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YouTube end screens are interactive overlays that appear in the final 5–20 seconds of a video. They can promote other videos, playlists, your channel, websites, or merchandise. End screens help increase watch time by guiding viewers to more content and can boost subscriber growth by featuring a subscribe button.
End screens are clickable interactive elements that appear during the final 5 to 20 seconds of a YouTube video. They allow creators to promote additional content, encourage subscriptions, and drive traffic to external links directly within the video player. End screens are one of YouTube's most effective tools for increasing session watch time.
YouTube offers several end screen element types: video or playlist recommendations (which can be set to auto-select based on what is best for each viewer, or manually chosen), a subscribe button featuring your channel icon, a channel link (for collaborations or featured channels), and link elements that can point to approved external websites, merchandise, or crowdfunding campaigns.
The strategic placement of end screens significantly impacts their effectiveness. The final 20 seconds of a video is prime real estate because viewers who reach this point are highly engaged — they watched the entire video and are most likely to click on related content. Pairing end screens with verbal calls-to-action dramatically increases click-through rates.
End screens work best when the promoted content is genuinely relevant to the video being watched. YouTube's auto-select feature is often effective because it uses viewer data to recommend the most relevant content from your channel. However, manually selecting specific videos or playlists can be more effective when you have a clear content series.
To add end screens, go to YouTube Studio, select a video, and click End Screens in the editor. You can choose from pre-made templates or build custom layouts. The end screen editor shows a preview of how elements will appear over your video's final seconds. Test different layouts and promoted content to find what generates the most clicks and watch time for your channel. Use TubeAnalytics to track which end screen strategies drive the most additional views and subscriber growth.
Number of clicks on your end screen video, playlist, and subscribe elements
Benchmark: Higher is better; compare across videos
Percentage of viewers who click an end screen element
Benchmark: 2–5% is typical, 8%+ is strong
How many end screen subscribe clicks convert to actual subscribers
Benchmark: Varies; track growth correlated with end screen usage
A history education channel creates 5-part series on each topic. Each video's end screen promotes the next video in the series. This generates 35% of their total watch time from end screen clicks, as viewers binge through entire series in a single session.
A vlog channel tested end screens with and without the subscribe element. Adding the subscribe button increased new subscribers by 22% per video compared to only promoting other videos. The visual reminder prompted engaged viewers to subscribe before leaving.
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