1. Content Filter

This filter allows you to search specific videos or all results that contain a specific keyword. Select the video you want to see analytics for, and the data will change the charts to display just that item’s data.

2. Geography

In this tab, you will see a break down by state, country or region. Viewing this kind of data isn’t just good for targeting your audience, it can be really cool to see that people all over the world are watching and sharing your content.

3.Date Range

As the title suggests, this tab controls the period of time you want data from. It’s always good to do week to week and month to month comparisons to make sure your channel viewers are interested and engaged in sharing your content. Note: If you want to return to the full channel view, simply click the x in each category box.

View Reports

After you have uploaded your video, you should be tracking the number of views it gets each week, as well as the source it was viewed from. Your content may have a million views, but without knowing your audience, it will be difficult to know if you are communicating your message effectively.  The Views Report tab will give you an overview of channel views. You can dig even deeper to target the exact audience for your content by using these additional reports:

1. Demographics Report

Here you will see the age, gender, geographical location of viewers as well as the playback location which, shows you where people are watching your videos online. Use this data to create follow up content that will attract higher view counts.

2. Traffic Sources Report

This is definitely a report you will want to track weekly. With insight into where views originated, you can determine if video’s are gaining exposure directly from your YouTube channel or if it has been embedded on a blog or social media site.

3. Audience Retention Report

To improve your audience retention rate, keep content length at approximately 2-3 minutes. Create interesting content that will grab the viewers attention from the start, and keep them focused and interested through the remainder of the video. The Audience retention Report will show you how much of a particular video people tend to watch. This will be vital information as you create follow up content.

4. Engagement Reporting

The Engagement Report is broken down into five sections: subscribers, likes and dislikes, favorites, comments and sharing. Each category adds valuable information to your reporting and should be considered for production of future content. Here I will go into the two most important categories:

5. Subscriber Report

Having and increasing subscribers is important, but learning what brought them to your channel to begin with is more important. With the Subscriber Report, you will be able to see a list of subscribers and what video actually drove them to become subscribers. Again, this data will help you create like content to keep bringing viewers back.

6. Sharing Report

Knowing where your content is shared most, and what social channels are pushing your content, will indicate where you need to create a presence. The sharing tab will help you narrow that down by showing you how many times a video has been shared and the service it has been shared through

7. Data Reporting

You will likely be tracking all the data you have collected about your channels and videos on a spreadsheet. Every report tab in YouTube Analytics has a “Download Report” tab in the top right corner of the screen. It will download your report into a CSV file to open and use in Excel or Google Spreadsheets. If you are thinking about monetizing videos using Google AdSense, the reports will show which videos are monetizable, and what your total estimated earnings would be if you chose to monetize them. With this type of comprehensive analysis, you will increase your channel traffic and continue to build bigger and better content if you use the reports to your advantage. There are so many ways to use this data. Let me know what part of the YouTube Analytics you would you like to see more in depth!