Audio Overhaul Methods for Content Creators Online

How To Remove Background Noise from Your Youtube Video

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

There are few things more annoying to viewers on YouTube than background noise. It is distracting and makes it difficult to engage with the content of a video. If there is noticeable background noise in a video, even a small noise like the faint hum of a computer fan, then it will increase the chances of viewers clicking away. The good news is that these kinds of noises are fairly easy to get rid of.

In order to remove background noise from your video clip, you will first need to create an MP3 of your audio. Then you will be able to take out the unwanted noise in a free program called Audacity and reintroduce your corrected audio into your Filmora project. This article will walk you through the audio editing process.

How To Remove Background Noise from Your Youtube Video

Background Noise Removal

Open up Filmora, import your clip, and drag it into the timeline. Then, play your clip and listen for background noise. If you hear a noise that you wish to remove move on to the first step of background noise removal .

1. Creating An MP3

If you do not already have it you will need to download VLC Media Player from videoLAN.org. VLC is a completely free media player that can play almost any type of file, is great for converting files, and can even be used as a screen recorder. If you consume a lot of media online then chances are you already have VLC. You could also use is Free Video to MP3 Converter by DVDVideoSoft.

If you choose to use VLC, open it up and select Convert/Save under Media. Select your video in the Open Media window that pops up. After you click Convert/Save you will be able to choose your format, in this case, MP3, under Save as type.

2. Removing Background Noise in Audacity

You can download Audacity for free at Audacityteam.org.

Once you have Audacity use it to open your MP3. Then, find a section of your audio that is silent aside from your background noise and highlight it by clicking and dragging. The idea is to point out to the program exactly what sound is a problem for you so it knows what to remove. If you have trouble finding a significant stretch of background noise that does not also include dialogue remember to record a pause before or after the content of your video next time you film.

With your section of background noise highlighted, go to Effect and then Noise Reduction. Then, click on Get Noise Profile. After that, you will select your entire audio timeline before going back to Noise Reduction under Effect. This time click on OK (the default settings are the best in most situations so you do not need to worry about changing them).

Audacity will remove everything that sounds like the sound profile, eliminating your background noise. Sometimes this method will also dull your dialogue, which can be fixed by selecting your entire track and then going to Effect and Amplify. Increasing amplification will fix any muffling of your audio.

3. Syncing in Filmora

Export your corrected MP3 from Audacity and import it into Filmora. Then, drag it into your music track. Syncing your audio should not be difficult, but you can always use your original audio to help you line it up properly if you need to. Just look for a significant spike in your audio waves in both your MP3 and the original audio and make sure they are right on top of each other.

Then, since you no longer need your original audio, you can delete it. Right-click on your clip and select Audio Detach. Once your audio is on its own track just select it and click delete.

Covering Background Noise

Sometimes background noise is so minor that you do not want to bother going through the process of removing it. In these situations, it may be easier to cover up your background noise than to remove it. This is as simple as dragging a song into the music track of your timeline and adjusting its volume so it is not loud enough to draw attention away from your dialogue. Chances are you want to add background music anyways and this is not even an extra step.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

There are few things more annoying to viewers on YouTube than background noise. It is distracting and makes it difficult to engage with the content of a video. If there is noticeable background noise in a video, even a small noise like the faint hum of a computer fan, then it will increase the chances of viewers clicking away. The good news is that these kinds of noises are fairly easy to get rid of.

In order to remove background noise from your video clip, you will first need to create an MP3 of your audio. Then you will be able to take out the unwanted noise in a free program called Audacity and reintroduce your corrected audio into your Filmora project. This article will walk you through the audio editing process.

How To Remove Background Noise from Your Youtube Video

Background Noise Removal

Open up Filmora, import your clip, and drag it into the timeline. Then, play your clip and listen for background noise. If you hear a noise that you wish to remove move on to the first step of background noise removal .

1. Creating An MP3

If you do not already have it you will need to download VLC Media Player from videoLAN.org. VLC is a completely free media player that can play almost any type of file, is great for converting files, and can even be used as a screen recorder. If you consume a lot of media online then chances are you already have VLC. You could also use is Free Video to MP3 Converter by DVDVideoSoft.

