CTR stands for click through rate. It is one of the metrics used by YouTube to try and gauge how users or viewers are interested in videos uploaded on the platform. It is very important from YouTube’s point of view to have some idea of the kind of reception any uploaded video is getting from users. As a platform, they have to be very selective about what videos they promote because of the large numbers uploaded, more than five hundred hours every single minute. CTR is a measure of how many viewers are clicking in to watch a particular video. It is an indication of the visibility that a video enjoys. If a particular video has say 10 impressions and four people click in to watch it then the video is said to have a CTR of 40 percent.
A low CTR indicates that your video has low visibility or to put it more bluntly, viewers do not find it interesting and therefore YouTube will stop promoting it and suggesting it to people. This is why you should buy YouTube Views from Subscriberz to increase your CTR.
- Enhancing Your CTR
It therefore goes without saying that as a content creator, it is in your best interests to aim for a high CTR for your video so that it has YouTube’s backing and support. Their support takes the form of showing the video regularly to viewers. The CTR is also useful in another important way. The higher the CTR a video has, the higher the ranking it scores when users search for keywords which are specific to it.
- How to Increase your CTR
A useful way to increase your video’s CTR is to make sure you use titles, thumbnails and video descriptions that are attention grabbing as well as informative. The idea is that they grab users attention, pique their interest and ‘prod’ them to click and view. All this is very important for content creators uploading their very first videos and who therefore have zero reputation with viewers. For popular and well known content creators, the situation is different because viewers are already ‘primed’ and will rush to click and view any new material uploaded by such content creators. If you are not known, then you can buy YouTube Views from Subscriberz to increase your CTR.
- CTR Watch Time and Audience Retention
Watch time – this is the length of time a video is watched by viewers. It’s also a metric used by YouTube to gauge video popularity. A video that enjoys longer watch times by viewers is presumed to be of better quality. Even here CTR is still of primary importance because for a video to be watched it still has to be clicked first.
- A video that has longer watch time is a signal to YouTube that it warrants being moved up in search rankings or alternatively that the video should be suggested to more viewers. If it is being viewed for a longer time then this strongly suggests that it has better content .
Audience Retention
This is a refinement on watch time. It actually factors in the obvious fact that different videos have different running times. For example, a 20 minute video is watched for an average of 8 minutes before viewers ‘tune out’, a second 10 minute video is viewed for an average of 6 min before viewers ‘tune out’. Considering watch time alone suggests the 20 minute one has better content but if percentages are considered a different picture emerges. The longer video retained viewers attention for 40 percent of its running time whilst the shorter video performed much better, retaining viewers’ attention for 60 percent of running time. It is not easy to decide which of the two metrics is a better indicator of content quality but the CTR is a factor in both cases.