YouTube analytics refers to all your channel’s metrics and statistics, such as views, impressions, and watch time. This data can help you determine the effectiveness of your current strategy by measuring how your audience interacts with your videos and how well your content is performing, among other things.
If you aren’t familiar with how these metrics work, however, don’t worry! In today’s article, we’ll explain the essential metrics you should be tracking and share the best tools to use for monitoring your data.
Let’s get right to it!
What Is YouTube Analytics?
YouTube analytics is the term used for the platform’s social media KPIs. These metrics can be found in the Analytics section of YouTube Studio and provide up-to-date performance and statistics for your videos. They also share key insights on which of your content has been watched or viewed the most and provide you with access to viewer watch duration and engagement.
With such an important role, analyzing YouTube analytics is crucial for getting more views and subscribers and, ultimately, growing your channel.
How to Access YouTube Analytics in 2 Simple Ways
You can access YouTube analytics on YouTube Studio on desktop and mobile.
Here’s how you can find this feature on both devices:
YouTube Analytics on Desktop
To access YouTube analytics on a desktop, head over to the website, click on your profile in the upper right corner of the page, and select YouTube Studio.
From there, select Analytics on the left sidebar to find your channel analytics. The default page shows a general overview of your metrics on the platform; if you want to see more specific metrics, click on Content or Audience.
If you click on See More at the bottom, you can see a more in-depth breakdown of your metrics.
Meanwhile, if you want to compare your channel’s year-on-year growth, click Compare To in the upper right corner of the dashboard. Here, you’ll also find the first 24-hour performance of your newly uploaded videos and see how each video’s performance affects your overall channel statistics.
YouTube Analytics on Mobile
To view your account’s YouTube analytics on mobile, all you need to do is open the app, click on your profile in the lower right corner, and tap View channel.
Next, click the graph icon beside Manage videos to view your channel’s analytics.
If you want a more detailed look at your channel’s metrics, similar to those of YouTube analytics on the website, you need to download the YouTube Studio app. Once you have the app, simply log in, and you’ll be able to view your KPIs right away.
How to Access YouTube Analytics on Publer
Aside from the app’s native analytics feature, you can also access YouTube analytics on a social media scheduling tool like Publer.
If you use our app to schedule your YouTube videos, you can view the following metrics on Publer analytics:
- Subscribers
- Channel views
- Post engagement (likes and comments)
- Video views
- Engagement rate
- Best times to post
If you aren’t scheduling your YouTube content yet, we strongly recommend doing so! Scheduling your Shorts and videos can do wonders for your content’s discoverability and engagement and help optimize your posting schedule on the platform.
Here’s how you can start scheduling your YouTube videos with Publer in three easy steps:
#1. Create a Publer Account
The first step is to create a Publer account using your email address or social media profile. After that, you’ll have to provide some details and create a workspace where you can manage all your social media accounts, including YouTube.
#2. Connect Your YouTube Account to Publer
Once you have a workspace, you can start adding your social media accounts right away by tapping their respective icon and logging in.
You can also add your account later by going to Social Accounts and connecting your YouTube profile to the platform from there.
#3. View YouTube Analytics
With your account successfully connected to the platform, you can start tracking YouTube analytics, which can be viewed on our analytics tab.
Simply click on Analytics in the left sidebar and select your YouTube account from your profile list to view your insights for that specific account.
YouTube Analytics: 23 Important Metrics to Track
The YouTube analytics dashboard can be quite overwhelming, so we categorized the metrics you can find there to make it easier for you to understand the different areas of your YouTube channel and identify which ones need improvement.
Let’s go over these categories and their key metrics below:
#1. YouTube Channel Analytics
YouTube channel analytics includes detailed insights into the overall performance of your channel and includes the following metrics:
- Subscribers. The number of subscribers your channel currently has. You can also view your subscriber growth rate on YouTube analytics and measure the number of subscribers your channel gained within a specific timeframe.
- Top posts. This refers to the top-performing videos in a given timeframe. You can choose to view your top videos of all time or over a set period of time.
- Traffic sources. As the term suggests, traffic sources refer to where your channel’s traffic is coming from, be it in or out of YouTube.
- Channel views. The total number of visits your channel has received can be seen in the Channel views section. This metric’s timeframe is set to 28 days by default, but you can adjust it as needed.
#2. YouTube Audience Analytics
YouTube audience analytics refers to data and statistics about your viewers and subscribers and can be found under the Audience tab.
