How to Master Your YouTube Analytics

While YouTube trends may change, some things stay the same. One of the long standing challenges for creators is the complexity of their YouTube analytics. To close out 2020, BBTV offered its first creator webinar called Master Your YouTube Analytics, to help content creators take action on their analytics and bring their YouTube data to life. 

In this article, we’re sharing the biggest takeaways from the webinar that will not only help you tap into that fortress of data, but also how to use your YouTube metrics to make overall better channel decisions. 

Led by BBTV’s own Certified YouTube Expert and Channel Growth Specialist, Daniel Coughlan, the webinar shares how creators should be using their data to drive growth across three key areas:

1. To increase revenue
2. To drive views and new subscribers
3. To boost audience retention

How to Set Up Your Analytics for The Best Results

How you’re viewing your analytics is just as important as which metrics you’re looking at. Throughout the webinar, videos are compared against each other based on topic, format, time length or content category. 

Comparing and contrasting your video performances against each other is a great way to understand the bigger picture of where your channel’s weaknesses and strengths live. 

Setting up comparisons in the YouTube Studio requires customization, which also means your time and patience. Generally, narrowing down the range of analysis to 48 hours and up to 7 days helps better determine how your videos performed around their initial release. 

BBTV’s creator network can save time and the headache of this setup with the newly launched VISO Video Comparison tool. With built-in key metrics for comparison and defaulted to comparing the first 48 hours of video data, the VISO Video Comparison tool levels the playing field between videos to offer you the best insights for your content strategy. 

Whether you’re using YouTube Creator Studio or BBTV’s Video Comparison tool, stick to comparing videos of similar format or content types. By doing so, your takeaways will more clearly help shape your content strategy moving forward.

How to Increase Your Revenue Using Your CPM Metrics

Tracking your video views is only one slice of your performance pie. Daniel points to the CPM (revenue per thousand views) as a highly overlooked metric. Some strategies to boost CPM include:

• Making sure all ad formats are enabled (non-skippable, post roll, mid roll).

• Last year, YouTube changed video length eligibility for mid roll ads from 10 minutes to 8 minutes. In your YouTube Editor, check where your mid roll ads are placed relative to your average view duration.
  Daniel recommends a mid-roll placement at the 3-5 minute mark. 
  

• The general rule of thumb would be to get at least one mid roll ad in before your average view duration. This can result in a significant difference in your CPM. 

• The VISO Video Comparison tool allows users to switch the view for eCPM data to “estimated revenue” for a clearer understanding of revenue generation for the video.

How to Drive Views and Gain New Subscribers 

Gaining more views and new subscribers is really about understanding why your video is performing well or not. 

The goal is to reuse elements from a high performing video that are driving your key metrics above your channel average for future content in order to maintain steady growth. 

This is made a whole lot easier with the Video Comparison tool which includes an auto-generated average line to help you better understand your channel’s benchmark across key metrics.

When comparing two videos for views and subscriber rates, take a deeper look at the thumbnail of the higher performing video, and create a template from it that can be used for future videos. Thumbnails are visually enticing and play a significant role in the CTR for a video. 

To extend the success of your high performing videos, reference back to them in future content. This can be done by cycling your content on end screens, playlists and direct references in your video. 

Even if views are high on a video, a great window into the performance of future content is a high subscribe rate.  

Daniel points to fast-growing comedy channels as an example of using very specific content to target niche audiences such as sports fans, musicians, and parents. By creating niche relatable content for specific audiences, a creator may notice that their subscribe rate is beating their channel’s average as they adopt new fans anticipating future content of the same type. 

How To Boost Audience Retention 

As mentioned above, when comparing two videos for their audience retention metrics, ensure that the content formats are similar. In the webinar example, Daniel compares two list format videos to show that audience retention tactics exist from a video’s metadata to the content of the video itself. Here are some key takeaways you can use:

• Titles that include a “hook” entice viewers to click through because they don’t overshare what will happen in the video. Titles with relevant hooks tend to have higher retention rates than titles that share too much information with viewers, making the content predictable. Read our deep dive on titles and video metadata here.

• Try using the loss aversion technique in your title. This means, use language that makes potential viewers feel like they’re truly missing out on something by not clicking on the video.
  
  

• The structure of a video can affect its overall performance. For example, the list video is a high performing format because of the clear incentive to keep readers watching whereas less structured video formats can experience lower retention rates. 

YouTube analytics can feel as though you need a degree in data science. Even the most seasoned YouTubers often feel they’re tracking data without really knowing what to do next. In the Master Your Analytics webinar, our experts emphasize creators should focus on the key metrics of CPM, Views, Subscriber Rates, and Audience Retention. 

Interpreting your performance requires comparing videos against each other to understand what is working and what isn’t. Most importantly, why break what’s working? Try to duplicate the success of a high performing video using similar formats, templated thumbnails, and content that benefits from the hype of a trending topic. 

Learn more about BBTV’s Video Comparison Tool here. 

Also, if you’re hoping to grow your reach and engagement and expand your audience, partner with BBTV! We’ll help you boost your content with our optimization tools to ensure maximum performance and return.