Eye on the Screen: YouTube Journey Comparison From Creator to Competitor

YouTube Analytics – How to analyze your and Competitor’s YouTube Video

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Tracking your brand’s YouTube metrics is not enough to ensure success in YouTube. Unless you garner deep insights of your competitors. You must be thinking how can you gauge their company insights using YouTube and track the data movement as well. There is nothing to worry about, we have got you covered. We will show you how to analyze your own channel as well as that of your competitors’ YouTube analytics. Let’s now explore about it!

How to analyze your own YouTube channel/video?

It is important to have reliable YouTube analytics tools for your brand, as videos on YouTube are searchable through Google. They contribute to generate organic traffic for you using both Google and YouTube as a medium. YouTube has a default dedicated analytics mechanism to measure how the video fares in YouTube to gain the most out of it.

Here we have collated the broadly used YouTube insights to ensure that your highly equipped, SEO compatible video engages more audience and performs well. The matrix sums up the most essential parts of YouTube analytics. Let’s go through them.

1. Views

Though, views determine the number of people clicked on a certain video on YouTube, it’s impossible to figure out whether the video has been watched till the end or not. Moreover, they can be altered through clickbait tricks and hence YouTube doesn’t solely put much value on them.

Views along with watch time turn out to be the best bet. Watch time sums up the total amount of time spent (in terms of minutes) on your brand’ videos. With the updated dashboard it becomes easy to get the YouTube analytics and gauge the video’s performance. Using the average view duration, you can know whether your video is being watched till the end or not.

2. Playback Location

As ‘Playback locations’ of YouTube videos can reveal where does all the traffic come from, it would help your channel figure out for which location the video has fared well. It will guide you to reach the backlinks locations/sites. Knowing the popular locations for your YouTube video being played, you can know whether YouTube is the search engine or they have been diverted from somewhere else. Depending on the video playing locations, the views will be segregated in to embedded video, YouTube watch page, mobile devices, and YouTube channel page. Understanding location specific views would help you decide where should you focus to enhance the performance of your video.

3. Demographics

The demographics page helps you get YouTube insights, using them you can know the audience in a gender and location specific manner. For local businesses targeting a certain region, YouTube analytics would prove to be a boon. You can also know the geography and device used by the viewers with this feature. Understanding the gender and location of people will help you create dedicated product videos that would be helpful to them.

4. Traffic sources

Understanding the source of your YouTube video’s traffic would help you track the prominent keywords that viewers use for landing at your YouTube video. You can figure out their choice and their search patterns this way. The YouTube insights will show you whether the viewers found your video by searching YouTube, a channel on YouTube, through suggested videos, or an external link. The YouTube Analytics tool’s panel would assist you in finalizing the most beneficial traffic source for your brand. You can optimize your video and keyword strategy with this.

5. Audience Retention

This data explains how far your video has engaged your audience. Along with views, the duration that a viewer is on your video weighs too. From the audience retention page, you can find out the specific time that a viewer has exited your video and see what made them do so. There are 2 types of audience retention features – absolute audience retention and relative audience retention.

6. Devices

It is important to know which device is being used to watch the video. The metrics is distributed among mobile phones, computer, TV, tablet etc. you will be able to understand whether your video needs to be optimized for a certain video or not.

7. Likes and dislikes

YouTube insights gauge the audience acceptance for your video by the number of likes and dislikes. Videos with a huge number of like implies that it is loved by people, though, the quality of video can’t exactly be defined by the number of likes or dislikes. Even the best quality video created for asking opinions about a certain situation/issue might be good enough but still get dislikes.

8. Subscribers

YouTube analytics help you determine the engagement metrics to explain the origin of your subscribers. It includes both their geo-location, the date of subscription, and the source/medium they used to land with your video on YouTube. You can observe the number of people subscribing and unsubscribing from your YouTube channel.

The subscription stream enables your audience to get suggestions for new videos from your channel and offer better exposure to the service and products you offer.

