Chuckle-Filled Creativity: Crafting 7 Side-Splitting YouTube Sets

7 Comedy YouTube Video Ideas That Only Funny People Are Allowed to Try

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Aspiring comedians used to have to find success performing in bars and clubs before they’d get the chance to make big audiences laugh. Now funny people can reach millions of viewers on YouTube, and all they need are funny video ideas. Generating great video ideas isn’t always easy, but I’m here to help you get over that minor speed bump.

Let’s dive into the world of YouTube comedy videos and find out which ideas can help you launch your career as a comedian.

7 Comedy YouTube Video Ideas

1. Do a Skit
2. Start a Funny Series
3. Kid, Baby, and Animal Videos
4. Machinima and Gameplay Skits
5. Parody Videos
6. Bloopers
7. Lip Sync Video

1. Do a Skit

YouTube is the perfect medium for short, generally between one and ten minutes long comedy sketches. The majority of the audience on YouTube isn’t patient enough to sit through a half-hour show, no matter how funny it is (at least not until you have a large fan base).

Your skit can be about literally anything, as long as it’s short and effective. Having your own unique sense of humor is a crucial factor in ensuring the success of the sketches you post online.

2. Start a Funny Series

Try producing a pilot episode of a comedy series for your YouTube channel. Don’t worry about the budget too much because if your ideas are good even a DIY approach will be enough.

Producing a funny series requires dedication and commitment to that goal, so don’t let yourself be discouraged easily.

3. Kid, Baby, and Animal Videos

Posting cute videos on your YouTube channel will certainly help you get attention online. The Internet loves videos of adorable babies, cats, dogs and other charming animals. Including these types of videos on your channel can be a good way to boost your subscriber count.

It is important to note that your content must be unique. Re-posting funny animal videos you find online won’t get you far and will make it impossible to monetize your channel.

4. Machinima and Gameplay Skits

The term machinima means creating a cinematic production by re-using material from video games. Gameplay skits and machinima videos are a great way of reaching millions of gaming fans who enjoy good comedy videos.

The gaming industry is on the rise, and the audience that wants to watch video game-related content is growing every day. However, these types of videos require an in-depth knowledge of the gaming world, and you really have to know the games you draw from in order to make this idea work.

5. Parody Video

A well done, poignant parody never fails to make people laugh. Pop culture provides an endless source of TV shows, movies, and songs that can be used for your parody videos. When pop stars release big new music videos, they always get parodied by someone on YouTube within the first few days in order to capitalize on the trend while it’s fresh.

Parody videos will provide you with an opportunity to showcase your skills and enable you to show the world that you are a talented, relevant comedian.

6. Bloopers

We all make mistakes. Blooper videos enable us to at least laugh at them. Experienced YouTubers know how easy it is to flub a take, but it takes a brave creator to make an entire video from the shots they messed up.

7. Lip-Sync Video

Have you ever imagined what it’s like to be a pop star? Lip-sync videos offer the opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes for a moment and have fun with it. Knowing the song you’re lip-syncing and having good timing can help, but you can hardly go wrong producing a video of yourself pouring your soul into a song you’re lip-syncing.

Lip-syncing to tunes from the most popular stars in the world will enable you to gain traffic from people looking for content related to those songs and artists.

Need more YouTube video ideas? Check out our Definitive List of YouTube Video Ideas .

Making A Better YouTube Comedy Video with Wondershare Filmora

As one of the best software to edit videos for YouTubers, Filmora allows you to create a comedy video with effects, elements and templates quickly.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Aspiring comedians used to have to find success performing in bars and clubs before they’d get the chance to make big audiences laugh. Now funny people can reach millions of viewers on YouTube, and all they need are funny video ideas. Generating great video ideas isn’t always easy, but I’m here to help you get over that minor speed bump.

Let’s dive into the world of YouTube comedy videos and find out which ideas can help you launch your career as a comedian.

7 Comedy YouTube Video Ideas

1. Do a Skit
2. Start a Funny Series
3. Kid, Baby, and Animal Videos
4. Machinima and Gameplay Skits
5. Parody Videos
6. Bloopers
7. Lip Sync Video

1. Do a Skit

YouTube is the perfect medium for short, generally between one and ten minutes long comedy sketches. The majority of the audience on YouTube isn’t patient enough to sit through a half-hour show, no matter how funny it is (at least not until you have a large fan base).

Your skit can be about literally anything, as long as it’s short and effective. Having your own unique sense of humor is a crucial factor in ensuring the success of the sketches you post online.

2. Start a Funny Series

Try producing a pilot episode of a comedy series for your YouTube channel. Don’t worry about the budget too much because if your ideas are good even a DIY approach will be enough.

Producing a funny series requires dedication and commitment to that goal, so don’t let yourself be discouraged easily.

