As a Digital Marketing agency, we fancy ourselves as pro’s when it comes to anything digitally savvy related and YouTube analytics is no exception.
YouTube recently redesigned itself and made vast improvements to its homepage and the features surrounding video content to better suit the user and tailors their experience. You can read Jungle’s review of the new YouTube here.
YouTube is the most popular video site in the world, ever and next to Google (YouTube’s parent company) is the second largest search engine.
Every month, we consume four billion hours of video and unsurprisingly we are spending more time than ever on YouTube.
The new design has brought a new layout and a whole new way to subscribe to your favourite video channels and explore new ones. The re-design focuses on user experience and has been well received as it is now more vital than ever to understand your audience and what methods work best to keep them coming back for more.
More companies are using YouTube to build brand awareness and drive sales, which makes this guide to YouTube analytics more vital than ever as we show you the inside tricks so you can improve your channel.
Why You Should Use Analytics
You may ask ‘Why should I use analytics?’. Well it’s simple, to understand your audience!
YouTube has created its analytics tool so you can explore your demographics and offer you an insight into your YouTube audience. Studying your demographics closely will give you a clearer picture of target demographic your content is appealing to so you can tailor your content more effectively and engage with your audience.
Find Out What Content Works Best
YouTube analytics has a section called ‘Views Report’, this section needs to become your best friend as you can see which videos are most popular with your audience so if you’re about to experiment with any new ideas then you will have a much better perception on what your viewers will respond best to.
This views report will also give you handy measurements such as a breakdown of the views, estimated minutes of video watched and monetizeable views.
Discover How Engaged Your Viewers Really Are
YouTube analytics have a ‘retention tab’ and here you can figure out which of your videos are popular and in which order. You can also find out the average time a viewer will spend watching your videos and at which point they have stopped watching (YouTube’s version of bounce rate).
The engagement reports allows you to see which videos have gained the most engagement and which have been shared as well as commented on the most. This feature is helpful as it allows you to see what viewers are doing with your videos and who they are sharing them with.
The importance of the engagement reports cannot be overstated! The reports’ results can be applied to enhance the quality of your channel and its content. The end result being your videos are more concise, viewed and shared by the broadest audience possible.
Monetize Your Videos!
It goes without saying that any marketer will create a YouTube channel because of the passion they want to convey when producing and sharing their work with their audience therefor improving their brand’s online image and reputation.
You would be naive to presume you will instantly grow a large YouTube audience overnight, this is something that takes time and effort and without both you will achieve very little.
When you have accomplished this it may be worth considering monetizing your work. Simply put, this is a way to make money off the back of your hard work. There are a number of ad formats which have been designed to help monetize your videos and provide you with the greatest returns.
Data Filter
This is a handy tool that you should make yourself familiar with, located at the top of the screen. If you’re posting a large amount of video content then this is a tool for you! It’s very useful for narrowing down the number of videos you can analyse, saving you a lot of time!
You can narrow down your video content by video, geographical location, timeframe and date. You can use this tool for any section by entering the keywords, you will be presented with a number of autocomplete options making finding a video all the more easy!
The majority of YouTube analytics reports use a line chart to show results (shown above). You do have the option of checking your data in daily, weekly or monthly augmentations or you can compare two metrics if this suits best.
Location, Location, Location
One of the most overlooked tools is the availability of data that shows you where your videos are being watched. Knowing the location of where your views are coming from can be vital if your content is created for a local audience.
If, for example, you have a high viewer rate in Australia and you’re based in England, you can adjust your content slightly so it appeals more to this demographic. Never underestimate the power of tailored content!
The Engagement Report
If you thought we had missed a step and forgotten all about the social side of YouTube analytics, then you were wrong! As social media experts we have never underestimated how vital the social tool is!
YouTube haven’t forgotten the power of social either as they have built a section dedicated to social into their analytics report. This section gives you details of how many people are subscribed to your channel and its videos, the ratio of likes and dislikes, favourites, comments and last but certainly not least, sharing.
The social metrics are relatively straightforward although you may want to familiarise yourself with the annotations section. If you are regularly linking to other videos or convincing people to subscribe then you will want to see the click-through rate (CTR) and close rate, this is the number of impressions that were closed by viewers.
Since YouTube introduced its new layout, engagement has grown in importance. The increase in engagement is down to the interface which has been designed for viewers and content producers with the importance being placed of channel subscriptions. All videos now have a ‘Subscribe’ button located directly beneath. The placement of this button is to help channel growth.
Activating Video Monetization
If you want to earn a little money on the back of your hard work and brilliantly awesome video content then you will need to pay attention to this section. Pen and paper at the ready!
To activate account monetization, you will need to go to ‘Video Manager’ in your account and choose ‘Monetize’ or clicking on the £ symbol. It’s here where you can choose which ad format you would like to enable.
There are restrictions on the types of ads that can appear on your videos. For example, if you want third-party content such as a music label, you may not be able to monetize your video if you do not have sufficient copyright to use it.
You can find out more about the different situations where this rule may apply by clicking here.
For those that have an Adsense account, hurrah! All is not lost for you lot as you can link your Adsense account to your YouTube content to simplify payments. When you have linked up the two accounts, you are paid once your earnings reach a certain amount (usually £60).
If you’re a small publisher, it may take some time before you begin to see any tangible financial returns.
So there you have it, the ultimate Jungle guide to YouTube Analytics! If you have any questions or you think we may have left something out then let us know in the comment box below!
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