First Steps to Fame: 8 Free Courses for YouTube Novices

8 Free Online Courses for Beginner YouTube Creators

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

There is a lot to learn after you start your YouTube channel and there are many places to get an education. Some places can cost you expensive tuition and other places can lead you to bad advice.

In this article, we highlighted 8 free online on-demand courses that you can take.

Content

• 1. How to Setup a Professional YouTube Channel
• 2. YouTube Creator Academy
• 3. YouTube Influencer 101
• 4. Introduction to Digital Photography
• 5. Social Media Training
• 6. SEO Training Course
• 7. The Secret Power of Brands
• 8. The Affiliate Marketing System

While we encourage you to continue learning and exploring your interests and passions, we feel that it’s all about getting your hands dirty and doing it yourself. These free courses will help you dip your toes into different aspects of YouTube so that you can make better videos, improve your content discovery, and grow your audience.

Creating YouTube Videos with Wondershare Filmora

As one of the best video editing software for YouTubers, Filmora allows you to create videos with templates and effects easily.

1. Amy Landino: How to Setup a Professional YouTube Channel

Amy Landino is a YouTuber, author, and keynote speaker. She is an expert on vlogging and video branding. In this course, she will guide you step-by-step in creating your YouTube channel that follows the best practices right out of the gate. Familiarize yourself with all that YouTube has to offer.

To access the video course, you will need to subscribe to her email newsletter or if you would like the guide without receiving future emails, you can send an email to meg@vlogboss.com .

2. YouTube Creator Academy

Once you’ve got your channel setup and you have a feel for YouTube, it’s time to expand your knowledge of the whole platform. YouTube has generously created a whole Academy to teach you all the fundamentals. From content creation to analytics to brand deals, the YouTube Creator Academy is one of the most valuable free resources. Before you start paying for any course online or in person, review all the content in the Academy first to get yourself to the next level.

Many of the courses featured in YouTube Creator Academy are hosted by well-known YouTube creators, who have built a large following with their content. Some of the courses include: Make money on YouTube, Create great content, Copyright on YouTube, and many more.

3. Jump Cut: YouTube Influencer 101 Crash Course

Jump Cut is founded by Kong and Jesse, two YouTubers who have succeeded on the platform by mastering viral content. Jump Cut offers multiple paid courses, but the initial course is free. This course consists of 4 emails each one with a link to a video where Jesse, the instructor, walks you through 4 ideologies of creating compelling content that expands your reach and grows our channel.

If you are a YouTuber looking to push your content creation capabilities, this is a course you must try. Be warned, after you sign up, the emails and the video have an expiration date and will eventually become unavailable. This is designed to stop you from procrastinating. So this course is serious business.

4. Alison: Introduction to Digital Photography

The principles of good photography are very similar to videography. Understanding how to frame a shot, how a camera functions, and what each feature on the camera does will give you more confidence as you begin to make more videos and gain experience.

The course features 13 modules, teaching the history, technical elements, and file formats of photography. Following the modules, there is an assessment where you can test all that you have learned.

5. Hootsuite: Social Marketing Training

In this free social media course from Hootsuite, you will learn the benefits of spreading your message across multiple social media platforms and increasing the reach of your brand. All you need to do is sign up for a free account to access the material.

As you start making videos for YouTube, you will discover that one of the best ways of sharing them is on social media. The thing is creating content on YouTube is different from Facebook, Twitter, and other channels. Understanding the native content of each platform, the behavior of the audience, and how to best optimize and schedule content on other channels will ensure that you not only get views to your YouTube video but build a lasting fanbase.

6. Moz: SEO Training Course

At the start, one of the most effective ways for your videos to get discovered is through search. Moz, a search engine optimization (SEO) tool, compiled all their instructional videos together for this course, in order to teach you all the basics of how Google determines whether to show your content as number one in the search result page or bury it deep in the basement where it will never see the light of day.

Understanding the fundamentals of SEO will put you leaps and bounds ahead of other YouTubers who are merely creating content out of random ideas they pluck from their heads.