3. Kid, Baby, and Animal Videos

Posting cute videos on your YouTube channel will certainly help you get attention online. The Internet loves videos of adorable babies, cats, dogs and other charming animals. Including these types of videos on your channel can be a good way to boost your subscriber count.

It is important to note that your content must be unique. Re-posting funny animal videos you find online won’t get you far and will make it impossible to monetize your channel.

4. Machinima and Gameplay Skits

The term machinima means creating a cinematic production by re-using material from video games. Gameplay skits and machinima videos are a great way of reaching millions of gaming fans who enjoy good comedy videos.

The gaming industry is on the rise, and the audience that wants to watch video game-related content is growing every day. However, these types of videos require an in-depth knowledge of the gaming world, and you really have to know the games you draw from in order to make this idea work.

5. Parody Video

A well done, poignant parody never fails to make people laugh. Pop culture provides an endless source of TV shows, movies, and songs that can be used for your parody videos. When pop stars release big new music videos, they always get parodied by someone on YouTube within the first few days in order to capitalize on the trend while it’s fresh.

Parody videos will provide you with an opportunity to showcase your skills and enable you to show the world that you are a talented, relevant comedian.

6. Bloopers

We all make mistakes. Blooper videos enable us to at least laugh at them. Experienced YouTubers know how easy it is to flub a take, but it takes a brave creator to make an entire video from the shots they messed up.

7. Lip-Sync Video

Have you ever imagined what it’s like to be a pop star? Lip-sync videos offer the opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes for a moment and have fun with it. Knowing the song you’re lip-syncing and having good timing can help, but you can hardly go wrong producing a video of yourself pouring your soul into a song you’re lip-syncing.

Lip-syncing to tunes from the most popular stars in the world will enable you to gain traffic from people looking for content related to those songs and artists.

Need more YouTube video ideas? Check out our Definitive List of YouTube Video Ideas .

Making A Better YouTube Comedy Video with Wondershare Filmora

As one of the best software to edit videos for YouTubers, Filmora allows you to create a comedy video with effects, elements and templates quickly.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Aspiring comedians used to have to find success performing in bars and clubs before they’d get the chance to make big audiences laugh. Now funny people can reach millions of viewers on YouTube, and all they need are funny video ideas. Generating great video ideas isn’t always easy, but I’m here to help you get over that minor speed bump.

Let’s dive into the world of YouTube comedy videos and find out which ideas can help you launch your career as a comedian.

7 Comedy YouTube Video Ideas

1. Do a Skit
2. Start a Funny Series
3. Kid, Baby, and Animal Videos
4. Machinima and Gameplay Skits
5. Parody Videos
6. Bloopers
7. Lip Sync Video

1. Do a Skit

YouTube is the perfect medium for short, generally between one and ten minutes long comedy sketches. The majority of the audience on YouTube isn’t patient enough to sit through a half-hour show, no matter how funny it is (at least not until you have a large fan base).

Your skit can be about literally anything, as long as it’s short and effective. Having your own unique sense of humor is a crucial factor in ensuring the success of the sketches you post online.

2. Start a Funny Series

Try producing a pilot episode of a comedy series for your YouTube channel. Don’t worry about the budget too much because if your ideas are good even a DIY approach will be enough.

Producing a funny series requires dedication and commitment to that goal, so don’t let yourself be discouraged easily.

3. Kid, Baby, and Animal Videos

Posting cute videos on your YouTube channel will certainly help you get attention online. The Internet loves videos of adorable babies, cats, dogs and other charming animals. Including these types of videos on your channel can be a good way to boost your subscriber count.

It is important to note that your content must be unique. Re-posting funny animal videos you find online won’t get you far and will make it impossible to monetize your channel.

4. Machinima and Gameplay Skits

The term machinima means creating a cinematic production by re-using material from video games. Gameplay skits and machinima videos are a great way of reaching millions of gaming fans who enjoy good comedy videos.

The gaming industry is on the rise, and the audience that wants to watch video game-related content is growing every day. However, these types of videos require an in-depth knowledge of the gaming world, and you really have to know the games you draw from in order to make this idea work.

5. Parody Video

A well done, poignant parody never fails to make people laugh. Pop culture provides an endless source of TV shows, movies, and songs that can be used for your parody videos. When pop stars release big new music videos, they always get parodied by someone on YouTube within the first few days in order to capitalize on the trend while it’s fresh.

Parody videos will provide you with an opportunity to showcase your skills and enable you to show the world that you are a talented, relevant comedian.

6. Bloopers

We all make mistakes. Blooper videos enable us to at least laugh at them. Experienced YouTubers know how easy it is to flub a take, but it takes a brave creator to make an entire video from the shots they messed up.

