YouTube is indeed an unconventional platform. It is neither exactly a social media site nor a content search site, but more of a mish-mash of the two. When you go by both social media and search engine stats, YouTube ranks second after Facebook and Google respectively.
The site has more than 2 billion users and gets over a billion hours of views every day. This is more than even streaming sites like Netflix, which is the most popular in the world. Thus, if you are a creator on this site, optimizing your content can get you both reach and revenue substantially.
Now, a seasoned video creator will probably use advanced analytics tools to keep track of the various associated performance metrics. But for beginners and small creators, YouTube’s native analytics tool under YouTube Studio is more than enough.
How To Open YouTube Analytics?
The first step to using YouTube Analytics is opening it. On your desktop, follow these steps:
- Login to your YouTube account and click on the icon of your account avatar on the top right.
- Click on YouTube Studio from the dropdown menu that appears. This opens the Studio Dashboard for the channel.
- Click on the Analytics menu tab on the sidebar on the left.
- You will see four or five tabs on the upper half of the page.
- Overview
- Reach
- Engagement
- Audience
- Revenue
- Toggle between these tabs to see the respective metrics. The Revenue tab will be there only if your channel is monetized.
- On the top right of the page, you will see a link called Advanced Mode. Clicking on it opens up a pop-up with even more detailed reports of the performance of your channel.
- Video
- Traffic source
- Geography
- Viewer age
- Viewer gender
- Date
- Playlist
- Device type
- More (a dropdown menu with more options which are YouTube product, Video type, Playback location, Operating system, Subtitles and CC, Video info language, Translation use, End screen element type, End screen element, Card type, Card, and Sharing service)
- You can download a report from this by clicking on the down-arrow button on the top right of this window, specifying the necessary details, including file format, and clicking on Download.
- You can also compare the performance of two videos by clicking on the COMPARE TO… link on the top-right.
- Change the period for which data is shown from the time box button underneath the comparison link.
- Click on the cross icon at the top right to exit the Advanced window.
- Under the Advanced Mode button, you will notice a box showing “Last 28 days” by default. This denotes that the reports being displayed show the performance of your channel for that time slot only. You can change the setting by clicking on the box button. This opens a dropdown menu. Select the desired time option and the analytics data shifts accordingly.
- To view the data for a specific video, select it from the Overview screen or search it out using the search box on the top. You will see similar functionalities here as for your channel.
- Click on Channel Analytics on the top left to return to the data view for the entire channel.
On your smartphone, you have to do the following
- For this, you will have to have the YouTube Studio app downloaded. If you do not have it, get it either from the respective app store of your phone or open YouTube, click on the avatar icon on the top right and then, on YouTube Studio.
- Open the YouTube Studio app and sign in to your account.
- Go to the dashboard and in the Analytics section, click on View More
You will see the following tabs:
- Overview
- Revenue
- Discovery
- Audience
- Interactive Content
- Playlists
- Click on the one you want to view and navigate between the data.
Youtube Video Metrics
The most important thing to remember when using YouTube Analytics is that if you try to track each metric, you will become overwhelmed. Depending on the purpose and performance of your channel, not every metric is important. You have to know which metrics have you need to keep an eye on and improve to achieve your goals.
Some of the vital ones include:
- Watch Time – This is undoubtedly the number one metric. It is the amount of time for which your viewers watched your video. The YouTube algorithm gives the most importance to watch time when deciding which videos rank higher in search results and suggestions.
- Audience Retention – This variable is a measure of how many viewers out of the total that exit your video during each point in its runtime. The higher the audience retention, the higher the ranking of the video. Audience retention gives you insight into which part of the video causes most people to leave, thus giving clues as to what is not working for them.
- Engagement – Engagement comes in the form of comments, likes, dislikes, and shares. Comments can tell you which elements in the video had the highest impact, likes and dislikes indicate which topics are most popular with viewers, while shares help you build accurate viewer personas to cater to.
- Click-Through Rate – This can either be the Impressions or Cards CTR. In either case, it helps you understand how many people find the topic, title, or thumbnail of your video attractive enough to click on it when they see it on their home page, search recommendations, or cards.
- Unique Viewers/Subscribers – Although very different, both metrics are indicative of your audience base. Moreover, a comparison of the two metrics helps you get an idea of which videos are more appealing to viewers.
- Views – Earlier, the number of views used to be the most important metric until an update. However, views count is still the metric used to denote the overall popularity of a video.
Conclusion
The popularity of YouTube comes from the fact that it is the only video viewing platform that is mostly free and has a massive reach. Therefore, a creator on the site can gain much by tracking the performance of their channel and videos using YouTube analytics.
Author Bio: Bhavik Soni
Bio: Bhavik Soni is a Creative Writer at Auto Monkey. We provide an original analysis of the latest happenings in the social media industry. Connect with Latest Social Media Trends and News plus tips on Twitter, Facebook and other social tools on the web.
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