If you choose to use VLC, open it up and select Convert/Save under Media. Select your video in the Open Media window that pops up. After you click Convert/Save you will be able to choose your format, in this case, MP3, under Save as type.

2. Removing Background Noise in Audacity

You can download Audacity for free at Audacityteam.org.

Once you have Audacity use it to open your MP3. Then, find a section of your audio that is silent aside from your background noise and highlight it by clicking and dragging. The idea is to point out to the program exactly what sound is a problem for you so it knows what to remove. If you have trouble finding a significant stretch of background noise that does not also include dialogue remember to record a pause before or after the content of your video next time you film.

With your section of background noise highlighted, go to Effect and then Noise Reduction. Then, click on Get Noise Profile. After that, you will select your entire audio timeline before going back to Noise Reduction under Effect. This time click on OK (the default settings are the best in most situations so you do not need to worry about changing them).

Audacity will remove everything that sounds like the sound profile, eliminating your background noise. Sometimes this method will also dull your dialogue, which can be fixed by selecting your entire track and then going to Effect and Amplify. Increasing amplification will fix any muffling of your audio.

3. Syncing in Filmora

Export your corrected MP3 from Audacity and import it into Filmora. Then, drag it into your music track. Syncing your audio should not be difficult, but you can always use your original audio to help you line it up properly if you need to. Just look for a significant spike in your audio waves in both your MP3 and the original audio and make sure they are right on top of each other.

Then, since you no longer need your original audio, you can delete it. Right-click on your clip and select Audio Detach. Once your audio is on its own track just select it and click delete.

Covering Background Noise

Sometimes background noise is so minor that you do not want to bother going through the process of removing it. In these situations, it may be easier to cover up your background noise than to remove it. This is as simple as dragging a song into the music track of your timeline and adjusting its volume so it is not loud enough to draw attention away from your dialogue. Chances are you want to add background music anyways and this is not even an extra step.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

There are few things more annoying to viewers on YouTube than background noise. It is distracting and makes it difficult to engage with the content of a video. If there is noticeable background noise in a video, even a small noise like the faint hum of a computer fan, then it will increase the chances of viewers clicking away. The good news is that these kinds of noises are fairly easy to get rid of.

In order to remove background noise from your video clip, you will first need to create an MP3 of your audio. Then you will be able to take out the unwanted noise in a free program called Audacity and reintroduce your corrected audio into your Filmora project. This article will walk you through the audio editing process.

How To Remove Background Noise from Your Youtube Video

Background Noise Removal

Open up Filmora, import your clip, and drag it into the timeline. Then, play your clip and listen for background noise. If you hear a noise that you wish to remove move on to the first step of background noise removal .

1. Creating An MP3

If you do not already have it you will need to download VLC Media Player from videoLAN.org. VLC is a completely free media player that can play almost any type of file, is great for converting files, and can even be used as a screen recorder. If you consume a lot of media online then chances are you already have VLC. You could also use is Free Video to MP3 Converter by DVDVideoSoft.

If you choose to use VLC, open it up and select Convert/Save under Media. Select your video in the Open Media window that pops up. After you click Convert/Save you will be able to choose your format, in this case, MP3, under Save as type.

2. Removing Background Noise in Audacity

You can download Audacity for free at Audacityteam.org.

Once you have Audacity use it to open your MP3. Then, find a section of your audio that is silent aside from your background noise and highlight it by clicking and dragging. The idea is to point out to the program exactly what sound is a problem for you so it knows what to remove. If you have trouble finding a significant stretch of background noise that does not also include dialogue remember to record a pause before or after the content of your video next time you film.

With your section of background noise highlighted, go to Effect and then Noise Reduction. Then, click on Get Noise Profile. After that, you will select your entire audio timeline before going back to Noise Reduction under Effect. This time click on OK (the default settings are the best in most situations so you do not need to worry about changing them).