7. Lip-Sync Video

Have you ever imagined what it’s like to be a pop star? Lip-sync videos offer the opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes for a moment and have fun with it. Knowing the song you’re lip-syncing and having good timing can help, but you can hardly go wrong producing a video of yourself pouring your soul into a song you’re lip-syncing.

Lip-syncing to tunes from the most popular stars in the world will enable you to gain traffic from people looking for content related to those songs and artists.

Need more YouTube video ideas? Check out our Definitive List of YouTube Video Ideas .

Making A Better YouTube Comedy Video with Wondershare Filmora

As one of the best software to edit videos for YouTubers, Filmora allows you to create a comedy video with effects, elements and templates quickly.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Aspiring comedians used to have to find success performing in bars and clubs before they’d get the chance to make big audiences laugh. Now funny people can reach millions of viewers on YouTube, and all they need are funny video ideas. Generating great video ideas isn’t always easy, but I’m here to help you get over that minor speed bump.

Let’s dive into the world of YouTube comedy videos and find out which ideas can help you launch your career as a comedian.

7 Comedy YouTube Video Ideas

1. Do a Skit
2. Start a Funny Series
3. Kid, Baby, and Animal Videos
4. Machinima and Gameplay Skits
5. Parody Videos
6. Bloopers
7. Lip Sync Video

1. Do a Skit

YouTube is the perfect medium for short, generally between one and ten minutes long comedy sketches. The majority of the audience on YouTube isn’t patient enough to sit through a half-hour show, no matter how funny it is (at least not until you have a large fan base).

Your skit can be about literally anything, as long as it’s short and effective. Having your own unique sense of humor is a crucial factor in ensuring the success of the sketches you post online.

2. Start a Funny Series

Try producing a pilot episode of a comedy series for your YouTube channel. Don’t worry about the budget too much because if your ideas are good even a DIY approach will be enough.

Producing a funny series requires dedication and commitment to that goal, so don’t let yourself be discouraged easily.

3. Kid, Baby, and Animal Videos

Posting cute videos on your YouTube channel will certainly help you get attention online. The Internet loves videos of adorable babies, cats, dogs and other charming animals. Including these types of videos on your channel can be a good way to boost your subscriber count.

It is important to note that your content must be unique. Re-posting funny animal videos you find online won’t get you far and will make it impossible to monetize your channel.

4. Machinima and Gameplay Skits

The term machinima means creating a cinematic production by re-using material from video games. Gameplay skits and machinima videos are a great way of reaching millions of gaming fans who enjoy good comedy videos.

The gaming industry is on the rise, and the audience that wants to watch video game-related content is growing every day. However, these types of videos require an in-depth knowledge of the gaming world, and you really have to know the games you draw from in order to make this idea work.

5. Parody Video

A well done, poignant parody never fails to make people laugh. Pop culture provides an endless source of TV shows, movies, and songs that can be used for your parody videos. When pop stars release big new music videos, they always get parodied by someone on YouTube within the first few days in order to capitalize on the trend while it’s fresh.

Parody videos will provide you with an opportunity to showcase your skills and enable you to show the world that you are a talented, relevant comedian.

6. Bloopers

We all make mistakes. Blooper videos enable us to at least laugh at them. Experienced YouTubers know how easy it is to flub a take, but it takes a brave creator to make an entire video from the shots they messed up.

7. Lip-Sync Video

Have you ever imagined what it’s like to be a pop star? Lip-sync videos offer the opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes for a moment and have fun with it. Knowing the song you’re lip-syncing and having good timing can help, but you can hardly go wrong producing a video of yourself pouring your soul into a song you’re lip-syncing.

Lip-syncing to tunes from the most popular stars in the world will enable you to gain traffic from people looking for content related to those songs and artists.

Need more YouTube video ideas? Check out our Definitive List of YouTube Video Ideas .

Making A Better YouTube Comedy Video with Wondershare Filmora

As one of the best software to edit videos for YouTubers, Filmora allows you to create a comedy video with effects, elements and templates quickly.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

6 Proven Techniques to Elevate Your YouTube Engagement and Reduce Churn

6 Ways To Increase Audience Retention on YouTube

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Audience retention is one of your most important stats on YouTube. It is even more important than your view count. Your view count really only tells you how many people are finding and clicking on your videos, not whether they are actually watching them. Audience retention refers to how much of a video a viewer watches before clicking away, which is very useful information to have. If you know when people are leaving your videos then you know what you need to work on.

You May Also Like: How to analyse your and your competitors’ YouTube Channel >>
How to structure a YouTube video >>

• Part 1: What is Audience Retention?
• Part 2: How to See Your Audience Retention Report in YouTube?
• Part 3: What is a Good Audience Retention Rate on YouTube?
• Part 4: 6 Ways to Increase YouTube Audience Retention

Part 1: What is Audience Retention?

To put it in simple terms, YouTube audience retention is about how much of each video your viewers watch. It’s usually expressed as a percentage, so if your viewer gets half way through, they will have a retention of 50 per cent.