7. FutureLearn: The Secret Power of Brands

After you have found a comfortable niche for your YouTube channel to flourish in, it’s time to start thinking of your channel and your personality as a brand. What is a brand exactly? This free course from FutureLearn highlights some of the most fundamental aspects of branding and gives you a broad understanding of how to brand your channel and how good branding can make all the difference.

This free course gives you 8-weeks of free access, which includes articles, videos, peer reviews, and quizzes.

8. Leadpages: The Affiliate Marketing System

As you grow your audience and have earned some credibility in your field, you will think of ways of monetizing your content. One way of doing that is through affiliate marketing, where you attached a link to a retailer’s website such as Amazon, and should your viewer click on the link and make a purchase, you will get a commission. Sounds wonderfully easy, right? Easy it is not, but with the help of this course from Leadpages, a landing page builder, you will get some strategies and resources to build your affiliate marketing program that earns you a passive income.

Leadpages offers this course in video and audio format, in addition, there are 14 downloadable PDFs.

In this golden age of information, we can learn anything online. Sometimes we have to pay and other times we don’t. Have you discovered any free courses yourself? Share it with the community by leaving a comment below.

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

There is a lot to learn after you start your YouTube channel and there are many places to get an education. Some places can cost you expensive tuition and other places can lead you to bad advice.

In this article, we highlighted 8 free online on-demand courses that you can take.

Content

• 1. How to Setup a Professional YouTube Channel
• 2. YouTube Creator Academy
• 3. YouTube Influencer 101
• 4. Introduction to Digital Photography
• 5. Social Media Training
• 6. SEO Training Course
• 7. The Secret Power of Brands
• 8. The Affiliate Marketing System

While we encourage you to continue learning and exploring your interests and passions, we feel that it’s all about getting your hands dirty and doing it yourself. These free courses will help you dip your toes into different aspects of YouTube so that you can make better videos, improve your content discovery, and grow your audience.

Creating YouTube Videos with Wondershare Filmora

As one of the best video editing software for YouTubers, Filmora allows you to create videos with templates and effects easily.

1. Amy Landino: How to Setup a Professional YouTube Channel

Amy Landino is a YouTuber, author, and keynote speaker. She is an expert on vlogging and video branding. In this course, she will guide you step-by-step in creating your YouTube channel that follows the best practices right out of the gate. Familiarize yourself with all that YouTube has to offer.

To access the video course, you will need to subscribe to her email newsletter or if you would like the guide without receiving future emails, you can send an email to meg@vlogboss.com .

2. YouTube Creator Academy

Once you’ve got your channel setup and you have a feel for YouTube, it’s time to expand your knowledge of the whole platform. YouTube has generously created a whole Academy to teach you all the fundamentals. From content creation to analytics to brand deals, the YouTube Creator Academy is one of the most valuable free resources. Before you start paying for any course online or in person, review all the content in the Academy first to get yourself to the next level.

Many of the courses featured in YouTube Creator Academy are hosted by well-known YouTube creators, who have built a large following with their content. Some of the courses include: Make money on YouTube, Create great content, Copyright on YouTube, and many more.

3. Jump Cut: YouTube Influencer 101 Crash Course

Jump Cut is founded by Kong and Jesse, two YouTubers who have succeeded on the platform by mastering viral content. Jump Cut offers multiple paid courses, but the initial course is free. This course consists of 4 emails each one with a link to a video where Jesse, the instructor, walks you through 4 ideologies of creating compelling content that expands your reach and grows our channel.

If you are a YouTuber looking to push your content creation capabilities, this is a course you must try. Be warned, after you sign up, the emails and the video have an expiration date and will eventually become unavailable. This is designed to stop you from procrastinating. So this course is serious business.

4. Alison: Introduction to Digital Photography

The principles of good photography are very similar to videography. Understanding how to frame a shot, how a camera functions, and what each feature on the camera does will give you more confidence as you begin to make more videos and gain experience.

The course features 13 modules, teaching the history, technical elements, and file formats of photography. Following the modules, there is an assessment where you can test all that you have learned.

