The Power of the Watch Time Metric and How to Boost Yours

Each social media platform provides its users with various analytics and metrics to track their performance (check out this post for the full down on metrics and how to use them to your advantage). These metrics provide invaluable, personalized information about how your content is performing with your audience. Today, we want to focus on just one of those metrics and its importance – watch time.

Watch time is the total duration of time viewers spend watching a video (Tube Filter). As in, do they watch from start to finish? Leave halfway through? Swipe away within the first minute? Or even re-watch? This information is key because watch time tells you how much of your video your viewers are actually seeing. It makes sense, if your video has valuable content and engages your audience, they will keep watching, but if it doesn't, they'll click away.

Having a longer watch time benefits both the user that created the video and the platform itself. The first is pretty obvious, the more people that view your content, the larger your reach will be. The platform also benefits because the more time people spend on their site, the more ads they can show, and the more money they can make. And because the platform has a stake in users' success, if, as a content creator, you can extend your video's watch time, the platform will reward you in its algorithm (VidIQ).

TWO PLATFORMS THAT STRONGLY EMPHASIZE WATCH TIME:

1. TIKTOK

Not only do you want your viewers to see your entire video because you put a lot of hard work into it (trust us, we get it!), watch time is a key metric that the TikTok algorithm uses when deciding who it should show your videos to on the For You Page. TikTok looks at videos' watch time to get a sense of the content's quality, since, generally speaking, viewers tend to watch high-quality content for longer. For example, if the algorithm notices that more than half of a video's viewers swipe away after 5 seconds, this is a sign that it's losing people's attention and probably not worth showing to tons of new users (Hypebot).

Once you switch to a TikTok Pro Account, you will unlock analytics, and one of the analytics they track for you is average time watched per video; check out the example below! This metric tells you, on average, how long people spend watching each of your videos (Hootsuite). And because TikTok videos can only be 60 seconds long, every second counts! Go check out this metric for each of your videos!

2. YOUTUBE

YouTube is a platform designed for longer videos, with the average video length being around 11 minutes and 7 seconds (Statista). This means that in some ways, achieving a higher watch time on YouTube can be more challenging than on TikTok because there is usually so much more time to fill. But, on the flip side, people tend to go to YouTube when they are looking for longer videos. 

YouTube’s analytics tells you the average view duration and your audience retention (how long people spend watching a video as a percentage). Since 2012, YouTube has adjusted its algorithm, making watch time the BIGGEST factor it uses when ranking videos. So just like on TikTok, the longer your video’s watch time is, the more likely the platform will rank/promote your video (Social Media Examiner). One of the main reasons for this is because ads heavily drive YouTube, and the longer a viewer spends watching your video, the more ads the platform can show them. Check out the graph below to see what these analytics look like. 

Source: Yoast

Now that we have established the importance of watch time on both platforms let's discuss how you can optimize your videos. Because TikTok and YouTube are so different by nature, we will break them down separately.

HOW TO BOOST YOUR WATCH TIME ON TIKTOK: 

• MAKE THE FIRST FEW SECONDS IMPACTFUL: TikTok's feeds are unique because they are in a scrollable format, and videos start playing automatically. This means that viewers have tons of choices, and if they don't like something, it's easy for them to keep scrolling. So, the first few seconds of your video needs to stop users in their scroll! A few ways to do this is by asking bold questions upfront and using eye-catching graphics/content.
• HAVE A MAIN POINT: If you're trying to monetize your TikTok account, your profile should NOT be all duets, unoriginal sounds, and trends. Instead, your content needs to be purposeful, original, and add value to your viewers. Every video should have a clear purpose and a key point. This will provide structure to your video and give your viewers a reason to keep watching! 
• GIVE HINTS: Within the first few seconds, tell your viewers exactly why they need to keep watching your video and what they will get out of it if they do. This type of hinting will capture your viewer's attention, get them wondering what is coming next, and, most importantly, keep them watching!

HOW TO BOOST YOUR WATCH TIME ON YOUTUBE: 

• FOCUS ON YOUR TITLES AND THUMBNAILS: When users are deciding which videos to click on, they mostly rely on titles and thumbnails. So, both features should be compelling, intriguing, and accurate. If you write a super exciting title, but it has nothing to do with what your video is about, this could actually HARM your watch time because viewers will likely stop watching once they realize the title doesn't align with the content.
• USE CARDS: Cards are those little things that pop up throughout a video in the form of an image, link, or download (Social Media Examiner). These things are great because they provide yet another way to interact and engage with viewers. A great way to use them is to associate a card with your call to action. For example, if you mention a previous video of yours, try adding a card with the video's link and picture. Call to actions work wonders for boosting engagement and extending watch time because they get viewers thinking!
• CREATE A PLAYLIST: Playlists allow you to link your videos together. Doing so gives viewers a reason to watch the videos in full and encourages them to keep up with the rest of the series. Users also look at playlists to judge if a creator's content is something that they'd be interested in watching more of.

Are you convinced by the power of the watch time metric? Let us know in the comments below!

Written By: Leah Ross, AMR Digital Marketing, Copywriter