YouTube is more than a social media platform where you can build your brand’s content strategy. YouTube has become a search engine. Not like Google, but still. It is a pretty huge deal.
When starting using YouTube to promote your video content, you need to make sure you learn how to supervise the growing process. Keeping an eye on the YouTube metrics that lie at the foundation of your marketing strategy is imperative.
We come to the rescue! Here is a list of the most important YouTube metrics to analyze when measuring your business’ evolution.
An in-depth explanation of YouTube metrics
1. How to see data insights on YouTube
Let's not make the wait longer and jump right into it!
Here's where to get all the numbers you need.
Step1: Login to your YouTube account.
Step2: Click your profile icon in the upper right corner.
Step3: Select YouTube Studio.
Step4: Select Analytics from the left-hand menu.
Now you can play between Overview, Reach, Engagement, Audience, and Revenue (if suitable) depending on the information you're looking for.
Here's the data you can get using the native app:
- Best and worst performing video - discover your best and worst-performing videos in terms of viewership.
- Subscriber views - YouTube's subscriber's report shows you the videos with the highest subscriber views.
- What platforms your videos are viewed on - this metric helps you know what platforms your YouTube videos are viewed on.
- The number of subscribers gained and lost - YouTube's subscriber's report lets you know when you gained and lost subscribers.
- How many comments, share, likes, and dislikes you received for your videos - this metric helps you know how many comments, likes, share, and dislikes your videos are getting.
2. YouTube metrics every marketer should track
Some would say the perfect YouTube strategy doesn't exist. Well, we are here to prove them wrong.
If you periodically look at the data, you keep up with all the updates, check YouTube analytics and track the most important YouTube metrics, you will not fail.
We know that all the KPIs and metrics can become a tangled situation, but we are here to clear it all for you. Let's look together at the YouTube metrics that make your online business' engine work.
-
Engagement
This is perhaps the fundamental YouTube metric to constantly look at when interested in your brand’s progress.
Engagement shows the number of likes, dislikes, shares and comments.
You can look at this important data to learn more about what your audience likes and what their opinions are about your videos.
By replying to their comments, being them positive or negative, you can still win over your users since they will see how professional you are.
-
Traffic sources
Another key metric to rely on when analyzing your brand’s evolution on YouTube is traffic sources.
This YouTube  metric accounts for all the other sources that feature your YouTube videos.
Your video content from YouTube can appear in users’ homepage, in the recommended section, social media posts and websites that embed your videos.
All these are traffic sources that help you increase your community, brand recognition and engagement online.
A specialized report on traffic sources will show you where your viewers come from to understand where you can spread more of your videos.
By promoting your YouTube videos on other platforms, you can gain more views.
-
Watch time
Watch time is a useful YouTube metric that offers you insights about the total amount of time users have spent watching your video content.
If your videos’ watch rate is high, then YouTube will rank that video on a higher position since it managed to attract so many users.
This way, all the channels with higher watch time rates will be suggested to more people in the recommendation section and search results.
The watch time report provides the total amount of watch time your videos accumulated in a specified time span.
Also you can use this YouTube metric to order your videos by themes, length and styles.
-
Click-through rate
Click-through rate is one of the metrics that lies at the foundation of a great social media content strategy on YouTube. This metric refers to the percentage of impressions that turned into views.
Basically, it offers you insights about how many of the people who saw your thumbnail actually clicked on it.
CTR is king when it comes to YouTube performance. You’d want users to click everywhere when they see your brand’s name pop on their screen or when they get a notification about a new video.
-
Impressions
Impressions account for the number of times a YouTube video appeared on a user’s screen. However, this does not mean that the user has watched your video.
In case your number of impressions is low, then this means that your keywords’ list needs an update.
If you post more videos related to the latest topics, then chances are the number of impressions will increase.
-
Unique viewers
This YouTube analytics metric shows you the estimated number of users who watch your videos over a selected period of time. This way, you will learn who your audience is and what they appreciate about your video content.
If you notice that the number of unique viewers is lower than the number of subscribers, it means that your community is not watching as many videos as you’d assume they do.
In order to convince them to watch more videos you should ask them to set notifications for your content. This way, they will be more engaged every time you post a new video.
-
Likes, dislikes and comments
Likes, dislikes and comments are part of the engagement metric, but they can also be overlooked like standalone YouTube metrics.
These metrics will make the algorithm perceive your content as valuable.
