The key moments for audience retention report explains how well different moments of your video held viewers' attention. This report gives insight into areas of your video that are working well and opportunities for improvement. Note that audience retention data typically takes 1–2 days to process.
View key moments for audience retention
- Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- From the left menu, select Content.
- On the video you want to view, select Analytics.
- Select the Overview or Engagement tab and look for the Audience retention report. You can click SEE MORE to see how your video compares to all YouTube videos of similar length.
- Under “Segments", select one of the drop-down different viewer groups to view that segment type.
Understand key moments for audience retention
There are 4 types of moments that may be highlighted on your key moments for audience retention report. You can also use typical retention to compare your 10 latest videos of similar length.
| When the line on the chart is flat, it means viewers are watching that part of your video from start to finish. | |
| Gradual declines mean that viewers are losing interest over time. Videos on YouTube generally taper off during the playback period. | |
| Spikes appear when more viewers are watching, rewatching, or sharing those parts of your video. | |
| Dips mean that viewers are abandoning or skipping at that specific part of your video. |
Intros
Intro tells you what percentage of your audience still watched your video after the first 30 seconds.
A high intro percentage could mean:
- The content in the first 30 seconds matched the viewer’s expectation of the video’s thumbnail and title.
- The content kept the audience interested.
Recommendations to improve your intro percentage:
- Consider changing your video thumbnail and title to better reflect your video content.
- Modify the first 30 seconds of your video and experiment with different styles to find one that will keep your audience engaged.
Top moments
- If the top moments are occurring in a later portion in the video, consider introducing the compelling content earlier in the video—audience sizes typically decrease over the length of the video.
- Consider creating newer content by expanding on the content from the top moments.
Spikes
- Your audience watched that segment more than previous segments.
- Your content isn’t clear and your audience had to rewatch a section.
You can review your spikes to better understand reasons for an increase in retention.
Dips
The shape of the audience retention graph can tell you which parts of your video are most and least interesting to viewers.
View audience retention by segment type
Audience retention segments report allows you to see how well different parts of your audience engage with your videos. You can compare new viewers vs returning viewers, subscribers vs non-subscribers, and if you serve ads then you can break down viewers from organic traffic vs paid traffic interacting with your content. You can also see traffic from skippable video ads and traffic from display ads. You can click SEE MORE to view these reports.
Organic traffic & Paid traffic
Organic traffic
These are views that are the direct result of user intention. For example, traffic is considered organic if a viewer takes an action like searching for a video, clicking on a suggested video, or browsing a channel.
Paid traffic
These are views that result from paid placement.
- Skippable video ad: Views for ads that are auto-played before a video and that viewers can skip after five seconds.
- Display ads: Views that resulted from a viewer clicking a display ad, including ads shown in search results or on other video watch pages.
New viewers & Returning viewers
New viewers
New viewers are viewers who watched something on your channel for the first time in the selected time period.
Returning viewers
Returning viewers could be viewers who have watched your channel previously and returned to watch more.
Subscriber & non-subscriber
Subscriber
Viewers that are subscribed to your channel. You can view your subscriber count in real time and view your growth over time.
Non-subscriber
Viewers that are watching your videos, but they are not subscribed to your channel.
View detailed activity for audience retention
The detailed activity report available within audience retention shows the absolute number of views for different segments of your video. You can also use this report to see how many viewers started and stopped watching your video at various moments.
Consider using data about when viewers start and stop watching your video to improve your content and maintain the viewer’s interest.
Metrics to know
| Average view duration | Estimated average minutes watched per view for the selected video and date range. |
| Watch time (hours) | The amount of time viewers have watched your video. |