How to use YouTube Analytics. The tool for analyzing the results and views of your videos uploaded to the most used video platform in the world.
YouTube Analytics
Open the page of and take a look at the main charts in the center. YouTube's default timescale is 28 days (4 weeks). You can use the drop-down menu in the upper right corner to change the scale to monthly, weekly, daily or full duration.
The Analytics page is divided into some sections:
- Display time: this section shows in total how much time people spent watching your videos during the selected period. This is measured in minutes, which makes the number much larger.
- Average view duration: this section shows the average time people spend watching individual videos.
- Views: this section is pretty straightforward, measuring how many people clicked on your videos during the selected period.
- Estimated revenue: this section shows an estimate of the ad revenue for the period.
- Other numbers: the rest of the options on the Analytics page are pretty self-explanatory and measure pretty much all the interactions a user can have with your content.
All of these sections also display an up or down symbol that lets you know whether or not the stat has improved from the previous period (like the previous month if you are viewing the default 28-day timescale). This is useful for monitoring your channel's behavior over time.
YouTube Beta Studio
The default Analytics page is great, but YouTube is even better. It's better structured and has some more interesting stats too. Another nice thing about the beta study is that it updates live. There is no need to wait for the normal analytics to arrive, which can take a couple of days with the default Analytics page.
An important stat to track is impressions. This gives you an idea of how your video is referencing YouTube's algorithms. If you get more impressions, YouTube probably likes them more. These impressions lead to views of people clicking on the thumbnails (click-through rate) and watching time, depending on how long they watch your video. Watch time is very important, as YouTube's algorithm strongly favors watch time.
In the "Create an audience" tab you can see how many unique viewers you have per day and also how much viewing time comes from subscribers. This can help you figure out how many people subscribe to your channel after watching one of your videos.
If you click on the "Best Videos" widget on the Overview tab, you are presented with this nice channel overview, showing per-video performance over time, with detailed stats below.
Overall, YouTube analytics are very accurate, if a little difficult to navigate, but they are useful tools if youtube is important to you.
