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Likes and Dislikes only matter if the reaction is extreme.Įven the most popular content on YouTube struggles to see a 10 percent like or dislike rating, and in many cases popular content will see reactions totaling less than 1 percent. While it’s always great to have a growing number of subscribers, it’s a very weak indicator of campaign effectiveness.ħ.
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That kind of traffic is driven by keywords, social media shares, embeds and external links and rarely results in strong subscriber growth. In a YouTube-based marketing context, however, subscribers aren’t as relevant as overall views over time. This is particularly true for entertainment-focused content, where creators rely on regular viewers for ad revenue. Some YouTube channels live or die by the number of subscribers they have. Growing your Subscribers isn’t always a high priority. Watch Traffic sources and Device reports like a hawk.ĭo you know how viewers are finding your videos? Are they watching the videos through embedded players on traditional desktops, or are they finding your content through smartphone apps? Are they searching for the videos, or finding them through suggestions? Questions like these can be easily answered through the Traffic Sources and Device reports, providing clues about where your most effective online video marketing channels may lie. Related: Here Are the Best Months, Days and Times to Publish YouTube Videos 5. Don’t put too much weight on this, particularly if your channel has a relatively small viewership. As a result, there’s no way to know how accurate this data is, where it comes from and even if the methodology has ever been validated. YouTube infers gender and age data, and its methodology for doing so isn’t public knowledge. Don’t take YouTube’s Demographics reports too seriously.Īs the sole element of YouTube’s Analytics suite to rely on informed guesswork rather than hard data, the Demographics report is also the least trustworthy. If a video has a huge number of views but only 20 percent of viewers make it through to the end, there’s a problem. The resulting number, average percentage viewed, serves as the best available indicator of how viewers feel about your content.
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Audience retention will tell you if your videos are too long, boring or unfocused.Ī sub-report in the Views section called Audience Retention breaks down videos by total views and average view duration. Most importantly, the per-video viewership breakdown can help you track videos with the best overall longevity.ģ. For instance, the “Date” sub-report can reveal clues about when your subscribers are most likely to watch new content, while “Geography” can identify regions where you have the strongest viewership. While this is an important element of the report, it pays to dig deeper into the sub-reports. Many people make the mistake of assuming that the Views report is only useful for tracking changes in the number of overall channel views. There’s more to Views than you may think. As a dashboard, Overview is powerful, but you’ll always want to drill down to confirm your conclusions.
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At the same time, the data on the Overview is easy to misinterpret, particularly when content goes viral. While Overview data is generally accurate, it’s also subject to significant lag, meaning new and emerging trends may be underreported. By default, Overview will display a general report from the last 28 days, allowing you spot major trends in the number of views, subscribers, comments, likes and other performance data. Take the Overview data with a grain of salt.Īs the landing page for your channel’s analytics data, the Overview dashboard does a great job at providing a performance snapshot. To help you make the most of this powerful tool, here are eight tips to help you keep your sanity as you learn the ropes.ġ. Related: How One of the Internet's Biggest Viral Stars Turned Her Moment Into Momentum Not all the data on display is what it seems, and not all of it is relevant in a marketing context. YouTube’s Analytics suite is arguably one of the best in the business, but it can also be overwhelming for newcomers. Thankfully, YouTube has made your job easier by providing a powerful range of reporting and analysis tools for every channel. But there’s still a bottom line and to prove that your company’s YouTube content is worth the investment, you need to be able to show real results.
YOUTUBE DASHBOARD TV
Once the playground of giant brands with multi-million dollar TV budgets, video-based marketing is now a much more level playing field, allowing even the smallest companies to compete. As a savvy online marketing expert, you know exactly how important YouTube is to your company’s relevance.
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