You May Also Like : How to Get More Subscribers

9. Annotations

While considering YouTube Analytics, it is essential to understand that there are annotations to guide viewers to your business site for more content. It is not necessary that the content is video only, it might include a blog post as well. This will let you understand the click through rate and ‘close’ rates for every annotation. This in turn will assist you in optimizing how to reach your audience and where to place the annotations.

10. Comments

Audience engagement on any YouTube video can easily be gauged by using the vital aspect known as comments. Either it touched a chord in their heart, inspired or motivated them, or simply made them smile, the comments will say it all. Sometimes the audience simply taps ‘Like’ in place of commenting at their convenient.

11. Cards

Cards is a new feature in YouTube analytics and aimed at replacing annotations. This will improve user interactivity of any video and accelerate the engagement. They will act as call to action for informing visitors regarding playlists, videos, merchandising, fan funding, and associated website etc.

This aspect sums up the amount of shares of the YouTube video across different social networks along with the share date. Google ranking is influenced with the share numbers, as higher the number more the chances of unique backlinks for your videos.

13. Videos in playlists

Favorites has been renamed to ‘Videos in playlists’. Your reach broadens as people keep marking your videos as favorites on their playlist. This is visible to the public on the YouTube channel itself.

How to analyze your competitors

Although, you can’t see the dashboard data of your competitor, there are still some ways to observe and study your competitors’ successful videos and from their views, favorites, ratings, and comments find out the driving force behind it.

For example, reading the comments and see what they are saying. Notice both the positive and negative ones so that you can incorporate the ideas in your videos. You can also make a better video by understanding what a specific demographic region is fond of watching in the said niche.

Or you can use those analyzing tools below to discover the more stats of your competitors.

1. InflueNex

InflueNex is a helpful influencer marketing tool for Analyzing, searching, and managing YouTubers. With the help of this YouTube analytics tool, you’re able to learn your competitors’ channels and videos with detailed information.

2. Rival IQ

This YouTube analytics tool helps you increase social media engagement, conduct competitive analysis to track competition, discovers new content ideas for your target audience. You can use it to leverage your foothold in YouTube.

3. SocialBlade

SocialBlade helps you gain YouTube insights and enables you to understand how your rival brands fare. You can learn from them and enhance your own strategy to beat them.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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Elevate Your Content Game: Tactics for Optimal YouTube Featured Channels

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Since the inception of YouTube, accessing videos and content has become easy for social media users. You can get content in the comfort of your home because millions of featured channel owners feature more channels every minute across the globe. Many YouTubers have learned the importance of how to add featured channels on YouTube mobile; many audiences can access mobile that they can use to access the internet. Featured channels have many advantages for the owner because it is the easiest way to reach many audiences than other means of getting the viewers. Featured channels attract larger target audiences, which leads to more subscribers.

Part 1: What are Featured Channels on YouTube?

YouTube featured channels displayed on YouTube have videos that YouTube considers worth watching by the audience, based on the site’s algorithms. Using featured channels expands your channel being viewed and accessed by many audiences, which leads to many subscribing to the channels recommended on your channel.

Part 2: Why does Adding Feature Channels on YouTube Matter?

Here we shall mention the importance of featured channels on YouTube:

1. Give audiences more required content

The channels with videos and YouTube featured channels have more audience because of their content. The audience always visits the channels with more informative content and even refers friends to it.

2. Source of more traffic

Many viewers visit the YouTube channels searching for information found in videos featured and knowing how to add a featured channel on YouTube in 2021 and get what they are looking for. Featured Channels with good content attract traffic and increase subscribers and referrals to the channels.

3. Personal connection

Featured Channels on YouTube matter immensely because they attract viewers to the actors or someone featured in the video. This leads to the audience is getting closer connected to the videos and information conveyed through the content. Videos increase familiarity and build a larger community where the audience identifies themselves with the channels.

4. Source of Revenue

Adding feature channels on YouTube matters because they lead to income/revenue through YouTube Ads, a course on your channels, and subscriptions to the channels by the viewers who view the channels daily.

