YouTube Metrics You Should Measure & Track

Measuring YouTube Video Marketing Success

How many people are watching your videos? How long are people watching your videos? Which video is the most popular? How many people are watching your video on YouTube versus on your website, Facebook, etc.?

If you’re investing in video marketing, these are probably a few of the things you want to know.

All online marketing can and should be tracked—including your video marketing. Of course, there’s a difference between having the data and understanding what to do with it! We’re here to help.

We’ve identified some key YouTube metrics your business should track, along with what they mean and what you should do with them.

YouTube Metrics That Matter

Video Views

This is an obvious one, but you can break it down into several more valuable view metrics:

Video Views by Playback Location

Total views are good, but you’re also going want to know which sources yield the most views. This is labeled as “Playback locations” in YouTube Analytics:

The “other websites” location can be broken down further as well:

By tracking views by source, you can determine how engaged your potential customers are on your different marketing channels. This lets you know where to focus your time, resources, and dollars.

Traffic Sources

Traffic sources tells you how people GOT to your video. Here, I would pay attention to areas you can control. Take search for example. Do you have proper keywords and tags on your video so it will show up in relevant searches?

Views in Your Target Demographic

If you’re a local business, you should focus on increasing video views in your services area. After all, people who view your video outside of your service area are unlikely to become clients. Geographic data is available in the demographics section of YouTube Analytics:

Top Videos

Which of your videos are performing the best? YouTube lets you sort your videos by views, estimated minutes watched, and likes to determine your top videos:

Estimated Minutes Watched

How long are people watching your videos? Which videos get the most watch time?

Once you’ve figured out which videos get the most engagement, you can replicate that video format for future video marketing projects.

For example, if your “How To” videos have a low estimated watch time but your “Testimonial” videos have a high estimated watch time, it might be worth it to put more video marketing resources towards your video testimonials. This metric is important if you want to optimize for search, as video-watch time is a ranking factor for YouTube search.

Video Shares

I can’t tell you how many times a day I get videos sent to me—it’s an incredibly sharable medium.

Distilled says it well: “Shares are a nice general measure of success since they reflect a level of engagement above and beyond just watching the video.”

Can You Track Conversions & Leads on YouTube Videos?

We recommend your videos have a call-to-action on them. To create a good call-to-action, you have to clearly tell the viewer what you want them to do next after watching your video.

Say you own an HVAC company and create a video about how to change your air filter. At the end of the video, you might have a call-to-action that encourages users to call you to sign up for your HVAC maintenance program.

In order to track the conversions on this call-to-action, you’re going to need a tracked phone line. Learn more about call tracking.

If you want the person to check out your website to learn more information, you could always use a vanity URL in your call-to-action. That way, you can track whether or not someone converts on your website after viewing your video.