For YouTube analytics, audience retention is taken as a mean of the retention figures for each of your viewers. For example, if you post a ten-minute video and half your viewers get to the five-minute mark, that’s a retention of 50 per cent. If the other half watch it right to the end, that’s a retention of 100 per cent. The mean of these two figures is 75 per cent, and that’s what YouTube will use as your audience retention figure.

This retention rate affects how highly your video is ranked on YouTube, with videos boasting higher audience retention rates appearing higher in the search results than those which do not. This is because both YouTube and Google are highly focussed on customer satisfaction, and a long watch time means a very happy customer was watching that video. For this reason, it’s well worth considering how to increase YouTube audience retention as it demonstrates that you’re making great content as well as helping you get more viewers.

Part 2: How to See Your Audience Retention Report in YouTube?

YouTube will produce reports to help you keep track of your audience retention. There are two types of audience retention reports; absolute and relative. Absolute allows you to view a graph of your video’s retention and see when people might be clicking away, or if they are skipping to later parts of your video. If you lose a lot of viewers in the first 15 seconds of your videos then that is a clear indication that your content is not what the viewers who find your videos really want. The relative report is where your video is compared to the average retention of similar videos.

Note that by ‘similar videos’, YouTube means videos of a similar length. There is no way to compare your videos only to other videos in your genre. The relative report will always be somewhat skewed because your videos will be measured against very different content.

To see an audience retention report log into your YouTube account and go to yourCreator Studio. There, selectAudience RetentionunderAnalytics.

Part 3: What is a Good Audience Retention Rate on YouTube?

When you’re considering how to increase YouTube audience retention, it can be good to have a goal in mind. Obviously 100 per cent is going to be the Holy Grail of retention rates, but how many videos are actually going to achieve that? It only takes for one person to ‘accidentally’ click on your video and rapidly click away, or for someone to have to stop for outside reasons, to drag your average down.

According to the YouTube community, a good goal to aim for is around 50 per cent, but as there is a lot which can affect your retention rate, that number may be different for you. Low view numbers sometimes get higher retention rates because it’s mainly subscribers watching, whereas channels with millions of views may suffer due to more people abandoning. Rather than setting yourself a golden number, focus instead on increasing your retention rate from wherever it is now, and celebrate your own success instead of measuring yourself against others.

Part 4: 6 Ways to Increase YouTube Audience Retention

If you’re serious about learning how to increase YouTube audience retention, here are five of the best ideas for you:

1. Compare your videos

Investigating your audience retention report will highlight the videos where you achieved maximum success. Think about what you did here, and work to replicate that technique. Perhaps you were talking about a product, or maybe your structured your video slightly differently. It’s up to you to dissect your video and find out what it was that kept people watching for longer, so that you can repeat this success in the future. You can also use some influencer marketing platform such as InflueNex to take a look at the videos in your similar channels, and learn the popular videos on their channels.

2. Get on with it

Research shows that YouTube viewers have an incredibly short attention span. Depending on who you believe, you could have as much as six seconds or as little as just three to grab their attention and compel them to carry on watching. If you want to improve your audience retention, coming in with an engaging, attention grabbing statement right at the start is crucial to your success. Nobody wants to waste their time watching someone waffle on for ages about their granny or their favorite hobbies, so get right down to it straight away, by telling them what’s in store.

3. Make it visually engaging

Perhaps all you’ve got is a presentation to make. You’re not a gamer, you’re not showing clips of your cat and you’re not doing a makeup tutorial, so surely all you need is a camera, good lighting and your face, right? Wrong. Viewers like to see the visual content changing, and videos which have a range of scenes are usually far more successful than those where it’s just a person talking to camera. Think about how you can insert cutaways, pop up text, different footage and other graphics to keep it interesting for your viewers.

4. Make it shorter

This one is a no brainer really. If you make a one-minute video, how hard is it going to be to keep viewers watching to the end compared to a 20-minute marathon. However, going too short can be negative too, unless you really do have something very quick and simple to showcase. Long videos work well for YouTubers in the gaming niche, in particular, because viewers want to know the end result, but for most of us, these sorts of viewing statistics are hard to reach.

If you consider a viewer who watches three minutes of your content, would you rather they watched three minutes of a ten-minute video and then clicked away bored, or would you rather they finished an entire video that was only three minutes long? Both in terms of audience retention and of your own reputation, having a viewer finish a short video is much more valuable to you than losing someone half way through a long one. That person probably enjoyed your content to the end and will more than likely watch another one of your videos. Conversely, the one you lost half way through was bored enough to stop watching and will probably not bother viewing any other videos of yours in future.

