Nowadays people spend more time on YouTube than on Netflix or Television. That’s the truth. YouTube is the second most popular social media platform with almost 2.1 billion users. From young teens to old, everyone spends more time on YouTube than we can imagine. Whether you want to use YouTube as a content marketing platform or just as a means to earn money directly, YouTube Analytics can help you.
If you want YouTube videos to drive traffic and revenue, you need to deep into the data. But how do you get the data? This is where Youtube analytics comes in.
It is a native analytics platform inbuilt into YouTube that provides access to vital metrics about video performance including average view duration, viewer demographics, traffic sources, impressions, and more. It tells you what progress your video has made.
All this data provided by Youtube analytics will help you understand what type of content your audience is interested in so you can improve your YouTube strategy. The metrics let you know the videos’ performance levels. It is vital to understand how effective your efforts have been. If you know what is working for your channel and what’s not, you can strategize ahead accordingly.
Using Analytics is straightforward. Finding it is also a cakewalk.
The metrics you see in this section are of the last 28 days. But if you want to see older data you can just adjust/ use the drop-down menu on the right-hand corner.
If you want to know about how your video performed in the first few hours after publishing then the real-time reports can help you out. It has two graphs. One is hour by hour and the other is minute by minute, it shows the viewers according to their time zones. This report can be particularly handy when you want to know whether there is a spike in engagement in a video.
TIP: If you are a beginner and want to know more about the metrics all you have to do is hover over your chosen metric or click the “i” in a circle appearing near the metric’s name. It shows you the required information about the metric, if you still want more knowledge on the subject, Click ” Learn More” at the bottom of the box.
Everyone wants the world at their fingertips. YouTube has made the job of getting data easier for users. You have to download YouTube Studio on your phone to be able to access the Analytics.
Other than watch time, views and subscriber change you can also learn about Overview, Reach, engagement, and audience.
There are so many metrics in YouTube Analytics that it can overwhelm any user. But if you want to learn how to leverage analytics to your advantage then you need to know about the YouTube metrics.
These are the metrics you can find under the “Overview” tab of Youtube Analytics.
It is the number of views your channel has gotten. You can also check the real-time views which the number of views your videos received in the past 48 hours. Real-time views are a great way to know how your videos perform just after the launch. These views are presented as a bar chart with estimated hourly views updated in real-time.
Watch time is the total amount of time, in hours, people have spent watching all the videos on your channel over a given period. It is specifically called channel watch time because it’s the number of times viewers invest in your channel.
After the end of every video or at the beginning, creators do appeal to the audience to like, share and subscribe to the channel. Subscribers are the number of people who have subscribed to your YouTube channel (over a certain period). You can hover over the number to know how many people have subscribed over a certain amount of time. It can give you the information you need. Has your subscriber count gone up? If so why? Is it because you uploaded more videos in the period? Or do the viewers relate to that type of content more? A rising number of subscribers is always good news.
YouTube reach metrics are the categories of metrics we find under the reach tab of Youtube Analytics.
Impressions in YouTube and Instagram care nearly the same. Impressions mean the number of times your content was shown to users. On YouTube, it means the number of times thumbnails for your videos were shown to YouTube viewers. But that does not include external traffic sources like website embeds or social shares. So, if you want to increase impressions by embedding videos in various places, don’t do it. It won’t work.
Impressions mean the number of people who view the thumbnails on your video. But Impressions click-through rate means the percentage of people who clicked on a thumbnail on YouTube to view your videos. The more people find your videos on the search engine and watch them, the higher the CTR. A high CTR is a good indication that your thumbnails and keywords are doing the job. CTR can be useful for future planning of Youtube Content strategy. You can learn about the videos with high CTR, and find the reasons behind high CTR. Try replicating the features in other videos to reach more audiences.
According to Google, every time a user watches a video, it is counted as a unique view. But all those views from one user in all your videos will count as one unique viewer for your channel. If you want to learn more about Unique viewers data then you can visit this Google Support Link to understand unique viewers’ data.
Other metrics under Reach are – Traffic Sources and YouTube search terms.
YouTube Engagement metrics are the metrics you can find under the engagement tab. It stores the data about engagement in your channel.
Average view duration is the amount of time a viewer spends in your video before leaving the page and hopping into what’s next. The impression click-through rate can be high, but if the view duration isn’t more then there is a discrepancy in your channel. It means if users are visiting your videos more, (high CTR)but aren’t staying to watch ( low average view duration) then your videos aren’t delivering.
When you find the information on top searched terms, you find whether users are looking for your videos. If many users reach the videos through organic search then, it is logical to create playlists with similar keywords. It will not only increase views but also increase the duration of the average video. Top playlists are the lists that work best in your channel.
Cards and end screens are ways to interact with the audience. It also results in more conversions. Card and end screen reports show whether the effort you have made to convert the viewers has worked. The reports can help you analyze the effectiveness of your cards. You can check the card type, timing, placement, and duration. Search for tricks that work best in converting the viewers, then modify your strategy to maximize clicks.
YouTube audience metrics is all about the metrics under the “Audience” tab. It is about unique viewers, audience demographics, watch time from subscribers etc.
