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All top YouTube creators know some important secrets about keeping you hooked from the start to the end of their videos, and in return, they get that precious watch time needed to make a video go viral.
Learn top YouTube watch time secrets from big creators like MrBeast to hook viewers and boost retention with proven strategies.
Key Takeaways
- Plan title and thumbnail first to align viewer expectations with video content.
- Deliver on promises immediately in the intro to reduce early drop-off.
- Use end rewards to motivate viewers to watch through to the end.
- Pattern interrupts are essential to maintain attention in today’s short attention span environment.
- Smooth transitions and storytelling keep viewers engaged and unaware of video length.
What the video covers
- Top YouTube creators use specific secrets to maximize watch time and make videos go viral.
- Decide on your video's title and thumbnail before production to set clear viewer expectations.
- Craft an intro hook that matches the title and thumbnail to minimize early audience drop-off.
- Use 'end rewards' by promising exciting content later in the video to keep viewers watching.
- Being relatable in intros builds trust and hooks viewers, especially for educational content.
- Apply pattern interrupts like B-roll, multiple camera angles, slow zooms, and on-screen text to maintain engagement.
- Connecting points smoothly creates a storytelling flow that keeps viewers unaware of time passing.
- Examples from MrBeast and other creators illustrate these watch time strategies in action.
- The final tip, connecting points, helps viewers stay engaged until the video ends without noticing.
- Implementing these techniques has shown clear improvements in watch time on the creator’s own channel.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to Watch Time Secrets
- 00:54Importance of Title and Thumbnail
- 01:17Crafting the Intro Hook
- 02:26Matching Viewer Expectations
- 02:46End Reward Strategy
- 03:49Being Relatable to Hook Viewers
- 05:45Pattern Interrupts to Boost Engagement
- 06:15Examples of Pattern Interrupts
- 08:02Connecting Points for Storytelling
- 10:13Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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After studying these top creators for months, I've collected these watch time secrets that you can now apply to your future videos to increase your watch time.
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I'll tell you how to hook your viewers, how to build suspense in your videos, how to do storytelling, and basically everything that can make your viewers watch your videos for longer!
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And yes, the last tip is my favorite, so don't miss it. I've applied these tips in my own videos, and the results are clearly visible.
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Starting with the first secret, which is about the title and thumbnail... Now, you might be confused because watch time and audience retention depend on the video, right?
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So, where do the title and thumbnail come in? Let me tell you the secret: most top creators decide on a video's title and thumbnail before even making the video, and you should do the same!
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Here's why: Your video is the product, while the title and thumbnail are the packaging.
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It's the first thing viewers notice, and that's why when we decide on the title and thumbnail before recording, scripting, or any other work, we know what viewers expect from the video.
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By looking at the packaging from the viewers' perspective, we can understand their expectations, which helps us create better intros.
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This brings me to the next secret: crafting the intro hook. Look at the audience retention graph.
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Can you see that significant dip in the beginning? It shows that 50% of the audience has left the video in the first 30 seconds.
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In fact, most YouTube videos have a similar retention graph with a massive dip in the intro.
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Obviously, the smaller this dip, the better because that means more people are staying in the video, leading to more watch time.
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If so many people are leaving in the intro, there can be only one reason, and that is the viewers' expectations based on the title and thumbnail were not met by the video's intro.
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So, they were disappointed, bored, and they quit the video. So what's the solution? Well, it's pretty simple.
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Create an intro that matches viewers' expectations. A great example is MrBeast. Take any video from his channel, and you'll see that whatever was promised in the title and thumbnail is delivered in the first 5 seconds of the video.
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That's why I said, decide on the title and thumbnail in advance, so you know what viewers will expect.
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Another example is this video you're watching right now. Look at the title and thumbnail.
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By looking at them, you expect that I will talk about improving watch time and provide examples of big YouTubers, especially MrBeast.
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Based on all this information, I spent hours designing the intro to meet viewers' expectations.
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But, if you want to truly hook your viewers, matching their expectations is not enough.
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To maintain good audience retention, you need to use the next secret. To understand what it is, let's take MrBeast's video, "Lamborghini VS World's Largest Shredder." Let me play the video.
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(Plays Video) Wait! Did you notice? The Lamborghini vs. Shredder experiment, which is the center of attention in the video, is shown in just 4 seconds at the very beginning.
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But if you watch the entire video, you'll see that this experiment is shown at the 14th minute of the video, meaning right at the end...
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This is an example of setting up an end reward in the video. It means promising viewers that something very important or interesting is going to happen in the later half or at the end of the video.
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The benefit of this is that even if viewers get bored during a part of the video, they won't quit because they know the end reward is yet to come, giving them a reason to keep watching.
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It may sound simple, but it's really powerful. Like MrBeast, almost every one of his videos has a strong end reward...
