How to Grow Your Gaming YouTube Channel with YouTube Analytics

by Game Marketing Genie, on 20-Sep-2022 10:22:52

YouTube is officially the most-visited website globally in 2022, with a whopping 8,184,698,651 users as their monthly search traffic! It is an incredible platform for visual products, such as video games. Through your YouTube channel, you can share engaging playthroughs, unique features, and the intriguing universe of your games. These videos will entice your target audience, compelling them to download your game.

A successful YouTube channel requires closely examining your content's performance. Mindlessly uploading videos without knowing the audience's likes and dislikes won't yield fruitful results. YouTube's native analysis tool helps Youtubers analyze their performance and tweak the content accordingly. Using YouTube analytics will help you progress and become a successful gaming YouTuber.

Why is YouTube Analytics essential to measure game marketing performance?

Since YouTube is known for its high viewership, the competition on this video-sharing platform is fierce. Every other YouTuber aims to get a high rank on the search result pages to get more views and generate increased revenue. Therefore, you need an analytics tool to investigate if your hard work is paying off and to expose the mistakes stopping your channel from scaling — this is where YouTube analytics comes into the picture!

youtube analytics

Figure 1: YouTube analytics. Source: Sprout Social

YouTube analytics is a web analytics tool within YouTube Studio that underlines how well your videos perform. It helps YouTubers track crucial metrics, such as video views and subscriber count. Monitoring this data is an indispensable part of a winning YouTube marketing strategy, as it highlights the content your viewers are interacting with the most. Capitalizing on this data and optimizing the channel accordingly is key to succeeding on YouTube.

To access YouTube analytics:

  1. Log in to your YouTube channel and click your profile picture.
  2. Click "YouTube Studio" from the dialog box.
  3. In the dashboard, click "Analytics" in the left-hand panel.

Here you'll see the overview of your channel's performance. Click "Advanced Mode" for further insights into your gaming channel.

Now, let's dive into what the key metrics in YouTube analytics signify.

Top 12 aspects to monitor on your YouTube Channel

performance dashboard

Figure 2: YouTube channel performance dashboard. Source: Datapine

1. Watch time

Watch time indicates the total number of hours people have spent watching your videos in a specific period. It is one of the critical metrics signaling how engaging your videos are. Naturally, higher watch time shows viewers are finding your videos interesting. YouTube's algorithm ranks videos with more watch time as they are more enthralling.

2. Engagement

YouTube's Interactions Report shows your videos' engagement rates. Viewers engage with a video by liking, disliking, commenting, and sharing. These actions are crucial to understanding what your viewers think of your videos. The nature of comments represents the emotional effects of your videos and if you were able to get your message across. Whereas the shares highlight that your audience publicly supports your game. Lastly, likes and dislikes show if your content resonated with them.

3. Average percentage viewed

This metric indicates how well you could retain a viewer's attention throughout the video. It is the retention percentage of each video a viewer watches. If your videos are interesting enough, people will watch them till the end. This will ensure your average view rate is positive.

4. Average view duration

This is the average watch time of your video divided by the total number of videos on your gaming channel. Note that the average view duration also includes replays. Again, engaging videos will have an impressive view duration, unlike uninteresting ones.

youtube views

5. Unique viewers

Available under Reach Views in YouTube Studio, unique viewers refer to the estimated number of unique individuals who watch your videos over a specific period. This metric shows you your actual viewership, as it doesn't factor in the repeated views of the same individuals. It is also used to assess the subscribers' engagement with your videos. If your unique viewers are lower than your subscribers, your subscribers aren't watching your videos as much, which further indicates that your videos are less attractive.

6. Rewatches

Re-watches indicate the number of times viewers re-watch certain parts of your videos. This is another important metric to help you create an efficient video marketing strategy. Remember, viewers repeatedly watch specific sections of your videos as they pique their interest. So, identify what's different about those sections and apply the new knowledge to receive higher engagement. 

7. Retention

Audience retention highlights how well your videos can retain your audience's interest and at what point your viewers leave. Tweak the sections with dips in engagement and enhance the sections with higher retention levels.

