If you are a YouTuber, you probably know that one of the most important metrics for your channel’s success is watch hours. Watch hours are the total amount of time that viewers spend watching your videos. They are different from views, which only count how many times your video was clicked on.
Watch hours are essential because they show YouTube how engaged your audience is with your content. The more watch hours you have, the more likely YouTube will promote your videos to new viewers and recommend them to existing ones. Watch hours are also one of the requirements for joining the YouTube Partner Program, which allows you to monetize your channel and earn money from ads.
But how are watch hours calculated? And how can you increase them? In this blog post, I will share with you my personal experience as a YouTuber and give you five tips to improve your watch hours.
How does YouTube Watch Hours are Calculated?
YouTube watch hours are calculated based on the actual time that viewers spend watching your videos. This means that if someone watches your 10-minute video for 5 minutes, you will get 5 watch hours. If they watch it for the full 10 minutes, you will get 10 watch hours. And if they watch it twice, you will get 20 watch hours.
However, there are some factors that can affect how YouTube counts your watch hours. For example, YouTube does not count the time that viewers spend watching your videos on external websites or apps, such as Facebook or Twitter. YouTube also does not count the time that viewers spend watching your videos in playlists, unless they click on the video title or thumbnail to watch it on YouTube.
Another factor that can impact your watch hours is the quality of your videos. If your videos have poor audio or video quality, or if they are boring or irrelevant to your audience, viewers may click away or skip parts of your videos. This will reduce your watch hours and hurt your channel’s performance.
Therefore, it is important to make sure that your videos are high-quality, engaging, and relevant to your niche and target audience. This will help you attract and retain more viewers, and increase your watch hours.
How to Increase Your Watch Hours?
Now that you know how YouTube watch hours are calculated, let me share with you some of the strategies that I use to increase my watch hours. These are not magic tricks or hacks, but proven methods that have worked for me and many other successful YouTubers.
1. Optimize Your Titles, Thumbnails, and Descriptions
The first tip to increase your watch hours is to optimize your titles, thumbnails, and descriptions. These are the elements that viewers see before they decide to click on your videos. They are also the elements that YouTube uses to rank your videos and show them to potential viewers.
Therefore, you want to make sure that your titles, thumbnails, and descriptions are catchy, clear, and relevant to your videos. You want to use keywords that your audience is searching for, and that match the content of your videos. You also would like to avoid clickbait, misleading, or spammy titles, thumbnails, and descriptions, as they can hurt your reputation and cause viewers to leave your videos.
Some of the best practices for optimizing your titles, thumbnails, and descriptions are:
- Use titles that are short, descriptive, and include your main keyword.
- Use thumbnails that are bright, colorful, and show the main point or benefit of your video.
- Use descriptions that are informative, concise, and include your main keyword and a call to action.
- Use tags that are relevant to your video and niche, and that include your main keyword and related keywords.
2. Create Longer and More In-Depth Videos
The second tip to increase your watch hours is to create longer and more in-depth videos. This may seem counterintuitive, as you may think that shorter videos are easier to watch and more appealing to viewers. However, the truth is that longer videos can actually help you increase your watch hours, as long as they are valuable and interesting to your audience.
The reason is that longer videos can provide additional information, entertainment, or education to your viewers, and keep them hooked for longer. Longer videos can also help you rank higher on YouTube, as YouTube favors videos that keep viewers on the platform for longer. Longer videos can also increase your chances of getting more comments, likes, and shares, which can boost your engagement and exposure.
Of course, this does not mean that you should make your videos unnecessarily long or boring. You still need to make sure that your videos are well-structured, well-edited, and well-paced. You also need to make sure that your videos are relevant to your niche and audience, and that they deliver on the promise of your title and thumbnail.
Some of the best practices for creating longer and more in-depth videos are:
- Use an outline or a script to plan your videos, and avoid rambling or repeating yourself.
- Use transitions, graphics, music, and sound effects to make your videos more dynamic and engaging.
