Retention

Retention is how much of a delivered count remains after time has passed, and on view services it also describes how long each delivered view keeps watching the video.

In the first sense, retention is drops seen from the other side. If 1,000 followers were delivered and 900 are still there after a month, retention over that month is nine in ten. Like a drop rate, it only means something with the period and the measurement date attached, and it belongs to the supplier that delivered the batch, not to the service name, which can outlive several suppliers.

In the second sense, used on video view services, retention is the length of time each view stays on the video, stated in seconds or minutes or as a share of the video's length. It matters because watch time is counted in minutes watched, not in views. A view service with short retention adds to the view counter while adding very little watch time.

Check which sense a listing uses before you order. A listing for views with high retention is describing watch duration per view, not how long the views stay on the counter. If you need watch hours, order a service sold in watch hours, or check that the stated retention and the video length can produce the hours you need: 1,000 views watching three minutes each is 50 hours, whatever the view counter says.

On this site the word is used more narrowly in the delivery tests. Retention there is counted against what a panel had delivered when its own delivery finished, net of the count the account already held, which is not the baseline a panel uses for a refill claim. It is measured that way rather than against the quantity ordered because one panel can still be delivering while another has finished. The rule is on /methodology/.

What a panel cannot control

A panel influences it only through the suppliers it picks and the refill terms it writes. Neither stops a platform from removing accounts. A retention figure in a service description is a seller's claim unless it states when and how it was measured.