[0:00] subscriber counts are overrated sorry
[0:02] when you're trying to grow and make
[0:04] money from being a creator there are
[0:06] some metrics that are way more important
[0:08] than the number of subscribers that you
[0:10] have especially if you want to make a
[0:12] full-time living from your content
[0:14] here's the thing about subscriber
[0:15] numbers there's a big difference between
[0:17] someone watching your videos for free
[0:19] and someone who's willing to pay for
[0:21] your content and subscriber numbers just
[0:23] don't tell you how many of either group
[0:25] are in your audience most successful
[0:27] creators aren't earning money just from
[0:30] youtube they've got digital products
[0:32] merch membership sites you name it when
[0:35] you have those multiple income streams
[0:37] youtube turns into a discovery and
[0:39] marketing tool where you can nurture an
[0:41] audience and turn casual viewers into
[0:43] true fans subscriber numbers might be
[0:46] fun to brag about and get you a really
[0:48] cool silver or gold or diamond or
[0:50] whatever play button but as your
[0:52] business grows you'll see that these
[0:55] other metrics paint a much clearer
[0:57] picture it's not the data
[0:59] report to become that discovery tool one
[1:02] number you'll want to look at is click
[1:04] through rate or ctr it's a measure of
[1:07] how well your title and thumbnail draw
[1:09] the attention of potential viewers and
[1:11] without it none of the other analytics
[1:14] we're going to talk about would even
[1:15] matter youtube is a very crowded place
[1:17] with over 51 million channels not videos
[1:21] channels fighting for attention quality
[1:23] titles and thumbnails can help you stand
[1:26] out and bump your click-through rate up
[1:28] bright colors that don't blend into the
[1:30] background will help you be seen and
[1:32] titles that inspire curiosity help
[1:34] encourage people to click constantly
[1:37] testing and improving your click-through
[1:39] rate will lead to the next important
[1:41] discovery metric views this is why we're
[1:44] on youtube to begin with right we want
[1:47] our content to be seen and without views
[1:49] there's no audience to nurture and no
[1:51] potential customers to convert but it's
[1:53] not just the raw number just like ctr
[1:56] we're using views to track our growth
[1:58] and content performance one video at a
[2:01] time and of course views are important
[2:03] to getting that adsense money too which
[2:05] is always a nice bonus ideally each
[2:07] video you post should be getting more
[2:09] views than the last but we all know that
[2:11] may not be reality and at the very least
[2:13] your view counts can show you which
[2:15] videos and topics people find valuable
[2:18] and which ones they don't next we move
[2:20] into the engagement metrics like average
[2:22] percentage viewed and there's a couple
[2:23] reasons why it's important your apv is a
[2:26] window into how well your content can
[2:29] hold someone's attention which is
[2:31] critical for growing on youtube and for
[2:34] convincing people it's worth paying for
[2:36] your premium content it's much easier to
[2:39] convince your audience to spend money if
[2:41] you've already convinced them to spend
[2:43] their time we can get even more granular
[2:45] with this concept by looking at the
[2:47] retention graph for individual videos by
[2:50] identifying where the dips are on the
[2:52] graph you can see where people decided
[2:54] to click away based on that information
[2:57] we can then make changes for the next
[2:58] video to avoid that dip and keep eyes on
[3:01] our content longer comments on your
[3:03] videos can be another useful indicator
[3:05] of engagement if the comments section of
[3:07] your video is busy and the chat is
[3:10] active during your live streams that's a
[3:12] good sign that your audience is hungry
[3:14] for real connection and is building a
[3:16] community encouraging comments through a
[3:18] call to action or pinned comment of your
[3:20] own is a solid way to increase your
[3:23] audience engagement and further nurture
[3:25] your true fans to measure this you can
[3:27] just look at the number of comments but
[3:29] we'd recommend taking a look at the
[3:31] quality of those comments too
[3:32] five insightful in-depth responses to
[3:35] your video are far more valuable than 20
[3:38] people all commenting first frances long
[3:40] is a creator whose audience is
[3:41] consistently responding to her videos
[3:43] she posts walkthroughs and tutorials for
[3:45] diy scrapbooks on her youtube channel
[3:48] one of the videos she posted recently
[3:49] has about two and a half thousand views
[3:51] and sixteen comments and the comments
[3:53] look just like this these viewers aren't
[3:56] just responding to the content they're
[3:58] excited about it and demonstrating real
[4:00] engagement with the video commenters
[4:02] like this mean that francis has nurtured
[4:04] an audience of the right viewers and
[4:07] these are the people who are most likely
[4:09] to be interested in her premium
[4:10] membership that leads us right into
[4:12] another important data point for
[4:14] monetizing your content how effective
[4:17] are your calls to action
[4:18] measuring the success of the comment cta
[4:21] we just talked about is easy to do on
[4:23] youtube itself you just look at the
[4:25] comments but if you're asking people to
[4:28] go to any destination that's off of
[4:30] youtube like an affiliate site or your
[4:32] own platform then you're gonna have to
[4:34] get a little more creative it's not too
[4:36] bad though so stick with me some
[4:38] affiliate links have tracking built in
[4:40] like amazon associates so take advantage
[4:42] of any tools your affiliate partners
[4:44] offer for links to your own site there's
[4:46] a bunch of tracking services out there
[4:48] to choose from link shorteners like
[4:50] bitly or rebrandly also allow you to
[4:52] track the number of clicks if you're
[4:54] directing traffic to your website for
[4:56] more than just youtube though using utm
[4:58] links is a good move because you can get
[5:01] more granular and track different
[5:03] sources of traffic and compare them
[5:05] against each other in google analytics
[5:07] this kind of tracking can help you
[5:08] determine what kind of calls to action
[5:11] are the most effective and with that
[5:13] data you can then experiment and find
[5:15] the cta type that resonates with your
[5:17] audience the most what that effective
[5:18] cta looks like will depend a lot on your
[5:21] niche let me know in the comments what
[5:23] your favorite call to action is ours is
[5:25] this one if you like this video youtube
[5:27] thinks you're gonna love the one on
[5:28] screen right now thanks so much for
[5:30] watching i'll see you next time