How do I know whether my impressions click-through rate is high or low?
Impressions click-through rate measures how often viewers watched a video after seeing a registered impression on YouTube. Some views donΓÇÖt count towards impressions, like views on external websites or from end screens. Because of this, your impressions CTR likely represents a subset of your channelΓÇÖs total views.
Impressions click-through rate will vary based on the type of content, audience, and where on YouTube the impression was shown. Video thumbnails are always competing against other videos on the homepage, in ΓÇ£Up NextΓÇ¥, in search results, and more.
Half of all channels and videos on YouTube have an impressions CTR that can range between 2% and 10%.
New videos or channels (like those less than a week old), or videos with fewer than 100 views can see an even wider range. If a video gets a lot of impressions (such as if it appears on the Home Page), it's natural for the CTR to be lower. Videos where most of the impressions are from sources like your channel page may have a higher rate.
Ultimately, it's best to compare CTRs between videos over the long-term and keep in mind how their traffic sources will affect their CTRs.
Avoid trying to increase your CTR using thumbnails or titles that are clickbait. YouTube will recommend a video to viewers if the video is relevant to them and if the video's average view duration indicates that viewers find it interesting. Clickbait videos tend to have low average view duration and therefore are less likely to get recommended by YouTube. You can tell if your thumbnail is clickbait if it's getting high CTR but low average view duration and lower than expected Impressions.
How can I interpret the data?
Looking at click-through rate alone is not recommended. To get an idea of how well your videos interest viewers, look at click-through rate in the context of other metrics. Some ways of looking at the data:
- Look at impressions click-through rate and your average view duration to get an idea of how long viewers are sticking around after clicking the video thumbnail.
- Higher click-through rate with low average view duration: This may mean your thumbnails are "click-baity" or that your content doesnΓÇÖt meet viewersΓÇÖ expectations.
- Lower click-through rate and high average view duration: This may mean that your thumbnails or titles aren't getting viewers to click. It can also mean that your video is being recommended to a wider audience than just your core followers. Less targeted viewers are less likely to click thumbnails, leading to a lower click-through rate. Look at your traffic sources for impressions data to see where impressions are happening.
- Look at your traffic sources to understand where views and watch time are coming from. Traffic sources, like "YouTube search," typically have higher click-through rate than sources like "Home" because viewers have a greater intent to watch.
To interpret the data, keep an eye out for low or high numbers ΓÇö thatΓÇÖs where your main learnings will be. As your content gets distributed more widely and impressions increase, viewers outside of your core audience are more likely to see your thumbnail, which may lead to a lower click-through rate.
This year I am uploading more and becoming more serious with my channel... I'm learning as much as I can with my analytics but for people who know more about it than me right now....what should I do to improve my results....It seems like I have a lot of impressions and CTR is going up slowly...Is it all about thumbnails?