This way, your organic evolution will flourish since YouTube will be more likely to display your videos in the recommended area and search results.
YouTube metrics like comments, likes and dislikes will prove the efficiency of your content strategy.
-
Average percentage viewed
This important YouTube analytics metric allows you to see how much of a video an average viewer sees.
We have to face the truth. These days, it is harder to retain someone’s attention for too long, since users’ attention span has narrowed over time.
Everyone wants to see short videos with the right amount of information. If the video is too long, chances are YouTube users will not watch it until the end.
Every marketer’s purpose is to make users more curious about their brand, keeping their sight locked for hours with videos that really suit their needs.
-
Average view duration
Average view duration is another YouTube metric related to views. This YouTube insight refers to the total watch time of your video divided by the total number of video plays (also including re-watches).
Mainly, this important metric shows you to what extent your videos are engaging for YouTube users, attracting them to spend more time on your channel.
When developing new videos for your audience, the main purpose is to make them more creative, informative and short enough to keep them interested until the end. Keep that in mind to increase the values of your video metrics.
-
Re-watches
Another crucial YouTube video metric that should not be excluded is re-watches.
Users tend to re-watch your YouTube video content when they receive crucial information and maybe need more time to process it.
Before proceeding, they re-watch certain parts of a video or even the entire video to take notes or to pay closer attention to that recipe you’re explaining.
Re-watches are a good indicator that users are interested in the content you post.
-
Playlist engagement
You don’t have to suffer from OCD to like well-organized stuff. To make your content more likable or easier to access, you can categorize your videos based on themes and subjects.
This way, your viewers will know exactly where to find the content they are interested in. Playlists will not only come in handy for users on your channel, but also for you.
To make sure playlists are a go-to when it comes to your YouTube videos, you could check playlist engagement and see your audience behavior.
It will be useful for your content strategy to look at two important metrics regarding playlist engagement, namely average time in playlist and views per playlist.
Generally, users tend to pass on to the next video in the playlist, knowing the content is related to the one they have previously watched. And this is exactly what you are looking for.
-
Subscriber growth
It is clear that subscribers are your biggest fans. Some know your journey from the start, while others are new on your YouTube channel and need to be motivated to remain your faithful subscribers.
To fulfill everyone’s needs, you need to make sure your audience gets what they are looking for.
Since the moment they hit the “Subscribe” button, they have committed to watch your video content.
The highest the number of subscribers, the greater the number of notifications your YouTube channel sends.
And we all know that you will get an extra point from YouTube for this because as the number of notifications increases, so does the number of views.
Your subscribers are likely to watch all your new videos.
If you use a Youtube analytics tool, you will get a subscriber report which also includes the topics your subscribers are interested in.
You could use this info for your next video content to increase your views and engagement.
-
Demographics
Your audience is your master when you promote your brand on social media platforms.
On YouTube, you need to make sure you learn what users like and dislike and what are the trends they are following.
First, you need to find out which is the average age you’re addressing to.
If you learn more about their age groups and genders, you will know how to accustom your YouTube videos to suit their needs.
A YouTube analytics tool will also help you get insights about your subscribers’ locations to know exactly when they are more likely to watch your videos.
YouTube audience metrics will make you understand that your whole online world revolves around your community.
3. YouTube analytics tools
To have everything under control and be able to check your YouTube metrics in detail, YouTube analytics tools can help you have a better grip when it comes to metrics.
There lots of analytics tools for YouTube out there like:
- ChannelMeter
- Vidooly
- Unbox Social
- Tubular Labs
- Socialbakers
- VidIQ
- Vidyard
- Klipfolio
- TubeBuddy
- ViralStat
Today we present you our solution.
Socialinsider YouTube analytics
Using this analytics dashboard, you can track your YouTube videos performance or look at your competitors' data.
If you build a better marketing strategy, you will be able to be one step ahead of them.
Discover the complete list of YouTube metrics you'll see once you start analyzing a YouTube channel with Socialinsider.
Final thought
If you’re using YouTube to promote your business message, you need to understand what every YouTube metrics refers to.
Tracking YouTube analytics metrics is an essential part of any YouTube marketing strategy.
Start a 14-Days free trial with Socialinsider and analyze your YouTube channel.
Related articles:
![[STUDY] TikTok vs. Reels vs. Shorts: Which Is the Best Short-Form Video Platform?](/blog/content/images/size/w1000/2023/05/tiktok-vs-reels-vs-short-study.png)
