breakdown of the external (off-
YouTube) locations where viewers
found your video. This helps you
find out where your content is be-
ing shown and why — it’s a great
way to see not only what others
think, but also what other content is
related to your own.
Farther down is “Traffic source:
Suggested videos,” where you’ll see
the videos that suggest yours in
the recommended section. Under
that is a box showing the playlists
through which people have found
your content.
To the right is yet another box
labeled “Traffic source: Youtube,”
which lists the most common You-
Tube searches that have led people
to your channel. These will often
be similar to keywords and phrases
you’ve put in your titles, tags and
descriptions. Side note: always use
tags and descriptions! These are
vital to your videos showing up in
more search results.
Looking through this data can
tell you how viewers are finding
your content and where it gets
the most shares. Digging in a bit
deeper, you can make a hypothesis
about why and how viewers are en-
gaging with your videos. Are they
being discussed? Critiqued? Used
as sources? If your video is shared
on Reddit, for instance, go see
what people are saying about it.
Whether positive or negative, the
reactions and discussions provide
extremely helpful feedback.
INTEREST VIEWERS
This section shows exactly what it
sounds like: how interested your
viewers are in your content. The two main elements
of this tab are watch time and view duration
.
Watch Time
The watch time graph shows how much time, in
minutes, your videos have gotten total over the period
of time you selected. The aggregate amount will show
up beneath the “Watch time (minutes)” tab at the top.
Move your mouse along the graph to highlight certain
days and see the estimated number of minutes your
channel has gotten total across all your videos and
views for that day. This is an essential metric to keep
track of, especially if you want to become or remain
monetized. 4,000 hours of total watch time over the
past year is now required in order for your channel to
remain monetized, as of January 2018.View Duration
Similar to watch time, your average view duration
shows how long each individual viewer spends
watching one of your videos. This tells the algo-
rithm whether your videos are clickbait and clicked
off of quickly, or if they retain interest for longer
amounts of time. It also tells you which of your vid-GUIDES
Understanding Your Channel AnalyticsThe Interest viewers tab shows you total watch time and view duration to
give you insight into what is and isn’t holding your audience’s attention.