Nine Metrics to Watch If You Want to Grow on YouTube

Among the social platforms, more and more companies are running a YouTube channel.

This article is for companies running one who find that
subscriber numbers will not grow
or that views are not increasing.
We explain the algorithm and what to do about it.

Related article:
The complete guide to YouTube for companies: advantages, disadvantages and how to run it

1. The three places to aim for in growing a YouTube channel

In growing a channel, start by understanding where within YouTube your video needs to appear.
People reach and play a YouTube video mainly through the following five routes.

1. A search in a browser
2. A search within YouTube
3. Recommendations (browse features)
4. The home screen
5. Related videos

If they like the video, that leads to a subscription.

This article focuses on the three that matter most: searching within YouTube, recommendations, and related videos.

1.1 Results of a search within YouTube

The first place to aim for is the results of a search within YouTube.

People often look for channels and videos that interest them using the search box on YouTube itself.
The thinking is much like SEO for Google and Yahoo, and the same work needs doing within YouTube.

If someone wants videos about a homemaker’s routine, they will search for terms such as homemaker routine or morning routine.
You need your video to appear properly in the results for those terms.

The title matters most for that, so we cover it in detail below.

1.2 Recommendations (browse features)

Browse features are, put simply, the feature by which YouTube suggests videos it thinks suit you. Appearing in the recommendations on the home screen increases both impressions and views.

The exact placement is the area outlined in red in the figure below.

YouTube’s algorithm decides, from the videos you have watched and the terms you have searched for, which videos to show in the recommendations on the home screen and in the sidebar.

1.3 Related videos

Related videos are those shown beside a video being watched, and after it has finished.

The exact placement is the area outlined in red in the figure below.

The conditions that make your video more likely to appear there are these.

Videos similar in content and concept are more likely to appear as related videos.
Channels with a similar audience are more likely to appear as related videos.

If there is a particular video you want to appear alongside, try making a video close to its concept and title.

For example, in the figure, the video’s title is Autumn cafe music – bossa nova and jazz – relaxing cafe music – music for work – music for study.
To appear as a related video to it, you would include similar terms in your own title: cafe music, cafe background music, bossa nova and jazz, relaxing music.

If your video appears among the related videos while someone is watching another, they will find it more easily, so it is worth trying.

2. Nine measures to watch when running a YouTube channel

Next, understand the measures worth watching in running a channel.
The figure below brings together nine measures and what to check in order to improve each; do use it as a reference.

2.1 Relevance to the search term

YouTube judges whether the video is relevant to what the person searched for, from the title, tags, description and subtitles.

Search terms are hard to research precisely, though some can be judged using paid tools.
A free method is to look at the suggested terms that appear in the search box within YouTube.

Be careful not to cram too many in, but do work the search terms into the title and the description.
Keep the title to around 15 to 30 characters and put the keyword in the first half. That raises the chance of appearing in the results, compared with putting it in the second half.

The description takes up to 2,500 characters. It is also somewhere you can stand apart beyond the video itself, so vary it for each one. Linking to your other social accounts and your website is also worth doing.

2.2 Impressions

How impressions are counted is set out in YouTube’s help. They are counted on the following basis.

When an impression is counted	When an impression is not counted
YouTube on a computer, television, games console, Android, iPhone or iPad YouTube search The YouTube home page YouTube feeds YouTube feeds (subscriptions, trending, history, watch later) Up next to the right of the player (autoplay included) Playlists	External websites and apps (links and embeds outside youtube.com) The YouTube mobile site The YouTube Kids app The YouTube Music app Content within the player (cards and end screens) Email and push notifications Videos playing in a background tab (hidden impressions) Videos whose thumbnail was less than 50% visible or shown for less than a second TrueView discovery advertising

2.3 Click-through rate

The click-through rate is how many times the thumbnail was clicked out of the number of times it was shown.

YouTube works like this: videos that existing subscribers rate well (high click-through rate, high retention) are shown on the home screen and among related videos, and so spread to people who are not subscribed.