Audacity will remove everything that sounds like the sound profile, eliminating your background noise. Sometimes this method will also dull your dialogue, which can be fixed by selecting your entire track and then going to Effect and Amplify. Increasing amplification will fix any muffling of your audio.

3. Syncing in Filmora

Export your corrected MP3 from Audacity and import it into Filmora. Then, drag it into your music track. Syncing your audio should not be difficult, but you can always use your original audio to help you line it up properly if you need to. Just look for a significant spike in your audio waves in both your MP3 and the original audio and make sure they are right on top of each other.

Then, since you no longer need your original audio, you can delete it. Right-click on your clip and select Audio Detach. Once your audio is on its own track just select it and click delete.

Covering Background Noise

Sometimes background noise is so minor that you do not want to bother going through the process of removing it. In these situations, it may be easier to cover up your background noise than to remove it. This is as simple as dragging a song into the music track of your timeline and adjusting its volume so it is not loud enough to draw attention away from your dialogue. Chances are you want to add background music anyways and this is not even an extra step.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

There are few things more annoying to viewers on YouTube than background noise. It is distracting and makes it difficult to engage with the content of a video. If there is noticeable background noise in a video, even a small noise like the faint hum of a computer fan, then it will increase the chances of viewers clicking away. The good news is that these kinds of noises are fairly easy to get rid of.

In order to remove background noise from your video clip, you will first need to create an MP3 of your audio. Then you will be able to take out the unwanted noise in a free program called Audacity and reintroduce your corrected audio into your Filmora project. This article will walk you through the audio editing process.

How To Remove Background Noise from Your Youtube Video

Background Noise Removal

Open up Filmora, import your clip, and drag it into the timeline. Then, play your clip and listen for background noise. If you hear a noise that you wish to remove move on to the first step of background noise removal .

1. Creating An MP3

If you do not already have it you will need to download VLC Media Player from videoLAN.org. VLC is a completely free media player that can play almost any type of file, is great for converting files, and can even be used as a screen recorder. If you consume a lot of media online then chances are you already have VLC. You could also use is Free Video to MP3 Converter by DVDVideoSoft.

If you choose to use VLC, open it up and select Convert/Save under Media. Select your video in the Open Media window that pops up. After you click Convert/Save you will be able to choose your format, in this case, MP3, under Save as type.

2. Removing Background Noise in Audacity

You can download Audacity for free at Audacityteam.org.

Once you have Audacity use it to open your MP3. Then, find a section of your audio that is silent aside from your background noise and highlight it by clicking and dragging. The idea is to point out to the program exactly what sound is a problem for you so it knows what to remove. If you have trouble finding a significant stretch of background noise that does not also include dialogue remember to record a pause before or after the content of your video next time you film.

With your section of background noise highlighted, go to Effect and then Noise Reduction. Then, click on Get Noise Profile. After that, you will select your entire audio timeline before going back to Noise Reduction under Effect. This time click on OK (the default settings are the best in most situations so you do not need to worry about changing them).

Audacity will remove everything that sounds like the sound profile, eliminating your background noise. Sometimes this method will also dull your dialogue, which can be fixed by selecting your entire track and then going to Effect and Amplify. Increasing amplification will fix any muffling of your audio.

3. Syncing in Filmora

Export your corrected MP3 from Audacity and import it into Filmora. Then, drag it into your music track. Syncing your audio should not be difficult, but you can always use your original audio to help you line it up properly if you need to. Just look for a significant spike in your audio waves in both your MP3 and the original audio and make sure they are right on top of each other.

Then, since you no longer need your original audio, you can delete it. Right-click on your clip and select Audio Detach. Once your audio is on its own track just select it and click delete.

Covering Background Noise

Sometimes background noise is so minor that you do not want to bother going through the process of removing it. In these situations, it may be easier to cover up your background noise than to remove it. This is as simple as dragging a song into the music track of your timeline and adjusting its volume so it is not loud enough to draw attention away from your dialogue. Chances are you want to add background music anyways and this is not even an extra step.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Revolutionizing Viewer Retention on YouTube with These Powerful Strategies

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

Also read: