Growing a successful channel on the world’s largest video platform is not an easy feat, and YouTube’s relatively limited analytics features haven’t made it any easier. Some channels seem to explode in popularity overnight, while others languish for years – even with consistent uploads.
There are many unknown variables regarding how YouTube recommends and promotes content, and new features – from community posts and membership details to the recent rollout of YouTube Shorts – often aren’t sufficiently explained to new content creators.
Thankfully, five new YouTube analytics updates aim to address some of these issues and help give creators a better idea of what direction to take their content in. These five new updates include tools to gauge engagement on some of YouTube’s more recent additions to the platform (including membership and community posts), as well as make it easier for content creators to access and review analytics data on the go.
Overview
More Membership Insights and Analytics
YouTube first introduced channel membership in mid-2018, but there haven’t been many ways to track channel membership statistics or get in-depth information on how a channel could best grow its membership numbers.
Now, YouTube content creators will be able to review multiple different metrics to get a better idea of how their viewer membership numbers grow with time.
Aside from total members, YouTube analytics will also track which videos attract the most members, how an upload impacts a channel’s membership numbers, as well as analytics data to help determine whether it’s better to remind viewers about the perks of membership, or whether doing so will detract from membership growth.
Some content creators are anxious about reminding their audience to become members because they don’t want to annoy or upset them. Now they can have actionable data to see whether doing so in a video makes a difference one way or the other.
Content creators will also be able to see their daily changes and check out their number of total members, active members, and canceling members. Note that YouTube channel members are paying supporters, who unlock several channel-related perks (emojis, early videos, badges, and other members-only perks) at the cost of a small monthly subscription fee. A channel member is not the same thing as a channel subscriber, who subscribes to and enjoys the channel’s content for free.
More Data for Mobile Analytics Users
There isn’t much of a point in accessing and reviewing your analytics data on mobile devices when you’re only getting half of the picture. Recognizing this, YouTube added two features to the mobile YouTube analytics interface that were previously only accessible on desktop versions. These are the ability to review what other channels your audience watches, and what other videos your audience watches.
Both of these metrics serve to help content creators get a better handle on what sort of content interests their viewers and better identify how they can target and grow their viewer base – or, potentially, expand into a wholly different direction.
Content creators can currently view up to 15 different channels and videos commonly viewed by their audience, on mobile. Each of these can be tapped, automatically forwarding you to the YouTube app on your phone, so you can watch what your audience watches right away.
More Explanation for Video Performance Metrics
YouTube isn’t adding new metrics for video performance but is expanding its explanation on existing video performance metrics, so content creators have a better idea of where this data is coming from, what it represents, and how it should be interpreted.
For example – YouTube will now explain that you’ve been getting more views than before through YouTube’s recommendations system and that more (or fewer) of your regular viewers have been watching this video than your other videos, allowing you to test new thumbnails.
This can help make YouTube Studios’ analytics a little more intuitive to new users, and help experienced content creators get a refresher on their video performance metrics, and how they should use them to improve on their content.
More Transparency in Revenue and Regional Monetization Rates
YouTube will be providing more information on a channel’s revenue, as well as how viewership changes might affect that revenue, particularly with respect towards viewer regions.
CPM rates (cost per mille, or thousand viewers) differ from region to region, based on where advertisers put their money. This means some regions are more financially enticing to target than others.
The new analytic changes into a channel’s monetization and revenue are meant to help content creators learn more about where their viewers are coming from, and how their revenue is calculated. This is helpful when targeting specific regions.
More Engagement Metrics for Community Content
Community posts are also a relatively new addition to YouTube, and are available to all content creators with over 1,000 total subscribers, one week after passing the 1,000 subscriber benchmark. Community posts can be shared in the form of polls, captioned images, and texts, and are usually used to share upcoming channel events, announce upcoming content, tease new content, get audience feedback (in the form of polls), and generally engage with the audience.
But the problem is that community posts didn’t previously feature much in the way of actionable data. YouTube has changed that with more engagement metrics, letting content creators review how their post has been doing over the last four weeks in terms of views, votes (on polls), and likes.
YouTube is aiming to make it easier than ever to get started on the platform – and a lot of these changes are also aimed at helping new content creators grow at a faster pace, by identifying what works and what doesn’t from day one. YouTube also seems to be paying more attention to mobile content creators, with the introduction and promotion of YouTube Shorts, and the expansion of YouTube’s analytic features on mobile.
Video content is becoming more important year after year, and it can be an indispensable tool for gaining traffic and leads, especially in a competitive market. Wondering if these changes are relevant to your channel? Not sure where to start growing your video content? Get in touch with us to learn more.