This category includes the following metrics:
- Audience demographics. These refer to the age, gender, and geographic location of your viewers. If you’re trying to appeal to an international audience, it’s important to monitor this metric.
- Unique viewers. Unique viewers are the total number of individual viewers who watched your content. This metric doesn’t count repeat viewers or videos played on a loop, so if a user watches your video five times, they will still count as one viewer.
- Returning viewers. This metric refers to the number of repeat viewers who have previously watched your content in the past 28 days.
- When viewers are on YouTube. Here, you can find data about your audience’s peak hours of activity and engagement on the platform.
- Videos that help grow your audience. These are videos that have received repeat views from users.
#3. YouTube Video Engagement Analytics
YouTube video engagement analytics measure viewer interactions with your content, helping you understand how well your content resonates with your audience.
These metrics include:
- Views. This metric refers to the total number of views your videos have received.
- Watch time. Here, you can see the total number of hours spent watching your videos.
- View duration. This refers to how long each view of your video lasted.
- Percentage viewed. Not to be confused with view duration, this refers to how much of your video a user actually watched. For instance, YouTube Shorts can have a higher percentage viewed compared with regular videos, even if they have the same view duration.
- Video likes and dislikes. This measures the ratio of likes to dislikes that your video receives.
- Moments for audience retention. This metric tracks the different moments in your videos that grab the viewer’s attention.
#4. YouTube Video Awareness Analytics
YouTube video awareness analytics refers to your channel’s visibility on the platform and includes the following metrics:
- How viewers find videos. Here, you can see how viewers find your content on YouTube, such as through suggested videos, playlists, direct searches, and other sources.
- Impressions. These refer to how many times your video was displayed on the YouTube feed and the number of views it led to.
- YouTube search terms. The different terms or keywords that viewers searched for to find your videos can be seen here.
- Playlists. This monitors the number of playlists that your video is in.
#5. YouTube Ads Analytics
YouTube ads analytics provide insight into the performance of your advertisements on the platform through these metrics:
- Earnings. You can see all of your channel’s estimated earnings from both Google-sold advertising and non-advertising sources in this section.
- Ad impressions. It’s the total number of times a user has viewed your ad.
- Monetized playbacks. This refers to the number of times a user played your video and had an ad impression.
- Premium partner revenue. It represents your channel’s estimated revenue from YouTube Premium subscriptions. The final amount will depend on how much Premium members consume your content.
4 Crucial Benefits of Tracking YouTube Analytics
By providing you with complete access to your channel’s key metrics, tracking YouTube analytics can offer several benefits.
Let’s go over these benefits below:
#1. Determine What Content is Popular
Monitoring video engagement and awareness metrics allows you to determine what content is currently popular among your target audience so you can improve your content strategy. Which topics generated the most likes? Do your viewers prefer long-form videos or YouTube Shorts?
Social media trends can come and go rapidly, so rather than simply sticking to what’s currently working, you can use YouTube analytics to gain subscribers and ensure that your strategy is always optimized for the best results.
For instance, since Shorts remain the most engaging content format on the platform, you may be tempted to focus on this content type alone. However, data from YouTube’s Culture & Trends Report for 2023 found that 67% of Gen Z viewers like it when creators publish content in different formats, so diversifying your content is important.
#2. Analyze Assets and Their Impact on Performance
Aside from the content of the video, the different social media assets you use in your thumbnail and caption will affect how your content performs on YouTube. In fact, a study by Koh and Cui (2022) in the Decision Support Systems journal found that the visual elements in a thumbnail can directly affect the view-through rate of videos.
By tracking your impressions on YouTube analytics and comparing them to the actual views and engagement metrics, you can identify which elements contributed the most to your video’s views and utilize these more effectively in your content.
#3. Create More Targeted Content
By providing insights into your audience’s behavior and demographics, YouTube analytics can help you create more targeted content that resonates with your audience.
The YouTube algorithm considers both a user’s engagement and search history when recommending content on the feed. When you tailor your videos to meet your target audience’s needs, you increase the chances of them engaging with your content and getting more video recommendations from your channel.
Likes and dislikes are other crucial metrics to track, as, despite popular belief, these are not ranking signals for the algorithm. In fact, research by Mozilla found that disliking a video only prevented 12% of bad recommendations for users.
