How To Find & Analyze Data

YouTube offers a built-in analytics platform that you can use to understand your channel’s performance.

If you are used to Google Analytics, YouTube Analytics is much easier to use and understand.

However, it can be difficult to see the reasons for performance on YouTube.

In this article, I’ll start with the basics of YouTube Analytics: How to Find Your Data. As we proceed, I will draw your attention to a few details that will help you analyze your video and channel performance.

How do I see YouTube Analytics?

The path to your analyzes is easy. Just follow this process:

• Register.
• At the top right, click the circular icon with your profile picture.
• Select “YouTube Studio” from the drop-down menu.

You will land on your channel dashboard as shown below.

The dashboard gives you a quick overview, including performance details on your latest video or live stream, and top-level channel information.

You can get an overview of views, watch hours and earnings across the channel over the past month. You’ll also see recent comments, subscribers, and recommended reading.

It’s a good overview, but you need to dig deeper to get really helpful data.

What information can YouTube Analytics provide?

On the surface, YouTube Analytics might feel simple once you’re used to Google’s other tools. While it has power under the hood, it’s designed to be beginner-friendly on the surface.

If you’ve already got the basics down and are looking for more customization options, skip ahead Advanced mode.

channel analysis

You can interact with items on the dashboard to get straight to where you want to go, or use the menu on the left to navigate.

Let’s start with the menu.

Click on analytics.

The first tab in analytics gives you details and graphs with metrics calculated for your entire channel.

So it pulls data from all your individual videos to display here.

In the graph, you can click each metric at the top to view the corresponding graph. You’ll also see a real-time view of activity on your channel and a quick list of your top-performing content.

At the top, you can click each tab to view charts and related data.

For example under Contentssee views, impressions, click-through rates and average view duration. Average watch time is the average time a single viewer watches a video.

In the Contents Tab you will also see data on where impressions and views are coming from, whether it’s YouTube search, YouTube features, external, etc.

On the audience On the tab, you can see data about returning and unique viewers, subscribers, and basic viewer demographics. The tab also gives you insight into what other channels and videos your viewers like to watch.

The Research tab includes a very basic keyword research tool. You can see search terms related to the term you entered. It will broadly tell you something about the volume – “high”, “low”, etc. is all you get.

It also identifies search terms where it thinks there is a “content gap” – and you can see your viewers’ searches.

Let’s return to the main screen.

You can see it in the top right corner, it says AAdvanced mode? You may also have noticed one below each chart Shey more Button. All of these links lead to the advanced user interface.

If you’re frustrated with how simple the data seems, this is where you can customize the metrics on your charts. Go ahead and jump to the Advanced mode section if you need that.

video analysis

Back in the main menu on the left click Contents to view your individual videos.

This tab lists all your uploaded videos and live streams. You see information such as views, comments and likes.

From here, you can click on each individual video to view and customize its details.

Here you can customize all the details and metadata of your video, including:

• Title.
• Description.
• keywords.
• thumbnail.
• Category.
• Audience and age restrictions.
• language and captions.
• Date and location.
• Comment Policy.
• Add subtitles, credits and maps.

You also have a new menu on the left; YouTube has a simple video editor that you can use.

But let’s focus on those analytics Tab. Click on it.

The first analytics The screen is similar to your channel analysis overview. You can see views, watch time, new subscribers attributed to this video, and video revenue if you’re an affiliate.

Below the main chart, you can see engagement and retention details. These look slightly different depending on the type of content.

• For live streams, you can see details of comments and interactions during the stream.
• For videos, you’ll see “Key Moments for Audience Retention” which includes view time, average percentage of video viewers watched, and a very useful viewer retention chart.

By very handy, I mean that the viewer retention chart is probably the most important chart you can access for a single video.

Why?

If you’re an SEO pro, it’s time to learn to turn things upside down, because YouTube’s algorithms prioritize user engagement signals well over metadata when ranking videos.

YouTube’s top ranking factor is “viewer satisfaction,” which is measured using a few different metrics.

This chart provides exceptional insight into how viewers are interacting with your video. The tooltip pictured above is a great guide to get insights into your video.

• If you notice a sharp drop at the beginning of a video, your introduction could probably be betteror you didn’t immediately show viewers how your video addresses their needs.
• Peaks in the chart show you that those moments are particularly good or shareable. The timestamp shows points at which people rewatch or share the video.
• Dips in the chart are exit or jump points for viewers. They’re very helpful for finding places where you need to improve or trim content.

This chart is always moving down and to the right. But in general, the less sharp this is done, the more engaging your video will be.

The other tabs above show you more data about the video.

• To reach shows impressions, CTRs, views and traffic sources.
• engagement shows total watch time, average watch time, likes and dislikes, and end credits CTRs.
• audience displays information about your viewers, e.g. B. Basic demographics, whether they are subscribers, returning viewers, new viewers, etc.

And as with the channel analysis data, each graph has one Shey more button we can finally take a look at!

Advanced mode

Advanced mode This is where the magic happens. Click to get there see more on each chart, or Advanced mode in the top right corner of your analytics dashboard.

The Shey more Feature is very cool because it automatically shows you a more advanced version of the chart you are looking at.

Just look at all these metrics!

You can compare any two metrics, customize the chart’s date range and timeframe, apply filters, compare videos side-by-side, and the list goes on. This is the “Get What You Put In” portion of YouTube Analytics.

The more time you spend learning about the system and how your content is performing, the more insights you can gain.

There is a Compare To menu in the top right corner that provides you with several powerful comparison tools.

You can export any advanced mode view directly to Google Sheets or a CSV file.

Check out Google’s guide Advanced mode.

How do I see YouTube Analytics for other channels?

Competitive research is a bit more difficult.

YouTube Analytics only provides data for your channel and those you’ve been invited to. To get competitive analysis on other channels and videos, you need to install third party tools.

TubeBuddy and VidIQ are two of the most popular third-party YouTube tools. Both offer free extensions that can give you information about videos and channels that you don’t own.

They can also serve as keyword research tools and provide additional data and quality of life features in your own channel dashboard.

Remember that there is only a limited amount that digging up a competitor’s data on YouTube can get you. They should primarily analyze the content of their videos.

Diploma

YouTube Analytics is simple enough for beginners to navigate with ease. There’s plenty of power if you know where to look.

To draw effective conclusions from your analytics, you should remember that YouTube algorithms work differently than Google search algorithms.

While Google says that user engagement metrics are not ranking factors in Google Search, user engagement metrics are some of the most important ranking factors on YouTube.

YouTube search and YouTube recommendations also run on different algorithms.

Analytics can help you understand a video’s performance based on various YouTube features.

If you prefer to work with the data yourself, you can load it at any time Advanced modeselect your chart functions and comparisons, then export them.

More resources:

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