5. Keep them hooked

Think carefully about your YouTube video structure. Ideally, you will tell them at the very start that you’ve got something amazing to share with them later on. This could be a tip, a tutorial, a new product reveal or even something funny. Whatever it is, tell them they’re going to love it from the start, and keep reminding them to watch from the end to get this gift. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give them great content all the way through, just that you should save a carrot for the end of the ride to reward those loyal viewers.

So, now you know how to increase YouTube audience retention, what are you going to do about it? Have a go at modifying your videos to boost the numbers who will watch to the end and let us know how you got on.

6. Use an Excellent Video Editor

Content is the king. It is necessary to use a powerful video editor to help you edit videos. With an excellent video editor like Filmora, you can custom stunning videos effortlessly.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Audience retention is one of your most important stats on YouTube. It is even more important than your view count. Your view count really only tells you how many people are finding and clicking on your videos, not whether they are actually watching them. Audience retention refers to how much of a video a viewer watches before clicking away, which is very useful information to have. If you know when people are leaving your videos then you know what you need to work on.

You May Also Like: How to analyse your and your competitors’ YouTube Channel >>
How to structure a YouTube video >>

• Part 1: What is Audience Retention?
• Part 2: How to See Your Audience Retention Report in YouTube?
• Part 3: What is a Good Audience Retention Rate on YouTube?
• Part 4: 6 Ways to Increase YouTube Audience Retention

Part 1: What is Audience Retention?

To put it in simple terms, YouTube audience retention is about how much of each video your viewers watch. It’s usually expressed as a percentage, so if your viewer gets half way through, they will have a retention of 50 per cent.

For YouTube analytics, audience retention is taken as a mean of the retention figures for each of your viewers. For example, if you post a ten-minute video and half your viewers get to the five-minute mark, that’s a retention of 50 per cent. If the other half watch it right to the end, that’s a retention of 100 per cent. The mean of these two figures is 75 per cent, and that’s what YouTube will use as your audience retention figure.

This retention rate affects how highly your video is ranked on YouTube, with videos boasting higher audience retention rates appearing higher in the search results than those which do not. This is because both YouTube and Google are highly focussed on customer satisfaction, and a long watch time means a very happy customer was watching that video. For this reason, it’s well worth considering how to increase YouTube audience retention as it demonstrates that you’re making great content as well as helping you get more viewers.

Part 2: How to See Your Audience Retention Report in YouTube?

YouTube will produce reports to help you keep track of your audience retention. There are two types of audience retention reports; absolute and relative. Absolute allows you to view a graph of your video’s retention and see when people might be clicking away, or if they are skipping to later parts of your video. If you lose a lot of viewers in the first 15 seconds of your videos then that is a clear indication that your content is not what the viewers who find your videos really want. The relative report is where your video is compared to the average retention of similar videos.

Note that by ‘similar videos’, YouTube means videos of a similar length. There is no way to compare your videos only to other videos in your genre. The relative report will always be somewhat skewed because your videos will be measured against very different content.

To see an audience retention report log into your YouTube account and go to yourCreator Studio. There, selectAudience RetentionunderAnalytics.

Part 3: What is a Good Audience Retention Rate on YouTube?

When you’re considering how to increase YouTube audience retention, it can be good to have a goal in mind. Obviously 100 per cent is going to be the Holy Grail of retention rates, but how many videos are actually going to achieve that? It only takes for one person to ‘accidentally’ click on your video and rapidly click away, or for someone to have to stop for outside reasons, to drag your average down.

According to the YouTube community, a good goal to aim for is around 50 per cent, but as there is a lot which can affect your retention rate, that number may be different for you. Low view numbers sometimes get higher retention rates because it’s mainly subscribers watching, whereas channels with millions of views may suffer due to more people abandoning. Rather than setting yourself a golden number, focus instead on increasing your retention rate from wherever it is now, and celebrate your own success instead of measuring yourself against others.

Part 4: 6 Ways to Increase YouTube Audience Retention

If you’re serious about learning how to increase YouTube audience retention, here are five of the best ideas for you:

1. Compare your videos

Investigating your audience retention report will highlight the videos where you achieved maximum success. Think about what you did here, and work to replicate that technique. Perhaps you were talking about a product, or maybe your structured your video slightly differently. It’s up to you to dissect your video and find out what it was that kept people watching for longer, so that you can repeat this success in the future. You can also use some influencer marketing platform such as InflueNex to take a look at the videos in your similar channels, and learn the popular videos on their channels.

2. Get on with it

Research shows that YouTube viewers have an incredibly short attention span. Depending on who you believe, you could have as much as six seconds or as little as just three to grab their attention and compel them to carry on watching. If you want to improve your audience retention, coming in with an engaging, attention grabbing statement right at the start is crucial to your success. Nobody wants to waste their time watching someone waffle on for ages about their granny or their favorite hobbies, so get right down to it straight away, by telling them what’s in store.