- Use hooks, stories, questions, and cliffhangers to capture and maintain your viewers’ attention and curiosity.
- Use timestamps, chapters, and cards to help your viewers navigate and skip to the parts of your videos that interest them the most.
3. Encourage Your Viewers to Watch More of Your Videos
The third tip to increase your watch hours is to encourage your viewers to watch more of your videos. This means that you want to create a connection with your viewers, and make them want to watch more of your content. This will not only increase your watch hours, but also your subscriber count, loyalty, and retention.
There are many ways to encourage your viewers to watch more of your videos, such as:
- Create a consistent and recognizable brand identity for your channel, such as a logo, a color scheme, a style, a tone, and a personality.
- Create a catchy and memorable intro and outro for your videos, and use them to introduce yourself, your channel, and your value proposition.
- Create playlists that group your videos by topic, theme, or series, and use them to guide your viewers to watch more of your related videos.
- Create end screens that show your viewers your other videos, your playlists, your subscribe button, and your website or social media links.
- Create calls to action that invite your viewers to watch your other videos, subscribe to your channel, like and comment on your videos, and share your videos with their friends.
4. Collaborate with Other YouTubers
The fourth tip to increase your watch hours is to collaborate with other YouTubers. This is a great way to expose your channel to new audiences, and to attract more viewers to your videos. Collaborating with other YouTubers can also help you create more diverse and interesting content, and to learn from other successful creators.
However, you need to be careful and strategic when choosing who to collaborate with. You want to collaborate with YouTubers who have a similar or complementary niche, audience, and style to yours. You also want to collaborate with YouTubers who have a similar or larger subscriber count and watch hours to yours. You also want to collaborate with YouTubers who are trustworthy, professional, and respectful.
Some of the best practices for collaborating with other YouTubers are:
- Reach out to potential collaborators with a friendly and personalized message, and explain why you want to collaborate with them and what value you can offer them.
- Agree on the topic, format, and goals of your collaboration, and make sure that both parties benefit from it.
- Promote your collaboration on your channel, website, and social media platforms, and ask your collaborators to do the same.
- Follow up with your collaborators after the collaboration, and thank them for their time and effort.
5. Buy Watch Hours
The fifth and final tip is to buy watch hours from TheYTLab. This is a service that provides you with real and organic watch hours from real and active YouTube users. This can help you boost your watch hours quickly and easily, and help you reach the YouTube Partner Program requirements faster.
Buying watch hours from TheYTLab is safe, legal, and effective. TheYTLab has a team of experts who will analyze your channel and videos, and create a customized campaign to deliver the best results for you. TheYTLab also has a 24/7 customer support team who will answer any questions or concerns that you may have.
Buying watch hours from TheYTLab is also affordable and flexible. You can choose from different packages and plans that suit your budget and needs. You can also track your progress and results with a dashboard and reports that TheYTLab provides you.
I have personally used TheYTLab to buy watch hours for my channel, and I can say that it was one of the best decisions that I ever made. TheYTLab helped me increase my watch hours significantly, and helped me reach the YouTube Partner Program in no time. TheYTLab also helped me improve my channel’s performance, visibility, and credibility. The TheYTLab dashboard is friendly and easy accessible.
If you want to buy watch hours from TheYTLab, you can visit their website and place your order today. You can also use my coupon code BING10 to get a 10% discount on your first order.
Conclusion
YouTube watch hours are one of the most important metrics for your channel’s success. They show YouTube how engaged your audience is with your content, and they are one of the requirements for joining the YouTube Partner Program.
To increase your watch hours, you need to optimize your titles, thumbnails, and descriptions, create longer and more in-depth videos, encourage your viewers to watch more of your videos, collaborate with other YouTubers, and buy watch hours from TheYTLab. These are the strategies that I use and recommend to boost your watch hours and grow your channel. I hope you enjoyed this blog post and learned something new.
