FREE YouTube Analytics

A low YouTube click-through rate (CTR) is often the result of less captivating thumbnails, titles that don’t effectively convey value or grab attention, or a lack of alignment between your content and what your audience expects to see. To improve your CTR, it’s recommended to experiment with more visually engaging thumbnails, refine your titles for clarity and appeal, and ensure your video topics are relevant to your target viewers. Make sure your videos are accurately tagged and described to maximize discoverability, and consider where your videos are being surfaced, as competitive placement within search and suggested video feeds can significantly impact CTR.

As for what’s considered a good CTR, YouTube indicates that most channels average between 2% and 10%, but the ideal rate can vary depending on your niche, channel size, and content type.

To increase your average watch time and session duration on YouTube, focus on making your content consistently engaging and structuring your videos to encourage viewers to stay longer and watch more.

Start by hooking viewers in the first few seconds, maintaining a brisk pace, and avoiding lengthy intros or off-topic tangents. Use clear storytelling, visual elements, and editing techniques that keep the audience interested throughout the entire video. Creating playlists, incorporating end screens, and adding calls-to-action that direct viewers to additional videos or playlists can also extend session duration by guiding audiences to keep watching your content.

Socialinsider enables you to compare your videos’ performance with that of competitors, helping you spot patterns in top-performing content and discover strategies to keep audiences engaged longer. Using these insights alongside your own YouTube Analytics allows you to identify the formats and topics that succeed at holding attention and to refine your video strategy for improved watch times and audience retention.

If your videos perform well with your subscribers but aren’t being recommended in ‘Suggested’ or ‘Browse’ feeds, the issue often relates to factors beyond just strong core audience engagement. YouTube’s recommendation system looks at signals such as high click-through rates and retention from new viewers, relevance to trending or related topics, watch history alignment, and consistent metadata (titles, descriptions, tags) that matches audience search intent. Videos that primarily appeal to subscribers but don’t resonate as strongly with broader audiences or new viewers may struggle to appear in these feeds.

To improve your chances, refine your video titles, thumbnails, and descriptions to appeal to both your core audience and broader interests. Review your video analytics to identify which videos attract non-subscribers and see what patterns set them apart. Incorporate relevant keywords and optimize your metadata for discoverability.

Socialinsider allows you to compare your videos’ performance and discoverability metrics with those of competitors. These insights help you pinpoint what successful channels are doing to expand their reach in YouTube’s recommended sections, enabling you to adapt your content and metadata strategies for better exposure in ‘Suggested’ and ‘Browse’ feeds.

To determine which YouTube videos contribute most to your subscriber growth or loss, start by using YouTube Analytics to review the number of subscribers gained and lost on each video. Look for patterns across video topics, formats, and publishing schedules that correlate with significant increases or decreases in your subscriber count.

With Socialinsider, you can also monitor follower growth trends over time. These insights help you identify which content types and strategies are most effective at driving subscriber growth and engagement, as well as quickly highlighting any videos that might be contributing to audience churn.