8. CTR

CTR stands for click-through rate. It signifies how well your videos' thumbnails and titles entice the audience to click them. A high CTR represents that the thumbnails and titles are intriguing and the topic resonates with your YouTube audience. 

9. Subscriber increase

This metric shows which sections of your videos increase or decrease your subscriber count. Eliminate sections that reduce your subscribers, as they don't drive interest or are irrelevant to your target audience. Moreover, pay special attention to sections that resonate with your audience and create more videos around them.

10. Demographics

A nuanced audience understanding is the key to success on YouTube. The YouTube Demographics Report will help you know your audience better. It categorizes the people watching your videos based on age, gender, and location. This data will reveal if you're succeeding at attracting the audience you're trying to.

11. Sources

The Sources metric shows which external referrals are leading people to your videos. These referrals include social media, websites that embed your videos, the recommended section, and the homepage. Invest more in the source that's getting you traffic the most.

12. Keywords

Last but not least, the Keyword metric in YouTube's Search Report shows the specific words your audience enters in the search bar that lead them to your video. Wisely capitalize on these keywords and add them to your video titles and tags for a better ranking in the search results.

How to optimize your YouTube channel for enhanced visibility

Even your professionally edited content may not reach your target audience if it's poorly optimized. Optimization encompasses certain practices that increase your chances of appearing in YouTube search recommendations. It increases your discoverability and ensures your audience watches your videos and even subscribes for more! This helps grow your YouTube channel.

Apart from the standard optimization techniques, including using specific keywords, the most critical YouTube optimization tactic is leveraging competitors' content. To rightly optimize your videos, research what your competitors do that helps them get more views. And for that, you need to know who your rivals are.

seo services

Figure 3: Brands competing for SEO services. Source: Google

One most straightforward way to identify your competitors is through competition research. Enter the popular gaming keywords you use to attract your audience in the YouTube search bar. Now, evaluate the most successful channels appearing on top of the search results. They are your rivals. Monitor their channels' stats and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Analyze the type of videos uploaded, posting frequency, formats, thumbnails, editing habits, and more. This is the mother lode of critical information you can capitalize on and apply to beat the competition. Also, don't forget to assess the weaknesses, such as inconsistency — steer clear of these mistakes.

Along with analyzing your competitors' channels, keep track of your metrics. Never be discouraged by the higher views on your competitors' videos and not on yours. Instead, focus on how you can scale your channel. Carefully monitor your metrics and implement the right changes for your channel's progress.

At the same time, don't obsess over vanity metrics, such as video views — this is one of the most important social media marketing tips to abide by! Remember, your ultimate goal is to increase the download rate of your game and generate higher revenue, and your YouTube channel is a way to achieve this goal. If your videos are getting a substantial amount of views, but your game has a low download rate, those views are futile. So, though having a higher number of views can help you build your brand authority, it won't work towards your actual goal.

Therefore, focus on metrics that matter more, such as conversions, subscriber growth, and audience retention. The idea is to examine your final goal and then emphasize the metrics leading you to your aim. And that is how you'll rightly capitalize on metric analysis and leverage your YouTube channel to make your game a blockbuster!

Start tracking like a pro

If game marketing wasn’t hard enough, add analytics into the fray! This is a crucial part of your campaign, and something you’ll need to master if you want to get results. But it’s dangerous to go alone! Take this: The Game Dev's Complete Guide to Game Marketing Analytics.


Get a high ROI on your YouTube marketing efforts

Are you spending more on YouTube marketing, but it's only yielding disappointing results? Game Marketing Genie can help you turn the tables! GMG is a full-service game marketing agency offering personalized game marketing strategies to video game developers. Let us create a customized video game marketing strategy for your YouTube gaming channel that positively impacts your game's download rates. 

Chat with us to find out how we can help!

Topics:Video Game MarketingDigital Marketing StrategyWeb AnalyticsYouTube MarketingVideo MarketingDigital Marketing

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