Did you know that YouTube is adding 3 new metrics to YouTube Analytics in 2018?
These include impressions, click through rate, and unique viewers. In the video below, I’m going to explain what these metrics mean and how you can use them to grow your YouTube channel.
- What are impressions?
It’s how many times your thumbnails are showing to viewers on YouTube.
Think of each impression as an opportunity to earn a view from your video. It’s like someone showing you a box of assorted chocolates and you pick the one that’s the most delicious.
What counts as an impression?
An impression is when someone views more than half of your thumbnail for longer than a second.
How are impressions registered on YouTube?
They come from the search results, the YouTube homepage, YouTube feeds such as subscriptions, history, trending, watch later, up next, recommendations on the right side of the video player including autoplay, videos, and playlists.
What impressions are not registered by YouTube?
These include external websites, apps, and embeds, that are outside YouTube.
Impressions are not counted on the YouTube mobile website, content within the video players such as cards and end screens, videos, and email, and push notifications. Videos that play in the background tab, videos that were only half of the thumbnail are shown, or with a thumbnail is only showing for less than a second and video discovery ads.
How’s this information useful to you?
Impressions will help you to understand which of your videos got surfaced the most by YouTube and what made them successful. For example, one of your videos might have done really well because it focused on a specific topic or particular format. Therefore, it got a very high number of impressions.
Where are your thumbnails showing up and how can you
best optimize them to get more impressions from YouTube?
Are they showing up on the homepage? You need to make them stand out from other content.
Are impressions coming from the search results?
You can make them stand out from some of the content.
2. What is click-through rate or impressions click-through rate?
These are the number of impressions that actually convert into views. It measures how often someone saw the thumbnail then click on the video.
For a video who got 10,000 impressions and 1,000 views, the click-through rate is 10%. If the video got served 100,000 times and got 1,000 views, then the click-through rate is only 1%. Keep in mind that the click-through rate from YouTube search will have a higher click-through rate than the home screen because of the user’s intent. A viewer has a stronger motivation to solve a problem based upon search than if they’re just visiting the home screen.
How can you use this information?
It gives an indication of how attractive your thumbnails and titles are. YouTube will recommend a video to the viewer if the content is relevant to the viewer. What about clickbaity videos? For example, a thumbnail might get the click but the content doesn’t match the thumbnail, therefore, avoid titles and thumbnails that are clickbaity.
Here’s what will happen. Somebody will click on the thumbnail but then they’ll find that the content doesn’t match the thumbnail and the title. As a result, the average view duration will be very low and YouTube won’t promote your video. YouTube will only recommend a video if the content is interesting and relevant to the viewer.
How can you tell if your video is clickbaity?
It will have a high click-through rate and a low average view duration or average percentage view.
What is average view duration?
This refers to how engaging your content is. Converting potential viewers into actual viewers is the first step for a successful video. More important is to keep them watching all the way through your video than watching successive videos. If they watch several videos in a row it’ll extend their watch time. More watch time will result in more impressions and potentially more viewers. Click the card icon to get more tips on watch time optimization.
3. What are unique viewers?
It provides the estimated number of different people that come to watch a video over a set time period. It will show how big and active your audience is. A unique viewer refers to a person that watches your video whether watched it multiple times or not. For example, if somebody watches your video multiple times they’ll still be seen as a unique viewer.
If a person watches your video on a desktop and then again on a mobile, they’ll still be classed as a unique viewer. If you’ve got 10,000 views on your video, 8,000 would be unique views and 2,000 could be duplicate views from people watching your videos over and over again. This could be a video that has lots of information and the person watching wants to replay it to catch all the info. If a person watches your video more than once, that person will count as a unique viewer.
How can this information help you?
It can help guide you to make the next video. What if your unique viewers are lower than your subscriber count? This may mean that your subscribers are not always active on your channel at a given time. Think about asking them to ring the bell to get notified of future video uploads. It could also mean that you’re looking at a short date range for new videos that are published to your channel.
Try expanding your time range so it motivates viewers to return to your channel to see a new content that you’ve uploaded. You then may see your unique viewers go up. Another thing you can try to increase unique viewers is to expose your videos outside YouTube. For instance, you could collaborate with other YouTubers, this will expose your videos to a different audience.
When will YouTube metrics become available?
According to YouTube, the new metrics will be rolling out to everyone in the next few weeks. A couple of weeks after that it will become available in Creator Studio Classic. You’ll also see a new visual funnel in YouTube analytics. This will show impressions, views, and watch time. It will give you the big picture of what’s going on with your channel and your videos.
Impressions refer to where your videos are discovered. Click through rate refers to how many people click on your thumbnails and contributed to watch time and views.
What should you shoot for to create your ideal video?
It should have high impressions, high click-through rate, and a high average view duration. It’s all about providing your viewers with great content. Instead of worrying about the YouTube algorithm, focus on what your audience likes and the algorithm will follow.
If you want to learn how to grow your audience on YouTube and
generate traffic, leads and sales on autopilot check out my
YouTube Marketing Course at: TubeVideoBootCamp.com
Awesome blog you have here but I was curious if you knew of
any user discussion forums that cover the same topics discussed here?
I’d really like to be a part of online community where I can get comments from other experienced people that share the same interest.
If you have any recommendations, please let me know.
Thanks!
Feel free to join my Facebook Group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tubevideobootcamp/