Hi Everyone! I am George Pierce, this post is about a quick trick to help you read and understand your YouTube Analytics. You will see how you can use analytics to grow your channel. If you are like I was, you may be avoiding and ignoring your analytics. As far as I was concerned, Analytics were BORING. In addition, since I was new to YT, my YT results were poor, therefore analytics only served to remind me of my channel's sad performance. Also, I saw analytics as having little to no value. As usual, I WAS WRONG! I was very wrong.
It so happens that YT channel analytics are some of the best analytics on the Internet and they come with your channel for free, What I did not realize is that once you begin to understand your channel analytics, these boring numbers and graphs become exciting.
Why?
It is like having a free expert consultant who will tell you what is working and what is not and how to crack the YT algorithm. Surprisingly, your channel analytics are easy to read and understand, so stay with me, so you can see how to use analytics for growth.
To get to your Analytics, go to your YT studio, then click Analytics in the left column.
On the top right (not shown), you can choose to see your channel's performance for the last 7 days, 28 days, 90 days, lifetime, for the present year, previous year, for a particular month, and so on. What you are seeing above is set at the last 28 days. You can readily see Views, Watch Time, and Subscribers, and just below them, you will see the percentage of increase or decrease over the last 28 days.
Two business strategies that I was taught, were to beat last month and to beat last year. The above channel is 3.5 months old, so beating last month is the strategy.
So... when you see your primary stats, YT tells you if they are MORE or LESS than the last 28 days, and, of course, you want to see MORE.
In addition, the most important stat is watch time. Views and subs are a spin-off of watch time. When YT sees that your videos are getting good watch time, they will share them with more people, which will result in more views and more subs. Watch time is the driving force, however, so, if you want to know what to focus on, it is watch time.
You are about to see how YT Analytics will help you to improve your watch time!
Below your channel overview, you will see your top ten videos.
These videos are ranked according to the number of views. I want you to notice that next to each video, YT provides you and me with the amount of watch time, the percentage of watch time, and the number of views. Remember that WATCH TIME is the most important number.
Notice the watch times! It is NOT an accident that the videos that you are seeing are The Chase, Cash Cab, and Jeopardy. These are the videos that people are watching, and your top ten will tell you what your viewers are watching ~ what they are interested in!
Your analytics will tell you what to do more of. Your analytics will tell you how you can grow your channel!
Thank you for reading.
Much success,
George Pierce
PS. The above stats are from a channel that got its first view 15 weeks ago and the traffic is free. It is based on my adaptation of the Faceless video strategy, which is a way to make money on YouTube without having to make videos. If that might be of interest to you, I have laid out what I am doing in detail. It is three easy steps that anyone can follow and all your tools and resources are free. I invite you to check out my free Faceless Video Training.
Comments
Great information, George. Having hard data to rely on is a really good thing, especially in teh online world. Thanks for sharing this nugget of information!
Watch time and watch time % will tell us what our viewers like, all we need to do is give them more, thank you, John.
Very beneficial information in this post about Youtube analytics. Yes it's a must to know this so you will know what is working for you and to keep doing it. After all Youtube is running the show, it's their site. We have to do it their way to get the desired results in the YT community.
The analytics that YT provides are superb, and they can help channel growth, thank you, Terri.