Why does my video have a high click-through-rate and average view duration but low impressions?
What should I avoid doing with my click-through-rate data?
- Deciding without enough data. It’s important to look over your click-through-rate after getting a substantial number of impressions. Avoid checking your click-through-rate immediately after uploading.
- Improving for small changes in click-through-rate. It’s common to have small variations in click-through-rate, and isn’t cause for immediate action. Improvements might be helpful if a change in click-through-rate is statistically significant.
- Testing several thumbnails or titles on the same video. It’s difficult to make sure each video is being seen by the same audience. Differences in click-through-rate might be due to traffic sources, rather than the title or thumbnail.
How do I know if my impressions click-through rate is high or low?
Impressions click-through rate measures how often viewers watched a video after seeing a registered impression on YouTube. It likely represents a subset of your channel's total views, since not all impressions are counted in this metric, such those on external websites or end screens.
Impressions click-through rate will vary based on the type of content, audience, and where on YouTube the impression was shown. Keep in mind that your video thumbnails are always competing against other videos, whether on the homepage, “Up Next” on the watch page, in search results, and even in subscription feeds.
Half of all channels and videos on YouTube have an impressions CTR that can range between 2% and 10%.
New videos or channels (like those less than a week old), or videos with fewer than 100 views can see an even wider range. If a video gets a lot of impressions (such as if it appears on the Home Page), it's natural for the CTR to be lower. Videos where most of the impressions are from sources like your channel page may have a higher rate.
Ultimately, it's best to compare CTRs between videos over the long-term and keep in mind how their traffic sources will affect their CTRs.
Why do I have more views than impressions?
Why doesn't the click-through-rate metric match my calculations?
How do impressions relate to monetization?
Note: Keep in mind that these suggestions are based on aggregate success rates across YouTube. They do not guarantee any particular outcome for your specific case.