5. Growing audience

Most audiences are visual learners worldwide, so having channels featured on YouTube matters because they attract many audiences globally. Uploading videos/content more often leads to more visitors flocking to your featured channels.

6. High credibility

Featuring channels on YouTube increases the channel’s credibility among the audience. Especially when the content answers the audiences’ questions and solves the problems they face, audiences develop trust, associate, and frequently interact with your YouTube featured channels.

Part 3: How to Add Featured Channels on YouTube?

Adding featured channels on YouTube is more accessible than most people think to follow the steps required to upload the channels and videos.

1 Login into YouTube studio

2 Go to the sidebar on the left and scroll to customization

3 Click on ADD section

4 A small window will unroll, scroll down and click featured channels

5 You can change featured channels on YouTube on the featured section, place the mouse cursor on the double lines next to the channel’s name as shown below on “featured channels name, The word,” and drag it to wherever you want.

Part 4: Fix the Problem - Why Can’t I Feature Channels on YouTube?

Many reasons can cause failure to feature your channel on YouTube that make you wonder why you can’t feature channels on YouTube.

Click here

1. Your YouTube Thumbnails

Your video thumbnail is the first thing your viewers see on their home feed when they click on your channels. The thumbnail must be catchy with accurate images showing what your video entails.

How to fix this issue?

Create relevant and exciting thumbnails that will attract viewers. It is advisable to use custom thumbnails and contrast to be catchy. This will make the viewers desire to visit your channel more often.

2. Lack of Consistency

Being inconsistent in your channels makes your viewers distrust your future work. If you take too long to feature your YouTube video/contents, viewers may decide to even unsubscribe from your channels, which may lead your traffic to drop to zero.

How to fix the inconsistency?

Be open to your viewers about when to expect the following videos on your channels, and it is good manners to keep your audience updated about what is coming. Consistently featured channels always get a good flow of viewers and even referrals.

3. Lack of content on the channels

Failing to update the channels often leads viewers not to visit your YouTube channels; viewers search for up-to-date information. If your channels lack content, audiences will quickly hop onto others in the market for the information they need.

How to fix the lack of content?

Read the minds of your audiences, primarily through comments they leave behind. You should update the channels with the required videos to satisfy your audience. Having quality content is the crucial thing here.

4. Lack of value in your videos

Before uploading videos on your channels, it’s good to ask yourself some questions, like:

What value does my video add to the audience?

How to fix it?

You are ready to value your videos if you answer these few questions. Value is the crucial thing in every product in the market. YouTube channel owners ought to know what the competitors offer to the same viewers and exceed them by posting videos that meet audiences’ needs.

It’s good manners to go back to the drawing board and research why your YouTube channels aren’t being featured.

Part 5: Bonus Tip - Make YouTube Videos with Good Video Editor

Making videos featured in the YouTube channels requires a good video editor. Although various video editors do excellent work, making videos with an exceptional video editor must be a goal. Filmora is such kind of best video editor that can handle the editing of videos very well. It is an excellent software for beginners and pros, and it is more potent than other video editors in the market.

It allows a person to make professional-looking videos because Filmora has various presets like overplays, transitions, elements, filters, and several layers of effects.

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Filmora video editor comes with several features that make it the best video editor. The features include an advanced text editor, GIF support, Color tuning, noise removal, audio equalizer, stabilization of the video, and scene detection.

Conclusion

YouTube featured channels with quality informative videos/contents attract more audiences, mainly social media users, in the larger market. Before featuring channels on YouTube, one has to know what the target audiences need, test and the demography of the audiences matters a lot.

Featured channels on the YouTube platform can be an excellent source of revenue for ready, consistent, and considerate value on their videos uploaded on the channels. Inconsistency can be detrimental to the owner of the channels because the channels can end up being dormant with no one subscribing to them. The owner ought to learn how to add featured channels on YouTube by following the complete guide.

Also, making YouTube videos with a good video editor is advisable for quality videos that will attract more audiences. Value is what viewers are after on the featured channels on YouTube.