We have already mentioned unique viewers. It is the total number of people who watched your videos over a given period. But returning viewers means viewers who have already watched the video previously, return to watch it again. More returning viewers means your content is making an impact on the audience.
TIP – There is another bonus metric in YouTube Analytics about when your audience is most active. It is a bar chart that displays the days and times most of your viewers are active. Use these optimal timings to upload your content in this specific time window. This will ensure you get maximum views within the first few hours of upload.
Watch time from subscribers means the average percentage of the watch time that comes from your subscribers. Your subscribers should contribute to more than 50% of your watch time. If you are not able to successfully do audience retention with your already present subscribers your video strategy and content needs improvement.
Audience demographics gives you an idea about the age, gender, location, and language statistics for the people who watch your videos on YouTube. This information can be useful in planning your upcoming content. If you know most of your audience is from India then you can add subtitles in the audience’s language, making the content more digestible for them. Demographics also informs you about the age group of viewers, which makes it easy for you to create content that resonates with a certain age group.
The revenue metrics are only available for channels that are eligible for YouTube Monetisation. If your account is eligible you can see the Revenue tab in the YouTube Analytics section. Four types of revenue are shown in analytics.
Revenue metrics come in handy when you want to track your earnings from the channel. It lets you know which parameters generate more revenue, so you can prioritize it in the future.
Advanced mode gives you more control over the stats. You can compare videos and decide which ones are performing better than the others. In the advanced mode, you can compare individual video stats to your overall channel performance. You can click on the “Advanced mode” on the top left-hand corner of the screen. Then click “Compare to> Groups> Create group”.
In this way, you can lump similar videos together and compare different themes, styles, and lengths to help you look for larger themes and potential series opportunities. An advanced mode is an analytical tool that helps you learn about which videos in your channel are outperforming others.
YouTube Analytics has various reports that can be useful to grow your channel. While we had already gone through the metrics, some of the reports are worth mentioning because they play huge roles in Analytics.
The overview report is very much what the Overview tab is all about. But this report shows facts regarding the metrics. It shows the engagement metrics such as watch time and views. The overview report is a simplified snapshot of your overall performance. A glance at the numbers and you can find out your recent performance.
While the overview report shows you the data over a certain period, the real-time report shows you an estimate of view count data for your most recent videos, including people-watching in real-time. Real-time reports come in handy when you frequently post video content, it shows if any new videos are experiencing an increase in engagement.
Watch time report is an important page from video analytics. It collects data from all your view sources to create a comprehensive breakdown of viewer retention. In a way, it is also an audience retention report. As we have mentioned before in YouTube Reach metrics, some important metrics in this report are average view percentage, average view duration, unique views, estimated minutes watched, viewers’ percentage, views from impressions and watch time.
This report brings together all the information you need for reach and Engagement. It shows how many viewers came from impressions, how many came from click through and ads, how many came from embedded videos, suggested videos etc. You can gauge how much time the audience spends on your channel, and what kind of videos they watch more, so you can plan your content for the future.
Audience retention reports bring both good and bad news. On the bright side, you know why your audience is sticking around to watch the videos, and on the flip side, you discover the reason behind lower retention. Here are some important metrics of the report –
Traffic sources report is crucial in knowing whether your strategy is paying off. This report lets you know where your audience comes from, whether they come from sites where the video is embedded or suggested videos. You need to know the features that viewers used to find your content.
In this report, you get to see where the majority of your audience comes from. The traffic sources are mentioned in the report like – playlists, suggested videos, channel pages external, direct or unknown. You can learn more about it by clicking on see more. These reports show you whether your hard work at optimization and promotion strategies are paying off.
Everyone on social media is concerned about their followers. Sometimes even if you are rolling out back to back good content it is hard to gain followers. With Subscribers report you get to see how you’ve gained and lost subscribers across different pieces of content, locations and dates. This report quite honestly shows you which content gained you followers and when, and which content lost you, followers/ subscribers. You can identify the instance where you gained followers and try to replicate similar content and situation.
On social media likes and comments make it break a piece of content. If you want to gain more subscribers or increase your reach then you must try to get ire likes and comments on videos. The Like and dislike ratio shouldn’t be much of a concern for you, occasional dislikes and harsh comments are few, but make sure it doesn’t happen often. Try to interact with viewers in the comment section of the video. You can also pin comments you like. Your subscribers should feel free to converse and communicate with you.
Watching videos doesn’t have to be a passive experience for the audience, that’s why we have features like cars and end screens. It gives viewers a chance to click and experience other stuff from your channel. Cards report show how viewers are interacting with cards on your videos across desktop, mobile and tablets. There are many metrics in the card reports that can be useful,
Card reports speak of how users are interacting with the cards, and what is working and what isn’t on the card front.
If you are making a substantial income through YouTube and ads then you just be aware of the earnings report. If you are YouTube Partner with an associated AdSense account, you’ll have access to a couple of additional reports like the estimated earnings report and ad rates report.
YouTube Analytics may seem intimidating from afar, but it is just facts. You do not have to dig deep into the details you can just check the reports and learn whether your strategy is working out. If the data isn’t good, you can always identify the pattern and fix it. Test and test until you find the right recipe for your channel’s success. If you want to make a great impression on your audience then create mind-blowing intros with Offeo YouTube Intro maker to win your audience.
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