YouTube Question Create a new channel. How long before I should even care about YouTube analytics?

[HowIDoThingsDIY]

I'm about 2 weeks in, I have 5 videos, I've followed most of the best practices, I think the content is good. I think I'm worrying about the analytics too much. Is there an amount of time before YouTube just figures out what my channel is about and starts showing it more in search results?

Also, if I updated tags and description and my impressions drop like a rock, am I doomed or is YouTube just trying to figure it out again? Thanks!

 

[Damon]

You need about 150 videos.

 

[Beanie Draws]

You need about 150 videos.

With this particular question though, I would say it's better to learn as early as you can. You won't have much data to work with having only 5 videos, so I wouldn't "worry" about analytics, but I would most definitely LEARN about analytics as early as you can.

There is a LOT involved with analytics, and I feel if you can begin wrapping your head around the basic concepts of analytics, and where everything is, and how to read the data at a basic level in the early stages, it can help you slowly understand your content and your audience viewing behaviour over time.


You won't have much data to work with in the begging, thus not worth WORRYING over, but it's definitely beneficial to learn things like impressions, click through rate, video completion percentages. That way, once you have more videos and more data to work with, the learning curve is far less overwhelming.

I think deep diving into analytics at 150 videos could be very overwhelming if you've never looked into analytics. I've been constantly learning how to read and understand my own analytics for years now, and doing it early on can help you get more comfortable with the whole process.

I'm about 2 weeks in, I have 5 videos, I've followed most of the best practices, I think the content is good. I think I'm worrying about the analytics too much. Is there an amount of time before YouTube just figures out what my channel is about and starts showing it more in search results?

Also, if I updated tags and description and my impressions drop like a rock, am I doomed or is YouTube just trying to figure it out again? Thanks!

Don't stress yourself over the data, just learn how to read the data. 5 videos in is still very early. Damon is right that making more videos will naturally get things going naturally. There's no set amount of time, there's no specific number of videos, and if you update tags and descriptions, and they DO drop like a rock, simply change them back. Whenever I change something in my videos, I let the new data sit for about a month before I decide weather it had a positive, negative or neutral impact.

Not every change will have a massive impact, but learning how certain actions, effect certain analytics, such as better keywords, boosting your search impressions, but also remember that search impressions don't guarantee a click, they just get your thumbnail in front of more eyes, it's weather the topic of the video it'self is interesting enough to click, and if the thumbnail and title convey the value of your video which will ultimately decide how many impressions end up getting a click.

It's something interesting to learn over time, and again, I'd start learning early on, so that it's less daunting later on. But also, at the end of the day nothing beats good content. And the best SEO in the world can't save a bad video (and your audience retention graphs in analytics will help you see weather the beginning of your videos are captivating enough, or if you need to recraft your next video slightly differently)

 

[Damon]

Yeah, that's what I mean. Learn analytics now, but have a goal of 150 videos. Make changes along the way based on your successes no matter how small. Do that for 150 videos, and you'll have all the data you need for do anything you want.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

I wouldn't even open YouTube studio until I started getting thousands of impressions. I think I would set 5,000 impressions per month as my own benchmark for when I would start reading the analytics, regardless of how many videos I have. 100 videos is a good benchmark, but if you have that and 1,000 impressions then your analytics mean nothing. Adversely if you have 3 videos and 100,000 impressions there is enough data there to start seeing what is working and what isn't.

 

[Beanie Draws]

100 videos is a good benchmark, but if you have that and 1,000 impressions then your analytics mean nothing.

I'd argue that having 100 videos, and only 1000 impressions would indicate you're doing something wrong,. Even if lack of data can't tell you things algorithmically, the lack of data can indicate that maybe there's a reason WHY you're not getting the impressions after 100 videos. I have some pretty average videos that have really low impressions, and that tells me it was either my topic, or the audience retention was pitiful meaning it was stopped being suggested, and might not have even been seen in a search result meaning again, the wrong topic, or maybe just really poorly optimised tags.

I personally believe there's still things to be learned even from limited data, even if only it suggests a different approach in topics that are more likely to gather impressions, or maybe people just find the videos boring and you need to re-consider your approach to content making, but if you don't actually look into your impressions, how would know that's an issue to look into to begin with?

 

[Lidia S]

I would say follow your analytics from as early as they show them to you. This way, you can see what you need to improve early on. Look at when your viewers are clicking off your videos and How many subscribe. This can be very helpful because you can adapt quickly, as you know what you need to adapt from, having little content on your Channel.

 

[VK reacts and review]

I would say follow your analytics from as early as they show them to you. This way, you can see what you need to improve early on. Look at when your viewers are clicking off your videos and How many subscribe. This can be very helpful because you can adapt quickly, as you know what you need to adapt from, having little content on your Channel.

If you have almost no viewers and no subscribers, what to do in that case?

 

[Beanie Draws]

If you have almost no viewers and no subscribers, what to do in that case?

Even if you're getting no viewers or subscribers, you can learn where basic analytic areas are. For example, there's a new tool just introduced that lets you see more detail about your video performance in the first 24 hours. The more videos you make, the more data you'll have to work with. I still believe even if you aren't getting any data, at least knowing where to find your traffic source impressions, and how to find and analyse things such as audience retention graphs (which I believe you should be able to get data on even if the views are low)

Think of it like learning how to drive a car. You need to learn where the instruments are, and how to use them before you can expect to use the instruments properly to drive the car. You can drive with guesswork, but it will be a bumpy start off, but knowing where the gears are and what they do to get the engine revving up will always help long term.

 

[HowIDoThingsDIY]

Hey everyone. I'm just checking back in. Its bee a little over a 2 months, I have 18 videos, just over 22K views, 1800 watch hours and 406 subscribers. I've had some luck with a few of my videos but I'm still not getting a good number of subs per day. But I'm sticking with it. The analytics have been helpful in letting me know what types of videos drive the most views and subscribers. Thanks everyone for you input.