5. Hootsuite: Social Marketing Training

In this free social media course from Hootsuite, you will learn the benefits of spreading your message across multiple social media platforms and increasing the reach of your brand. All you need to do is sign up for a free account to access the material.

As you start making videos for YouTube, you will discover that one of the best ways of sharing them is on social media. The thing is creating content on YouTube is different from Facebook, Twitter, and other channels. Understanding the native content of each platform, the behavior of the audience, and how to best optimize and schedule content on other channels will ensure that you not only get views to your YouTube video but build a lasting fanbase.

6. Moz: SEO Training Course

At the start, one of the most effective ways for your videos to get discovered is through search. Moz, a search engine optimization (SEO) tool, compiled all their instructional videos together for this course, in order to teach you all the basics of how Google determines whether to show your content as number one in the search result page or bury it deep in the basement where it will never see the light of day.

Understanding the fundamentals of SEO will put you leaps and bounds ahead of other YouTubers who are merely creating content out of random ideas they pluck from their heads.

7. FutureLearn: The Secret Power of Brands

After you have found a comfortable niche for your YouTube channel to flourish in, it’s time to start thinking of your channel and your personality as a brand. What is a brand exactly? This free course from FutureLearn highlights some of the most fundamental aspects of branding and gives you a broad understanding of how to brand your channel and how good branding can make all the difference.

This free course gives you 8-weeks of free access, which includes articles, videos, peer reviews, and quizzes.

8. Leadpages: The Affiliate Marketing System

As you grow your audience and have earned some credibility in your field, you will think of ways of monetizing your content. One way of doing that is through affiliate marketing, where you attached a link to a retailer’s website such as Amazon, and should your viewer click on the link and make a purchase, you will get a commission. Sounds wonderfully easy, right? Easy it is not, but with the help of this course from Leadpages, a landing page builder, you will get some strategies and resources to build your affiliate marketing program that earns you a passive income.

Leadpages offers this course in video and audio format, in addition, there are 14 downloadable PDFs.

In this golden age of information, we can learn anything online. Sometimes we have to pay and other times we don’t. Have you discovered any free courses yourself? Share it with the community by leaving a comment below.

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

There is a lot to learn after you start your YouTube channel and there are many places to get an education. Some places can cost you expensive tuition and other places can lead you to bad advice.

In this article, we highlighted 8 free online on-demand courses that you can take.

Content

• 1. How to Setup a Professional YouTube Channel
• 2. YouTube Creator Academy
• 3. YouTube Influencer 101
• 4. Introduction to Digital Photography
• 5. Social Media Training
• 6. SEO Training Course
• 7. The Secret Power of Brands
• 8. The Affiliate Marketing System

While we encourage you to continue learning and exploring your interests and passions, we feel that it’s all about getting your hands dirty and doing it yourself. These free courses will help you dip your toes into different aspects of YouTube so that you can make better videos, improve your content discovery, and grow your audience.

Creating YouTube Videos with Wondershare Filmora

As one of the best video editing software for YouTubers, Filmora allows you to create videos with templates and effects easily.

1. Amy Landino: How to Setup a Professional YouTube Channel

Amy Landino is a YouTuber, author, and keynote speaker. She is an expert on vlogging and video branding. In this course, she will guide you step-by-step in creating your YouTube channel that follows the best practices right out of the gate. Familiarize yourself with all that YouTube has to offer.

To access the video course, you will need to subscribe to her email newsletter or if you would like the guide without receiving future emails, you can send an email to meg@vlogboss.com .

2. YouTube Creator Academy

Once you’ve got your channel setup and you have a feel for YouTube, it’s time to expand your knowledge of the whole platform. YouTube has generously created a whole Academy to teach you all the fundamentals. From content creation to analytics to brand deals, the YouTube Creator Academy is one of the most valuable free resources. Before you start paying for any course online or in person, review all the content in the Academy first to get yourself to the next level.

Many of the courses featured in YouTube Creator Academy are hosted by well-known YouTube creators, who have built a large following with their content. Some of the courses include: Make money on YouTube, Create great content, Copyright on YouTube, and many more.