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You might have also seen this example on my channel or Algrow's channel when I say, "I'll share the 5th tip to increase views, which is the most important one, or my favorite." Of course, because the 5th tip is at the end of the video, it also acts as an end reward.
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So if viewers get bored or don't find the information helpful, they think, "I'll watch until the last tip." And that keeps them watching!
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Now, let's say it's not possible or it's difficult to create an end reward in your video.
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There's another secret to hooking your viewers, and that is by being relatable. Especially if you create educational content or tutorials, this will be really helpful.
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For example, in these three videos: So, as you may have noticed, the common factor in all three videos is that in their intros, the creators tried to describe the viewer's current situation in a relatable way.
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This relatability factor instantly builds trust with the creator because the viewer thinks the creator understands their problem so well that they probably have a solution.
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This is what hooks them into the video. Now, let's talk about a secret that is easy to apply no matter what your video's content is.
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With this secret, you can make your video 10 times more engaging and get more watch time.
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I'm talking about pattern interrupts. In simple terms, a pattern interrupt is a video editing technique that grabs a viewer's attention and disrupts their usual thought patterns.
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In 2023, we all know that viewers' attention spans have become shorter, especially with the rise of short-form content.
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If a part of your video seems a bit boring, they might quit. In such cases, you can't expect to gain views with a simple facecam video without any pattern interrupt.
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So, let's quickly learn about some pattern interrupts and tips you can easily use in your videos.
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No. 1 and the easiest: Adding B-rolls. Suppose you're creating a facecam video, and the main clip is your A-roll.
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If you add other footage during editing, that becomes the B-roll. Adding B-rolls not only improves retention because viewers don't get bored, but it also enhances visual storytelling.
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You can choose the right B-roll based on the message you want to convey to your viewers.
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No. 2: Different camera angles. Shooting a video with a single camera angle can make it quite boring.
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That's why some YouTubers use multiple camera angles. A great example is Tech Burner. If you watch his videos, you'll see that he frequently changes camera angles to make the video visually interesting.
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You can do the same. If you don't have two devices for recording, you can divide your video into 4-5 parts and record them at different locations.
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No. 3: Slow zoom. Whether you're making facecam videos or screen-based videos, adding a simple zoom effect to the video can make it more interesting.
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Look at the two videos on the screen; they both have the same clips, but the right one will hold more attention simply because it includes movement.
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Adding this slow zoom effect to your video is easy. Just start at the beginning of a video clip, add a keyframe, go to the end, add another keyframe, and zoom in the video... and there you go!
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We've instantly made a boring clip interesting by adding some movement. No. 4: Add text, and lots of text.
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When a word or sentence appears on the screen, you have no option but to read it.
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Hence, it's much easier to keep the viewer's attention on the video. You can add word-by-word captions for what you're saying in the video or simply add text for important words, like this...
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Before I share my last favorite secret, I want to show you these comments. They all say the same thing: they didn't realize when the video ended.
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And I always get such comments... Why? Because of this last secret. If you use this secret in your videos, your viewers won't even notice when the video ends.
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The secret is connecting points. When you watch your favorite creators, you may have noticed that the information in their videos doesn't abruptly transition from one point to another... it's more like a story!
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The f
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That's why it feels like you're listening to a story. Almost all popular creators use this technique, but let me take the example of Dhruv Rathee.
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You can watch any of his videos, for example, "Time Traveler from Year 2256!" In this video, Dhruv covers many topics, like types of time travel, time dilation, black holes, cryosleep, time travel in the past, wormholes, and paradoxes...
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Even though these are different topics, if you watch the video, you won't realize when he switches from one topic to another because they are all linked, making it feel like a story.
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In fact, if you've paid attention, I've used this secret in this video too. For example, look at the timestamps on the screen, and you'll get an idea of how I connect the points.
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The formula for connecting points is like this: you're talking about one point... now, don't jump suddenly to the next point.
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Instead, introduce a question or problem related to the previous point, and then it should feel like the answer or solution to that question or problem is in the next point.
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The benefit of this is that if a viewer has seen one point and is satisfied with it, when you connect the next point to the current point, they'll feel like they're missing out if they don't watch your next point.
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Connecting points in your video is a crucial part of storytelling, and it will help improve retention.
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Since we're talking about storytelling, I remembered that I made a video explaining how top gaming YouTubers use storytelling in their videos...
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even if you don't have a gaming channel, you can watch that video; it's very entertaining!
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And if you want to know more about me, I've also made a Q&A video, so you can watch that too!
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So yeah, I'll see you there. Bye!!!"
Topics:YouTube watch timeaudience retentionvideo engagementintro hookend rewardpattern interruptsstorytellingvideo editing tipsMrBeastYouTube growth