3. Make it visually engaging

Perhaps all you’ve got is a presentation to make. You’re not a gamer, you’re not showing clips of your cat and you’re not doing a makeup tutorial, so surely all you need is a camera, good lighting and your face, right? Wrong. Viewers like to see the visual content changing, and videos which have a range of scenes are usually far more successful than those where it’s just a person talking to camera. Think about how you can insert cutaways, pop up text, different footage and other graphics to keep it interesting for your viewers.

4. Make it shorter

This one is a no brainer really. If you make a one-minute video, how hard is it going to be to keep viewers watching to the end compared to a 20-minute marathon. However, going too short can be negative too, unless you really do have something very quick and simple to showcase. Long videos work well for YouTubers in the gaming niche, in particular, because viewers want to know the end result, but for most of us, these sorts of viewing statistics are hard to reach.

If you consider a viewer who watches three minutes of your content, would you rather they watched three minutes of a ten-minute video and then clicked away bored, or would you rather they finished an entire video that was only three minutes long? Both in terms of audience retention and of your own reputation, having a viewer finish a short video is much more valuable to you than losing someone half way through a long one. That person probably enjoyed your content to the end and will more than likely watch another one of your videos. Conversely, the one you lost half way through was bored enough to stop watching and will probably not bother viewing any other videos of yours in future.

5. Keep them hooked

Think carefully about your YouTube video structure. Ideally, you will tell them at the very start that you’ve got something amazing to share with them later on. This could be a tip, a tutorial, a new product reveal or even something funny. Whatever it is, tell them they’re going to love it from the start, and keep reminding them to watch from the end to get this gift. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give them great content all the way through, just that you should save a carrot for the end of the ride to reward those loyal viewers.

So, now you know how to increase YouTube audience retention, what are you going to do about it? Have a go at modifying your videos to boost the numbers who will watch to the end and let us know how you got on.

6. Use an Excellent Video Editor

Content is the king. It is necessary to use a powerful video editor to help you edit videos. With an excellent video editor like Filmora, you can custom stunning videos effortlessly.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Audience retention is one of your most important stats on YouTube. It is even more important than your view count. Your view count really only tells you how many people are finding and clicking on your videos, not whether they are actually watching them. Audience retention refers to how much of a video a viewer watches before clicking away, which is very useful information to have. If you know when people are leaving your videos then you know what you need to work on.

You May Also Like: How to analyse your and your competitors’ YouTube Channel >>
How to structure a YouTube video >>

• Part 1: What is Audience Retention?
• Part 2: How to See Your Audience Retention Report in YouTube?
• Part 3: What is a Good Audience Retention Rate on YouTube?
• Part 4: 6 Ways to Increase YouTube Audience Retention

Part 1: What is Audience Retention?

To put it in simple terms, YouTube audience retention is about how much of each video your viewers watch. It’s usually expressed as a percentage, so if your viewer gets half way through, they will have a retention of 50 per cent.

For YouTube analytics, audience retention is taken as a mean of the retention figures for each of your viewers. For example, if you post a ten-minute video and half your viewers get to the five-minute mark, that’s a retention of 50 per cent. If the other half watch it right to the end, that’s a retention of 100 per cent. The mean of these two figures is 75 per cent, and that’s what YouTube will use as your audience retention figure.

This retention rate affects how highly your video is ranked on YouTube, with videos boasting higher audience retention rates appearing higher in the search results than those which do not. This is because both YouTube and Google are highly focussed on customer satisfaction, and a long watch time means a very happy customer was watching that video. For this reason, it’s well worth considering how to increase YouTube audience retention as it demonstrates that you’re making great content as well as helping you get more viewers.

Part 2: How to See Your Audience Retention Report in YouTube?

YouTube will produce reports to help you keep track of your audience retention. There are two types of audience retention reports; absolute and relative. Absolute allows you to view a graph of your video’s retention and see when people might be clicking away, or if they are skipping to later parts of your video. If you lose a lot of viewers in the first 15 seconds of your videos then that is a clear indication that your content is not what the viewers who find your videos really want. The relative report is where your video is compared to the average retention of similar videos.

Note that by ‘similar videos’, YouTube means videos of a similar length. There is no way to compare your videos only to other videos in your genre. The relative report will always be somewhat skewed because your videos will be measured against very different content.

To see an audience retention report log into your YouTube account and go to yourCreator Studio. There, selectAudience RetentionunderAnalytics.

Part 3: What is a Good Audience Retention Rate on YouTube?

When you’re considering how to increase YouTube audience retention, it can be good to have a goal in mind. Obviously 100 per cent is going to be the Holy Grail of retention rates, but how many videos are actually going to achieve that? It only takes for one person to ‘accidentally’ click on your video and rapidly click away, or for someone to have to stop for outside reasons, to drag your average down.