3. Jump Cut: YouTube Influencer 101 Crash Course

Jump Cut is founded by Kong and Jesse, two YouTubers who have succeeded on the platform by mastering viral content. Jump Cut offers multiple paid courses, but the initial course is free. This course consists of 4 emails each one with a link to a video where Jesse, the instructor, walks you through 4 ideologies of creating compelling content that expands your reach and grows our channel.

If you are a YouTuber looking to push your content creation capabilities, this is a course you must try. Be warned, after you sign up, the emails and the video have an expiration date and will eventually become unavailable. This is designed to stop you from procrastinating. So this course is serious business.

4. Alison: Introduction to Digital Photography

The principles of good photography are very similar to videography. Understanding how to frame a shot, how a camera functions, and what each feature on the camera does will give you more confidence as you begin to make more videos and gain experience.

The course features 13 modules, teaching the history, technical elements, and file formats of photography. Following the modules, there is an assessment where you can test all that you have learned.

5. Hootsuite: Social Marketing Training

In this free social media course from Hootsuite, you will learn the benefits of spreading your message across multiple social media platforms and increasing the reach of your brand. All you need to do is sign up for a free account to access the material.

As you start making videos for YouTube, you will discover that one of the best ways of sharing them is on social media. The thing is creating content on YouTube is different from Facebook, Twitter, and other channels. Understanding the native content of each platform, the behavior of the audience, and how to best optimize and schedule content on other channels will ensure that you not only get views to your YouTube video but build a lasting fanbase.

6. Moz: SEO Training Course

At the start, one of the most effective ways for your videos to get discovered is through search. Moz, a search engine optimization (SEO) tool, compiled all their instructional videos together for this course, in order to teach you all the basics of how Google determines whether to show your content as number one in the search result page or bury it deep in the basement where it will never see the light of day.

Understanding the fundamentals of SEO will put you leaps and bounds ahead of other YouTubers who are merely creating content out of random ideas they pluck from their heads.

7. FutureLearn: The Secret Power of Brands

After you have found a comfortable niche for your YouTube channel to flourish in, it’s time to start thinking of your channel and your personality as a brand. What is a brand exactly? This free course from FutureLearn highlights some of the most fundamental aspects of branding and gives you a broad understanding of how to brand your channel and how good branding can make all the difference.

This free course gives you 8-weeks of free access, which includes articles, videos, peer reviews, and quizzes.

8. Leadpages: The Affiliate Marketing System

As you grow your audience and have earned some credibility in your field, you will think of ways of monetizing your content. One way of doing that is through affiliate marketing, where you attached a link to a retailer’s website such as Amazon, and should your viewer click on the link and make a purchase, you will get a commission. Sounds wonderfully easy, right? Easy it is not, but with the help of this course from Leadpages, a landing page builder, you will get some strategies and resources to build your affiliate marketing program that earns you a passive income.

Leadpages offers this course in video and audio format, in addition, there are 14 downloadable PDFs.

In this golden age of information, we can learn anything online. Sometimes we have to pay and other times we don’t. Have you discovered any free courses yourself? Share it with the community by leaving a comment below.

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

There is a lot to learn after you start your YouTube channel and there are many places to get an education. Some places can cost you expensive tuition and other places can lead you to bad advice.

In this article, we highlighted 8 free online on-demand courses that you can take.

Content

• 1. How to Setup a Professional YouTube Channel
• 2. YouTube Creator Academy
• 3. YouTube Influencer 101
• 4. Introduction to Digital Photography
• 5. Social Media Training
• 6. SEO Training Course
• 7. The Secret Power of Brands
• 8. The Affiliate Marketing System

While we encourage you to continue learning and exploring your interests and passions, we feel that it’s all about getting your hands dirty and doing it yourself. These free courses will help you dip your toes into different aspects of YouTube so that you can make better videos, improve your content discovery, and grow your audience.

Creating YouTube Videos with Wondershare Filmora

As one of the best video editing software for YouTubers, Filmora allows you to create videos with templates and effects easily.

