Publish time is not known to impact a video’s long-term performance. Our recommendation system aims to deliver the right videos to the right viewers, regardless of when that video was uploaded. However, publish time is important for formats such as Live and Premiere videos. Take a look at the When your viewers are on YouTube report in YouTube Analytics to understand when to schedule a Premiere or plan your next live stream.
Publishing videos when your audience is most active can be beneficial for early viewership, but isn’t known to impact a video’s long-term viewership.
What’s more important, average percentage viewed or average view duration?
Our discovery system uses absolute and relative watch time as signals when determining audience engagement, and we encourage you to do the same. Ultimately, we want both short and long videos to succeed, so we encourage you to make your videos the appropriate length depending on the content. Broadly speaking, relative watch time is more important for short videos and absolute watch time is more important for longer videos. You can use audience retention to understand how long your viewers are willing to watch and adjust your content accordingly.