According to the YouTube community, a good goal to aim for is around 50 per cent, but as there is a lot which can affect your retention rate, that number may be different for you. Low view numbers sometimes get higher retention rates because it’s mainly subscribers watching, whereas channels with millions of views may suffer due to more people abandoning. Rather than setting yourself a golden number, focus instead on increasing your retention rate from wherever it is now, and celebrate your own success instead of measuring yourself against others.

Part 4: 6 Ways to Increase YouTube Audience Retention

If you’re serious about learning how to increase YouTube audience retention, here are five of the best ideas for you:

1. Compare your videos

Investigating your audience retention report will highlight the videos where you achieved maximum success. Think about what you did here, and work to replicate that technique. Perhaps you were talking about a product, or maybe your structured your video slightly differently. It’s up to you to dissect your video and find out what it was that kept people watching for longer, so that you can repeat this success in the future. You can also use some influencer marketing platform such as InflueNex to take a look at the videos in your similar channels, and learn the popular videos on their channels.

2. Get on with it

Research shows that YouTube viewers have an incredibly short attention span. Depending on who you believe, you could have as much as six seconds or as little as just three to grab their attention and compel them to carry on watching. If you want to improve your audience retention, coming in with an engaging, attention grabbing statement right at the start is crucial to your success. Nobody wants to waste their time watching someone waffle on for ages about their granny or their favorite hobbies, so get right down to it straight away, by telling them what’s in store.

3. Make it visually engaging

Perhaps all you’ve got is a presentation to make. You’re not a gamer, you’re not showing clips of your cat and you’re not doing a makeup tutorial, so surely all you need is a camera, good lighting and your face, right? Wrong. Viewers like to see the visual content changing, and videos which have a range of scenes are usually far more successful than those where it’s just a person talking to camera. Think about how you can insert cutaways, pop up text, different footage and other graphics to keep it interesting for your viewers.

4. Make it shorter

This one is a no brainer really. If you make a one-minute video, how hard is it going to be to keep viewers watching to the end compared to a 20-minute marathon. However, going too short can be negative too, unless you really do have something very quick and simple to showcase. Long videos work well for YouTubers in the gaming niche, in particular, because viewers want to know the end result, but for most of us, these sorts of viewing statistics are hard to reach.

If you consider a viewer who watches three minutes of your content, would you rather they watched three minutes of a ten-minute video and then clicked away bored, or would you rather they finished an entire video that was only three minutes long? Both in terms of audience retention and of your own reputation, having a viewer finish a short video is much more valuable to you than losing someone half way through a long one. That person probably enjoyed your content to the end and will more than likely watch another one of your videos. Conversely, the one you lost half way through was bored enough to stop watching and will probably not bother viewing any other videos of yours in future.

5. Keep them hooked

Think carefully about your YouTube video structure. Ideally, you will tell them at the very start that you’ve got something amazing to share with them later on. This could be a tip, a tutorial, a new product reveal or even something funny. Whatever it is, tell them they’re going to love it from the start, and keep reminding them to watch from the end to get this gift. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give them great content all the way through, just that you should save a carrot for the end of the ride to reward those loyal viewers.

So, now you know how to increase YouTube audience retention, what are you going to do about it? Have a go at modifying your videos to boost the numbers who will watch to the end and let us know how you got on.

6. Use an Excellent Video Editor

Content is the king. It is necessary to use a powerful video editor to help you edit videos. With an excellent video editor like Filmora, you can custom stunning videos effortlessly.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Audience retention is one of your most important stats on YouTube. It is even more important than your view count. Your view count really only tells you how many people are finding and clicking on your videos, not whether they are actually watching them. Audience retention refers to how much of a video a viewer watches before clicking away, which is very useful information to have. If you know when people are leaving your videos then you know what you need to work on.

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How to structure a YouTube video >>

• Part 1: What is Audience Retention?
• Part 2: How to See Your Audience Retention Report in YouTube?
• Part 3: What is a Good Audience Retention Rate on YouTube?
• Part 4: 6 Ways to Increase YouTube Audience Retention

Part 1: What is Audience Retention?

To put it in simple terms, YouTube audience retention is about how much of each video your viewers watch. It’s usually expressed as a percentage, so if your viewer gets half way through, they will have a retention of 50 per cent.

For YouTube analytics, audience retention is taken as a mean of the retention figures for each of your viewers. For example, if you post a ten-minute video and half your viewers get to the five-minute mark, that’s a retention of 50 per cent. If the other half watch it right to the end, that’s a retention of 100 per cent. The mean of these two figures is 75 per cent, and that’s what YouTube will use as your audience retention figure.

This retention rate affects how highly your video is ranked on YouTube, with videos boasting higher audience retention rates appearing higher in the search results than those which do not. This is because both YouTube and Google are highly focussed on customer satisfaction, and a long watch time means a very happy customer was watching that video. For this reason, it’s well worth considering how to increase YouTube audience retention as it demonstrates that you’re making great content as well as helping you get more viewers.

