a longer time, even till the end. For that, you have to keep your video interesting.

But how would you do that?

In this article, you will learn the effective ways to achieve that. Make sure you work on every one of these to see a great result.

Have a (great) Script to Increase Audience Retention

Create a script for your video even before you think of recording it.

Creating a script is a refining process for your content. It helps you to convey the message straight to the point. You will exactly know what you are speaking about if you have the script beforehand. This will increase your confidence while recording.

The script is necessary.

Not just a script, you have to create the best script.

Here is how you do that,

Know what People Search for

You can speak whatever you want to, but people will watch what they need to. So first, know what people are searching for on YouTube and choose that to speak about. This should be the foundation of your script.

The first 20 Seconds

“The first 20 seconds is the most important 20 seconds of a video”

You must have heard these many times because it is that important. This is what determines whether the viewers who came into your video will continue to watch it or not. So, you have to know what should be there in those first few seconds.

Some budding YouTubers use to introduce themselves and ask people to subscribe to their channel at the very beginning of the video, which is not always the right approach.

The better way to do it is to tell them what the video is about exactly. Present a quick and short summary of what people will get through your video. This will help them to stick around the video, knowing what they are going to learn or how they are going to be benefited by watching your video for the next few minutes. That is how you hook the audience.

Get to the Point

People don’t care about what you had for dinner last night, do they?

Get straight to the point. Be precise with what you are delivering. Try to reduce the unnecessary talks. Be sure that every single word you are going to speak is relevant to the topic you have chosen. If you make them listen (By your straight and clear points), they will stay.

Don’t Stretch it

Be conscious about the length of your video.

Viewer’s time is precious as much as yours. If your content can be delivered in 5 minutes, do it within that time. Don’t lose the audience by making a long video just for advertisements.

It doesn’t mean you should not create long videos. Of course, you can as long as you have that many values to present. There is no point in stretching a 3-minute video to 12 minutes and expecting people to watch it fully.

Revise the Script

Don’t forget to revise the script before you start recording. Observe it from an audience perspective. It is okay to add or remove sentences if needed. Remember the goal is to gain the audience’s attention.

Editing to make it Interesting

Editing is also something that helps you to increase audience retention. Through editing, you can make your audience feel what you want them to feel. It could be through the background music, effects, text or graphics, etc., But how you use them is what matters and if you are searching for a good video editing software, I would recommend Filmora which is both Beginner and User Friendly with some cool advanced features.

Background music choice

Removing the background noise and keeping your video without music is fine. But if you are adding background music, make the right choice. There is no point in using sad music for an energetic presentation. So, choose relevant music for your content.

Transitions

Transitions are a very basic yet useful thing. The audience won’t like watching the same thing for a long time. It is a good idea to give them a visual break. Use cuts and transitions between your video.

Visuals and motion graphics

Adding relevant visuals, graphics, stock footage, etc. to your videos makes them more and more interesting. There are free websites available for these, you just have to pick the right one for you. This increases the viewer’s attention as well as retention.

These are just glimpses. There is a whole bunch of stuff to learn in editing. You can deep-dive it further.

Analyze and Develop to Increase Audience Retention

Another best thing you can do is analyzing the audience retention of your previous videos. That’s where you learn what didn’t work with your audience.

You can check all the videos which you have uploaded so far. See which of those did audience watched for a longer time. Try to figure out what was best with that video and repeat it.

You can also pick a specific video and observe its audience retention graph. The points where the graph drops are the points where people leave your video. If your graph drops at the very beginning, you may have to change what’s in the introduction from your next videos onwards. Likewise, observe wherever the graph drops and figure out what you did at that point. Analyzing can be done in your YouTube Studio or if you feel like you need more data you can use Vidiq, which is one of my favorite tools that I recommend for everyone who takes YouTube seriously.

So, observe your previous audience retention data and develop the upcoming videos.

BONUS TIP

Here is a bonus tip for you.

Your approach towards the audience matters. People should like the person in the video. If the audience likes you, they will stick to your video until the last word you utter. Give them valuable stuff. Be friendly. Show them that you care about them. But don’t fake it. Be the real you in front of the audience.

Conclusion

It may not very easy to have more audience retention on your videos, but it is possible. You just have to work for it.

Try out every single thing you have read in this article and get ready to see the amazing results!