- What's up Insiders, it's Rachel here,
and I'm a Product Manager on YouTube Recommendation System.
In this video, I wanted to cover
how to do a really quick channel check-in
using analytics to figure out how your channel
is growing and then how to use that information
to make decisions about what to do next
and how to grow your audience.
As always I want you to know
that you don't need to be an expert in analytics,
data algorithms to be successful on YouTube.
And I know analytics
can sometimes be overwhelming and confusing.
So my entire goal for this video,
is to help you learn how to use analytics
and interpret data and trends,
so you can feel confident making decisions
about what you wanna do next.
So that being said, let's get to it,
this is how to do a really quick channel check-in
in four easy steps.
Step number one is to zoom way out.
So if you're looking at your overall viewership over time,
I usually like just like past 365 days,
or sometimes lifetime,
just to understand what the shape of the graph is over time.
So here you're looking to determine
what's happening with your viewership.
Is it growing steadily over time,
declining steadily over time,
or maybe it's steady or fluctuating.
If your viewership is more volatile
and you have spikes on your uploads,
it may be that your audience is interested in videos
for a short period of time,
versus if the graph is more flat,
maybe you have a consistent audience
that's watching your videos regardless of whether or not
you have a recent upload.
It's important to understand the growth trajectory
of your channel, because that's going to help you decide
whether or not to continue
with your current content strategy,
or if you're declining steadily over time,
maybe over months or years,
but it may be indicative that viewers
have moved on because they watched you for one thing
and that was a fleeting interest,
or they're watching more of something else.
And when that occurs,
it may be time to pivot or try something new,
making something new or different than you currently are.
So absolutely step one is to understand,
how has my channel doing over the longterm,
what's happening with my audience over time?
Step two is really just to find out
what's working on your channel.
So if your viewership is up, that's great,
you're growing your audience,
more viewers are watching your videos.
There are two places
where you can just get an overview glance
of your top videos over time.
On the Overview page,
you can see top videos over the last month,
and really you're looking for there
is what videos can I make more of that would appeal
to these viewers with these interests.
Another feature I really like is a Special Comparison Mode
in the analytics deep dive.
So if you go to Advanced Mode
and then compare to first 24 hours,
which you can select different date ranges
like for seven days, if you want,
you can compare all your videos at the exact same age.
And what you wanna do with that list,
just look at the top videos,
and understand what they have in common
from the topic, to the title, to the thumbnail,
and understand what could you make more
of that is in common with these top performing videos
`cause obviously you've built an audience
that has an interest in those.
So you're learning what's working
so you can make more of it.
But what if your views are down?
In that case, you wanna find out what's working
or driving viewership in the past.
Because declining viewership usually indicates
that those viewers are watching more of something else.
It may be that you had a viral video,
or a few videos that had like fleeting short-term interest,
or that viewers interest just changed over time.
So there's a few things you can do in this scenario.
You can of course think about how you might re-engage
those viewers, maybe make another video about a topic
to try and reengage the audience that has lapsed,
or maybe it's time to try something new
because interest in that topic has since moved on
and viewers interests have changed,
and it's going to be very personal to your channel.
Another quick tip is doing a year over year comparison,
just to see if this happened at the same time last year.
This can sometimes happen
when audiences are more or less active on YouTube
during certain periods,
like maybe the holidays or around the school cycle,
or just to check if you are making videos about a topic
that has seasonality.
I'll link the video here,
but some topics are more or less popular
during certain times of year,
and that can also lead to short-term temporary fluctuations.
Step three is understanding your audience.
So of course you're going to navigate
to the Audience tab of YouTube Analytics,
and here we are really looking to learn three things.
Who is watching your videos, like who is your audience?
What are they interested in?
And then lastly, how might those interests change over time?
Which is an art and a science.
So first part, who is watching my videos?
Of course you can look at, you know,
general data around country and stuff like age,
but I really like to look at new and returning viewers,
which gives me an idea of if viewers
are new to your channel,
discovering you for the first time, or returning,
as in they're not new they're coming back to watch more.
That can help you figure out if you want to focus more
on experimenting with new topics,
or formats to reach out to new audiences,
or focus on getting people to return,
focusing on consistency, delivering on a promise,
maybe making a series,
and we actually have a new card and YouTube Analytics
called Top Videos Contributing to Audience Growth.
And there, you can see the top videos
that are driving in new viewers who return.
So in order to build an audience,
you have to not only attract new viewers,
but get them to come back to watch more,
and that's kind of what this card is designed to show you.
So if you can replicate that success,
if any of those videos are doing really well
at driving in new viewers who are likely to stick around,
that's a great way to build a longterm audience.
So see what you can learn from those top videos.
Next you have, what is my audience interested in?
And there you can look at the Other Videos and Channels
My Audience is Watching card,
potentially for content inspiration
or just understanding what's going on in your viewers lives.
Like what needs do they have right now?
What do they find enjoyable on YouTube?
What could you cater to or learn from
based on what your audience is watching
currently outside of your channel?
The next is understanding how those interests
may change over time.
This can be tricky, it's hard to see into the future,
but I do like to take certain topics
and pop them into Google Trends, which is trends.google.com,
and figure out if interest in a given topic
is increasing declining, or maybe it's steady over time.
Making content geared towards like short-term trends
can absolutely lead to short-term wins,
one-off spikes in viewership,
but making videos about lasting interests
can also help attract audiences
that may be more likely to stick around over time.
Sometimes we call this like evergreen videos
where viewership continues on them
even if the video is many years old.
And so these are both viable content strategies,
but it is helpful to understand how people's interests
are likely to change over months and years,
which can be hard to predict,
but it is gonna impact your viewership.
So, that's how you can use the Audience tab
to figure out who your viewers are?
What they're interested in?
And estimate, how might those interests
be changing maybe recently,
or even compared to the last few years?
Step four is just to create a quick plan,
writing down how you wanna act on the information
from the stuff that you learned in the above three steps.
Maybe you bring out a journal, have a little notebook,
and I'm gonna give you some thought starter questions,
and you can just put some notes underneath them
with your learnings.
So, first question might be what types of videos
do I wanna make more of?
Think back to what you learned
about what's working on your channel
and write down some things.
Maybe you had one successful recent video
that you wanna make into a series.
Or maybe you've identified a topic
you think there's clearly still demand for.
Write down the stuff that you wanna create more of.
Conversely, add a new line and ask yourself
what type of content do I wanna make less of?
It's totally fine that not all videos
are broadly appealing and drive high viewership,
but think about what you learned about what content
has consistently not been resonating with your audience,
and write down notes about what topics or formats
you're gonna focus less on in the future.
Then maybe you have another note
that has, what do I wanna make next?
Experimentation and trying new things
is gonna be key to long-term growth
especially if you've been on the platform for awhile.
So, think back to what you learned about what your audience
is interested in that you wanna experiment with.
So far we have, what do I wanna make more of?
What do I wanna make less of?
And then what do I wanna try next
or experiment with something new?
Lastly, this is a little bonus tip
at the end of a channel analysis
if you wanna figure out how often you should upload,
one piece of information you can use to inform that decision
is going to Advanced Mode of YouTube Analytics
and comparing videos published,
and average views per viewer.
So here you can figure out I'm I uploading way more
than my audience is willing to watch?
That's totally optional,
but you can use it and just find out.
Average views per viewer is a pretty interesting metric.
Okay Insiders, I hope you learned how to use analytics
and data to make more informed decisions
about your channel strategy and what to do next.
Let me know if you have any questions
and I'd be happy to answer them in the next video.
So as always, keep it real.