Part 2: How to See Your Audience Retention Report in YouTube?

YouTube will produce reports to help you keep track of your audience retention. There are two types of audience retention reports; absolute and relative. Absolute allows you to view a graph of your video’s retention and see when people might be clicking away, or if they are skipping to later parts of your video. If you lose a lot of viewers in the first 15 seconds of your videos then that is a clear indication that your content is not what the viewers who find your videos really want. The relative report is where your video is compared to the average retention of similar videos.

Note that by ‘similar videos’, YouTube means videos of a similar length. There is no way to compare your videos only to other videos in your genre. The relative report will always be somewhat skewed because your videos will be measured against very different content.

To see an audience retention report log into your YouTube account and go to yourCreator Studio. There, selectAudience RetentionunderAnalytics.

Part 3: What is a Good Audience Retention Rate on YouTube?

When you’re considering how to increase YouTube audience retention, it can be good to have a goal in mind. Obviously 100 per cent is going to be the Holy Grail of retention rates, but how many videos are actually going to achieve that? It only takes for one person to ‘accidentally’ click on your video and rapidly click away, or for someone to have to stop for outside reasons, to drag your average down.

According to the YouTube community, a good goal to aim for is around 50 per cent, but as there is a lot which can affect your retention rate, that number may be different for you. Low view numbers sometimes get higher retention rates because it’s mainly subscribers watching, whereas channels with millions of views may suffer due to more people abandoning. Rather than setting yourself a golden number, focus instead on increasing your retention rate from wherever it is now, and celebrate your own success instead of measuring yourself against others.

Part 4: 6 Ways to Increase YouTube Audience Retention

If you’re serious about learning how to increase YouTube audience retention, here are five of the best ideas for you:

1. Compare your videos

Investigating your audience retention report will highlight the videos where you achieved maximum success. Think about what you did here, and work to replicate that technique. Perhaps you were talking about a product, or maybe your structured your video slightly differently. It’s up to you to dissect your video and find out what it was that kept people watching for longer, so that you can repeat this success in the future. You can also use some influencer marketing platform such as InflueNex to take a look at the videos in your similar channels, and learn the popular videos on their channels.

2. Get on with it

Research shows that YouTube viewers have an incredibly short attention span. Depending on who you believe, you could have as much as six seconds or as little as just three to grab their attention and compel them to carry on watching. If you want to improve your audience retention, coming in with an engaging, attention grabbing statement right at the start is crucial to your success. Nobody wants to waste their time watching someone waffle on for ages about their granny or their favorite hobbies, so get right down to it straight away, by telling them what’s in store.

3. Make it visually engaging

Perhaps all you’ve got is a presentation to make. You’re not a gamer, you’re not showing clips of your cat and you’re not doing a makeup tutorial, so surely all you need is a camera, good lighting and your face, right? Wrong. Viewers like to see the visual content changing, and videos which have a range of scenes are usually far more successful than those where it’s just a person talking to camera. Think about how you can insert cutaways, pop up text, different footage and other graphics to keep it interesting for your viewers.

4. Make it shorter

This one is a no brainer really. If you make a one-minute video, how hard is it going to be to keep viewers watching to the end compared to a 20-minute marathon. However, going too short can be negative too, unless you really do have something very quick and simple to showcase. Long videos work well for YouTubers in the gaming niche, in particular, because viewers want to know the end result, but for most of us, these sorts of viewing statistics are hard to reach.

If you consider a viewer who watches three minutes of your content, would you rather they watched three minutes of a ten-minute video and then clicked away bored, or would you rather they finished an entire video that was only three minutes long? Both in terms of audience retention and of your own reputation, having a viewer finish a short video is much more valuable to you than losing someone half way through a long one. That person probably enjoyed your content to the end and will more than likely watch another one of your videos. Conversely, the one you lost half way through was bored enough to stop watching and will probably not bother viewing any other videos of yours in future.

5. Keep them hooked

Think carefully about your YouTube video structure. Ideally, you will tell them at the very start that you’ve got something amazing to share with them later on. This could be a tip, a tutorial, a new product reveal or even something funny. Whatever it is, tell them they’re going to love it from the start, and keep reminding them to watch from the end to get this gift. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give them great content all the way through, just that you should save a carrot for the end of the ride to reward those loyal viewers.

So, now you know how to increase YouTube audience retention, what are you going to do about it? Have a go at modifying your videos to boost the numbers who will watch to the end and let us know how you got on.

6. Use an Excellent Video Editor

Content is the king. It is necessary to use a powerful video editor to help you edit videos. With an excellent video editor like Filmora, you can custom stunning videos effortlessly.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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