---
title: 'YouTube Settings Small YouTubers Always Miss'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=j7LNGF8GjUg'
video_id: 'j7LNGF8GjUg'
date: 2026-08-04
duration_sec: 603
---

# YouTube Settings Small YouTubers Always Miss

> Source: [YouTube Settings Small YouTubers Always Miss](https://youtube.com/watch?v=j7LNGF8GjUg)

## Summary

This video reveals several hidden YouTube Studio features and settings that small creators often overlook, including customization options, comment moderation, upload defaults, audience retention insights, subscriber tracking, traffic source analysis, podcast analytics, community post impressions, and advanced comparison tools. The presenter demonstrates how to access each feature and explains how they can help improve content strategy and channel growth.

### Key Points

- **Customize 'For You' section** [00:00] — In YouTube Studio, under Customization, you can choose what appears in the 'For You' section on your channel page. This allows you to feature specific videos or shorts.
- **Block words and links in comments** [00:42] — In Creator Studio, under Community, you can add blocked words to automatically hide comments containing them, and also block links from being posted in comments.
- **Set upload defaults** [01:36] — You can set default upload settings for titles, descriptions, tags, and monetization, saving time on every video. Tube Buddy's upload defaults are recommended for managing multiple descriptions.
- **Audience retention comparison** [02:17] — In audience retention reports, you can compare your video's retention to other videos of similar length, with guides for high, average, and low performance.
- **Track subscribers lost** [03:24] — In Advanced Mode, you can see how many subscribers you've lost over time, not just your current count. The presenter notes they've lost over 1.3 million subscribers since starting.
- **Analyze external traffic sources** [04:17] — In Traffic Sources, you can see how many views come from external sites like Facebook, and check average percentage viewed to see if those shares are effective.
- **Podcast analytics** [05:28] — If you have a podcast, you can view combined stats for your podcast on YouTube by going to Podcasts and clicking the analytics icon.
- **Community post impressions** [05:56] — You can see how many impressions your community posts get, not just likes. The presenter notes they got 5,000 likes but over 600,000 impressions.
- **Advanced comparison groups** [07:04] — Using Advanced Mode and Compare To, you can create groups of videos (e.g., by length, thumbnail style) to compare performance across multiple metrics, helping identify what content resonates best.

### Conclusion

The video provides a comprehensive tour of hidden YouTube Studio features that can help small creators optimize their channel, understand their audience, and improve content strategy. By leveraging these tools, creators can make data-driven decisions to grow their channel more effectively.

## Transcript

that you don't know exist, and we're starting right now. and added to your YouTube channel page They put videos in there, they put shorts in there,
They just kind of throw everything into that. over what goes into that section, here's what you do. click on the customization option on the left menu.
Under your video spotlight area, you're gonna see For you. Here, you can choose what you feature. And really quick, if you don't have a computer
all you have to do is turn your browser into desktop mode. and put it at the top of the screen for you too. Now with this one, some content creators know about it.
but if people say things in your comment section to this list, and then YouTube will automatically hide them that you are in your creator studio again.
In the box that pops up, click community. where it says blocked words. And while you're there, make sure
to block links from being put in your comments as well. you have to copy and paste stuff for every video that you publish.
and your monetization settings and everything, not anymore. In this same area that we were just in, Here, you can fill out everything it is that you need.
title information, video description information or links to other videos or product links and tags. or monetization settings, you can also get all of that set
In my opinion, Tube Buddy's upload defaults because you can set a bunch of different descriptions so you can check them out.
Now, this next one is pretty new at the time so you may or may not have ever heard of this before. and it's in your audience retention reports.
are a second by second report What this feature does is it lets you know which can give you deeper insights.
and then you can choose what type new versus returning viewers. As part of this area,
to other videos of similar length on YouTube, and change it to compared to other videos. On the right, you'll see a guide for high, average and low.
to stay focused on making the content better. And keep in mind, the more people you have interacting with your content,
Now, I'm sharing this next one and people were like, "Oh my gosh, where do I find this?" how many subscribers you've lost over time,
this isn't how many subscribers you currently have. or lost over the entirety of your YouTube experience.
Click advanced mode in the top right hand side over by the video titles, then click Subscribers Lost. to lifetime up in the top right hand corner,
And yeah, you're seeing that correctly. since I started, which would bring my total to more than 1.3 million.
to getting a gold play button if I can just make sure so if you're not subscribed yet For this next one, if you share your videos out to Facebook,
and you wanna see if those shares are a complete waste for the video that you shared. which as I'm sure you've noticed,
Then click on traffic sources, scroll down the page have come to your content from outside of YouTube. in average view duration.
and add average percentage viewed. that people are sticking around from those places However, if you find out
because it's not doing any good. I have a friend of mine that is a really good YouTube coach that I'm getting ready to share with you,
with you just in case you don't know either. they have their own self-contained stats. you can see the combined stats of your podcast on YouTube
Then click on podcasts, then click on the analytics icon. for your podcast. that we talked about already in this video,
by clicking into advanced mode. in your community feed, you're kind of like, "how many people are seeing this because I got eight likes
"but I would love to know at least Well, you can see that and I'm gonna show you how. Then on the far right hand side of the screen,
Click that and choose post. over whatever time period you choose, And just to be clear, just in case you don't know,
to somebody on the platform. So when you see impressions that is equal to the people that I've only gotten a little over 5,000 likes on my post
but over 600,000 people have actually seen them. to remind people to subscribe to my channel For this next hidden feature, I gotta be upfront with you.
it's gonna take a nice handful of steps. to show you and then you think of how you can apply this in terms of how people are responding to what,
then this feature by itself can be just a total game changer Again, you'll wanna be in the creator studio for this. then click on Advanced Mode at the top right of the screen,
Then click Compare To in the top right of the screen. To make a new group, just click Create New Group. I wanna give you some ideas on how you can use this.
and videos that are 10 to 15 or 10 to 20 minutes long, to see which ones people respond to better across a bunch of different videos where you ask people
and see which one seems to be the most effective where you have consistency across groups of thumbnails "These thumbnails are all my face on the right.
But you can get creative with this how to actually get to everything. by hovering over the group name
or to compare them to other groups, I know this is a weird way to get to it, but hang with me. Once that group loads, you can dig into it individually
Then select another group to whatever you want. and change it to multi metric table.
that you can dig into based on what you're trying click the plus icon over by the video titles and add more. that you need to account for depending on
and you're trying to figure out if you find that one content type then that would be the win on the view side.
for that because they're getting more views, But you can use this series of content people are responding to most
It's just amazing. but you don't really know what steps to take, what you should be doing daily
and I'll see you over in the next video. I'll see you next time.