1. Amy Landino: How to Setup a Professional YouTube Channel

Amy Landino is a YouTuber, author, and keynote speaker. She is an expert on vlogging and video branding. In this course, she will guide you step-by-step in creating your YouTube channel that follows the best practices right out of the gate. Familiarize yourself with all that YouTube has to offer.

To access the video course, you will need to subscribe to her email newsletter or if you would like the guide without receiving future emails, you can send an email to meg@vlogboss.com .

2. YouTube Creator Academy

Once you’ve got your channel setup and you have a feel for YouTube, it’s time to expand your knowledge of the whole platform. YouTube has generously created a whole Academy to teach you all the fundamentals. From content creation to analytics to brand deals, the YouTube Creator Academy is one of the most valuable free resources. Before you start paying for any course online or in person, review all the content in the Academy first to get yourself to the next level.

Many of the courses featured in YouTube Creator Academy are hosted by well-known YouTube creators, who have built a large following with their content. Some of the courses include: Make money on YouTube, Create great content, Copyright on YouTube, and many more.

3. Jump Cut: YouTube Influencer 101 Crash Course

Jump Cut is founded by Kong and Jesse, two YouTubers who have succeeded on the platform by mastering viral content. Jump Cut offers multiple paid courses, but the initial course is free. This course consists of 4 emails each one with a link to a video where Jesse, the instructor, walks you through 4 ideologies of creating compelling content that expands your reach and grows our channel.

If you are a YouTuber looking to push your content creation capabilities, this is a course you must try. Be warned, after you sign up, the emails and the video have an expiration date and will eventually become unavailable. This is designed to stop you from procrastinating. So this course is serious business.

4. Alison: Introduction to Digital Photography

The principles of good photography are very similar to videography. Understanding how to frame a shot, how a camera functions, and what each feature on the camera does will give you more confidence as you begin to make more videos and gain experience.

The course features 13 modules, teaching the history, technical elements, and file formats of photography. Following the modules, there is an assessment where you can test all that you have learned.

5. Hootsuite: Social Marketing Training

In this free social media course from Hootsuite, you will learn the benefits of spreading your message across multiple social media platforms and increasing the reach of your brand. All you need to do is sign up for a free account to access the material.

As you start making videos for YouTube, you will discover that one of the best ways of sharing them is on social media. The thing is creating content on YouTube is different from Facebook, Twitter, and other channels. Understanding the native content of each platform, the behavior of the audience, and how to best optimize and schedule content on other channels will ensure that you not only get views to your YouTube video but build a lasting fanbase.

6. Moz: SEO Training Course

At the start, one of the most effective ways for your videos to get discovered is through search. Moz, a search engine optimization (SEO) tool, compiled all their instructional videos together for this course, in order to teach you all the basics of how Google determines whether to show your content as number one in the search result page or bury it deep in the basement where it will never see the light of day.

Understanding the fundamentals of SEO will put you leaps and bounds ahead of other YouTubers who are merely creating content out of random ideas they pluck from their heads.

7. FutureLearn: The Secret Power of Brands

After you have found a comfortable niche for your YouTube channel to flourish in, it’s time to start thinking of your channel and your personality as a brand. What is a brand exactly? This free course from FutureLearn highlights some of the most fundamental aspects of branding and gives you a broad understanding of how to brand your channel and how good branding can make all the difference.

This free course gives you 8-weeks of free access, which includes articles, videos, peer reviews, and quizzes.

8. Leadpages: The Affiliate Marketing System

As you grow your audience and have earned some credibility in your field, you will think of ways of monetizing your content. One way of doing that is through affiliate marketing, where you attached a link to a retailer’s website such as Amazon, and should your viewer click on the link and make a purchase, you will get a commission. Sounds wonderfully easy, right? Easy it is not, but with the help of this course from Leadpages, a landing page builder, you will get some strategies and resources to build your affiliate marketing program that earns you a passive income.

Leadpages offers this course in video and audio format, in addition, there are 14 downloadable PDFs.

In this golden age of information, we can learn anything online. Sometimes we have to pay and other times we don’t. Have you discovered any free courses yourself? Share it with the community by leaving a comment below.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Securing Viewer Return with These Effective Strategies for Higher Retention Rates

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.

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