So it is better to write it as However many views come from existing subscribers, if the click-through rate and retention are poor the video is less likely to be shown to non-subscribers, and views are harder to grow.

2.4 Early views

Early views means how quickly views accumulate within 24 hours of posting a new video.
The more views within 24 hours of posting, the higher YouTube rates the video.

A video with strong early views is judged by YouTube to be one people are paying attention to, which raises the chance of appearing in trending and in recommendations.
What you can do to speed that up is to win as many complete views, likes and comments as possible within the first 24 hours.

A company publishing a video, for example, can tell its staff and clients, which increases complete views, likes and comments.

2.5 Engagement

Engagement means how much viewers responded to the video or the channel.
The main measures are views, likes, dislikes, shares and subscribers.

To raise engagement, the following are worth doing.

Raise the quality of the video (easy to watch, clear speech, a concept that earns likes)
Encourage likes and comments (ask viewers at the end of the video)
Keep the comments alive (always reply and like)

2.6 Total watch time

On YouTube it matters to lengthen both the total watch time of the channel and the total watch time of each video.

Total watch time is the total minutes a video has been watched, and as above there are two kinds.

1. Total watch time for a video = watch time per viewer × views
2. Total watch time for the channel = watch time per video × number of videos

These total watch times are important measures in growing a channel and its videos.
Channels and videos are ranked by total watch time, and the longer it is, the more likely they are to appear high in search results and among related videos.

For improvement, the following are worth trying.

Check retention in YouTube Studio (below 50% needs work)
Analyse why retention falls at a given point, and improve it in the next video
Analyse why retention rises at a given point, and keep doing it in the next video
To lengthen the channel’s total watch time, guide viewers to another video

2.7 Average watch time (retention)

Average watch time, or retention, is the average time a given video is watched per view.

As a guide, aim for retention above 50%. At 70 to 80% the video can be judged very good.
And as the average watch time of each video lengthens, so does that of the channel as a whole.

To have people watch for longer, it matters a great deal that the search term and the thumbnail match, and that both relate to what the video actually contains.
If the content does not follow from the search term and the thumbnail, viewers leave at the start or partway through.

If YouTube Analytics shows a short average watch time (low retention) and an uneven retention graph, check whether the thumbnail and the content really belong together.

2.8 Video length

With total watch time mattering so much on YouTube, making videos the right length, so viewers do not lose interest partway, is important.
Too long and viewers may tire and leave. Too short and the content is too thin to land.

When making a video, start by researching how long competing videos are. More recruitment agencies now run channels, for instance, and their videos average around ten minutes, while the popular routine videos run to about fifteen.

One thing to watch: unless it is a film, avoid videos over 30 minutes.

Depending on the subject, three to five minutes is sometimes preferred, so research videos of the kind you are about to make before deciding.
Within the same length, it is also worth working on the pace of speech, the music and the editing so viewers do not lose interest.

2.9 Subscribers

A high subscriber count leads people to think this channel is popular, and a video from this person is sure to be interesting or useful, which makes views easier to grow. That in turn raises YouTube’s rating of the channel and makes it more likely to appear among related videos.

One good way to grow subscribers is to leave 10 to 15 seconds at the end of the video and use the annotation feature to ask.

Annotations let you embed text and links in a video, and within them the speech bubble can be used to invite people to subscribe.

3. In closing

We hope that was useful.
We have covered nine measures. The higher YouTube’s overall rating across these figures, their quality and their relevance, the more likely the video is to appear in the five places described above.
Start by opening YouTube Analytics for your own channel and videos and checking the measures we have described.

To summarise what we have covered:

1. Rather than running the channel at random, start by understanding where the video ultimately needs to appear

2. Understand that there are five such places
A search in a browser, a search within YouTube, recommendations, the home screen, and related videos

3. Understand the nine measures and what YouTube rewards

4. The higher the rating, the more likely the video is to appear in those five places

That is the whole of it. Thank you for reading.

Related article:
The complete guide to YouTube for companies: advantages, disadvantages and how to run it