When you are actively aware of what kind of content your audience likes or doesn’t like, you can readjust your strategy to better fit their interests and avoid leaving a negative impression.
#4. Improve Content Monetization Potential
Channels that are part of the YouTube Partner Program can monetize their content on the platform and view their estimated revenue on YouTube analytics. Aside from simply monitoring your earnings, creators can use YouTube analytics to maximize their earning potential.
These metrics can tell you which videos are generating the most revenue and why, allowing you to optimize your content strategy on the platform and publish more high-performing videos.
Top 3 YouTube Analytics Tools to Use for Monitoring Data
To ensure that you are getting a comprehensive view of all your metrics on the platform, we’re listing the best tools you can use to monitor YouTube analytics:
#1. Publer
Publer is a complete social media management tool that allows you to schedule your social media posts in advance. If you already have an online presence on various social media sites but want to start building your brand on YouTube as well, then this tool is a must-have for your strategy.
With Publer, you can view your channel’s metrics alongside your other social media accounts to make it easier to optimize your strategy across all platforms.
#2. YouTube Studio
YouTube Studio is the platform’s native analytics tool that provides a complete view of your channel’s metrics.
Source: YouTube Help
It’s convenient, user-friendly, and free, making it a great option for beginners and experienced creators alike who want to take their video marketing efforts to the next level. Plus, the tool’s Advanced Mode has a ton of features that can help you track your channel’s growth and performance.
#3. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a powerful tool for tracking your channel’s external traffic sources and audience demographics. If you are planning to use YouTube for business, you can utilize Google Analytics to track viewer conversions and traffic from your channel to your website.
To get the data from YouTube Analytics, simply connect your YouTube channel to your Google Analytics account and start monitoring your metrics.
4 Handy Tools for Monitoring YouTube Analytics of Other Channels
In addition to tracking your own channel’s metrics, there are tools you can use to monitor the YouTube analytics of other channels. Doing so will help you identify weak areas in your strategy as well as any potential opportunities for your channel.
To maintain a competitive edge, we recommend performing routine competitor analysis using the following tools:
#1. Social Blade
With Social Blade, you can view the YouTube analytics of all public channels. Simply install their browser extension, and you can start tracking these metrics straight from the platform. This is the easiest way to monitor your competitors’ performance on YouTube.
#2. VidIQ
From subscriber growth to engagement rates, VidIQ is packed with features that provide a detailed look at your competitors’ metrics. In addition to monitoring the competition, you can use this tool to optimize your videos for YouTube SEO by leveraging its content recommendations.
#3. Tubular Intelligence
Tubular Intelligence is a powerful AI-powered platform that allows you to monitor trending topics, content, and hashtags from your competitors. The tool also provides in-depth insights into your target audience’s demographics and consumer behavior.
#4. TubeBuddy
TubeBuddy is a YouTube analytics plugin that provides a visual comparison of your channel views and subscribers with those of the competition. It also has a “Videolytics” feature that allows you to analyze competitors to identify the best parts of their strategy.
4 Expert Tips to Get the Most Out of YouTube Analytics
To maximize the benefits you get from YouTube analytics, be sure to follow these expert tips:
- Monitor metrics regularly. As we mentioned earlier, trends and user behavior change, so it’s important to regularly check YouTube analytics to ensure that your strategies are always up-to-date.
- Look for trends and patterns. When analyzing YouTube analytics, try to spot trends or patterns in your audience’s activity or peak hours to improve your posting schedule and achieve higher viewership.
- Identify potential collaborators. You can check your channel’s traffic sources to identify potential collaboration opportunities, be it with a brand or a fellow creator in the same niche, that you can leverage to reach a wider audience.
- Leverage your best content. After identifying your top-performing videos, make sure to analyze the different elements and assets that may have contributed to their popularity and try using these in your other content.
Key Takeaways
- YouTube analytics are the different metrics that reflect your channel’s performance on the platform.
- You can access YouTube analytics on desktop and mobile using the platform’s YouTube Studio or a third-party scheduling tool like Publer.
- The metrics you see on YouTube analytics can be categorized into channel, audience, video engagement, video awareness, and ads.
- Tracking YouTube analytics will help you create more targeted content, improve your earning potential, and elevate your content strategy.
- YouTube Studio, Publer, and Google Analytics can help you track the metrics for your channel. Meanwhile, you can try Social Blade or TubeBuddy to monitor the YouTube analytics of your competitors.