YouTube analytics: key metrics to improve your content
YouTube analytics are critical to channel development and monetisation. It allows you to learn more about your audience and enhance the quality of your content. It also gives you the opportunity to identify areas for growth and work on mistakes.
To build a long-term strategy, it is not enough to simply track the number of views. Digital solutions are essential to understanding the bigger picture. In this case, the best and most accessible tool is YouTube Analytics, which is accessible through the YouTube Studio control panel. The service also makes it easy to moderate comments and assess overall channel trends.
Key metrics overview
A broadcaster needs to understand the nature of the social network to run a channel successfully. To assess progress and identify general trends, key indicators available through analytics help. Among them:
1. Watch Time. It measures the total time viewers spend watching content. YouTube considers videos that keep users engaged for longer to be more relevant. This metric speaks to the level of engagement and assesses the value of the content to the viewer.
2. Views. This metric indicates reach and how engaging the content is to viewers. The more views a video has, the more likely it is to be included in the platform’s recommendations.
3. Average watch time. It represents the average amount of time users spend watching a video. It tells the content creator whether viewers are watching the video to the end. Average watch time also shows whether the title and content of the video match expectations.
Other important metrics
4. Number of subscribers. This metric evaluates changes in the number of viewers, whether it is increasing or decreasing. It allows the marketer to determine the level of audience loyalty. Understanding audience growth trends enables you to plan for the medium term.
5. Engagement indicators. These include likes, comments and reposts. They can be seen as signs of viewers’ attention, indicating their willingness to interact with the video. A high level of engagement shows that people find the content interesting and are willing to discuss it.
6. Clickability. In this case, the algorithms track users who click on a video thumbnail to go to the full version. This metric allows you to understand how relevant the thumbnails are to the target audience.
7. Audience retention. This allows the creator to see when the viewer gets bored and stops watching the video. This enables you to tweak your content to make it more engaging for your subscribers.
YouTube Analytics provides a way to assess the channel’s viability and demand. It highlights strengths and weaknesses and shows you which direction to take. Video hosting provides all the tools for channel development — content creators just need to use them correctly.
