How YouTube's Algorithm Works: Understanding Click-Through Rate, Watch Time, and Retention

As a content creator on YouTube, it's essential to understand how the platform's algorithm works. YouTube's algorithm takes into account several factors to determine which videos to recommend to users or rank in its search results. The three big factors that the algorithm evaluates: click-through rate, watch time, and retention.

Click-Through Rate

The first factor that YouTube's algorithm evaluates is click-through rate (CTR), which is the percentage of viewers who click on your video after seeing somewhere on the platform:  recommendations, a feed, the search results, or elsewhere. A higher CTR simply means that more people are interested in your video and are willing to watch it—thus, YouTube is more inclined to rank and recommend it.

To improve your CTR, you should focus on creating compelling titles, “clickable” thumbnails, and video descriptions that accurately represent your video's content. It's essential to grab the viewer's attention quickly and give ‘em a good reason to watch.

Watch-Time

Watch-time is the second factor that YouTube's algorithm considers. It is what it sounds like:  watch-time simply refers to how long viewers watch your video. The longer a viewer watches your video, the better your video is gonna perform.

If a viewer clicks to watch your video and “bounces” within mere seconds, for instance, YouTube’s able to figure that the content must not have lived up to the expectation. However, if the viewer watches for an extended duration, then it’s evidently what they wanted.

To evaluate whether there are any problematic exit-points where viewers tend to click off your video, head over to your YouTube Studio. Simply go to studio.youtube.com, and you can review your video's analytics.

Retention

Retention is the third variable that YouTube's algorithm evaluates. In a nutshell, Retention measures the total amount of time viewers spend on ALL of your videos cumulatively. So the more videos on your channel, the better—so long as they aren’t all-over-the-place topic-wise. It’s important to publish content that’s intended for your designated target audience.

Retention on YouTube is like a seniority clause, whereby established YouTubers tend to outperform new channels due to the collective viewership earned over time. Unlike other video channels like Reels or TikTok, YouTube doesn't let new channels outrank established ones easily.

Retention provides a quasi-permanent benefit to your channel since it measures the total amount of time viewers spend on all your videos combined. So… By consistently producing high-quality content and retaining viewers, your channel becomes more valuable to YouTube, helping reinforce your ranking across the board. Heck yeah! This means that the more you invest in building up your channel's Retention, the more it'll pay off over time, as you'll continue to earn more viewers and grow your channel's reputation on the platform.

Understanding how YouTube's algorithm works is critical for any content creator looking to grow their channel. By focusing on improving your click-through rate, watch-time, and retention, you’ll improve your videos' ranking and reach more viewers. Keep creating high-quality and engaging videos consistently, and you'll be on your way to success on YouTube.

P.S. If you wanna watch Jason’s FULL YouTube training video, head over to Tom Ferry’s site:  https://www.tomferry.com/marketing/ep-54-6-tips-for-youtube-views/

What's Considered a VIEW?—on TikTok, IG Reels, IGTV, Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms!

What counts as a VIEW⁉️ It depends on the platform that’s measuring. Here’s a breakdown:

1️⃣ TikTok: a view is basically an impression—meaning, the very millisecond ⏱ your video starts to play, it’s counted as a view. In addition, the platform counts repeated views 🔂.

So if the the video loops, for instance, it counts every single time. One caveat, though: watching your own videos won’t be counted.

2️⃣ Instagram Reels apply the same measures as TikTok, only, in Instagram, watching your own Reels actually influences the view count 🧐.

3️⃣ Instagram + IGTV: a view is counted after a video autoplays for 3 seconds (consecutively). What’s more, replays don’t count—i.e., the same viewer watching a video over-and-over (or at least 3-second chunks of it).

4️⃣ Facebook operates by the same rules/measures a Instagram (and IGTV).

5️⃣ LinkedIn: my video says 2-seconds (and so does the rest of the web when you research the topic). However, when I uploaded my last video to LinkedIn, it looks as if they’ve upped it to 3-seconds to match-up with Facebook and Instagram.

6️⃣ YouTube counts a view after 30-seconds of continuous viewing and only when the viewer elects to play the video (no autoplay trickery). What’s more, YouTube implants methods for determining whether replays should or shouldn’t be counted and limits the number or qualified replays eligible to be counted per day. If a video is fewer than 30 seconds in duration, at least 11 seconds must be watched 👀. Craziest part of all: when YouTube videos crossover 301 views, they undergo a manual review process to check the legitimacy of the views. YouTube doesn’t want flukes or fakes affecting its algorithms.
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Bottom line: a “view” isn’t a standardized unit of measurement 📐. As you compare and evaluate the performance of your videos across the web, keep these differences in mind. A 100 views on YouTube, for instance, could be the equivalent of thousands someplace else.

YouTube's Search Engine Hacks

YouTube’s different than other social platforms like Facebook or Instagram; it’s a 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞. What’s more, in terms of global website popularity, it’s second only to its parent company, Google. With that being said, it’s critical to search-engine-optimize your YouTube uploads.

Here’s how:

1️⃣ ᴋᴇʏᴡᴏʀᴅꜱ. Your title is make or break! In other words, the title is the primary component YouTube analyzes to detect your keyword.
Sidebar: the term, 𝚔𝚎𝚢𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍 (singular tense), may be be a tad confusing in that, technically, it could be multiple words or even a phrase.

The video description should reinforce your title. Avoid writing copy that wanders off the core theme of your title.

2️⃣ ᴛʜᴜᴍʙɴᴀɪʟꜱ. Algorithmically, YouTube places a high premium on “click-through-rates” (CTR). What that means is if someone conducts a YouTube search and your video ranks in the results, if that individual does or doesn’t click your video to watch, either way, it signals YT about whether or not your video should be shown in future searches. In effect, every click improves your vid’s future ranking prospects.

The thumbnail, which is an image attached to your video upload, should draw the searcher’s gaze as well as line up w/ the intent of the search.

3️⃣ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀꜱ. In the video description section you can add timestamps and titles to build a table of contents for your video... like the chapters of a book. Format it like this:

00:00 - Introduction Section of the Vid
01:32 - Whatever I Wanna Call This Chapter
03:54 - And My Final Chapter

The chapters are shown visually as markers (or sections) in your video’s progress bar vs. a single red line at the bottom of the viewer window, which helps keep folks’ attention. What’s more, Google is increasingly making use of the “suggested clip” snippet in Google searches—meaning, a chapter of your video could rank in a standard Google search. That’s the big payoff!