YouTube Analytics, Explained Like a Grocery Store

Hi Friend 👋

This week I recorded the first podcast with a Community member.
Jason Howell’s story of getting sacked at 48 and reinventing himself as a YouTuber after 20 years in tech journalism is incredibly inspiring.

Expect to see it in May on the channel.

💛 Valentin

YouTube Traffic is a grocery store.

For the first two seasons of Orbit, my focus was making content I was proud of. Now with Season 3, I’m asking different questions: Who’s watching? Why did they click? And how can I get more of them into our orbit?

Leaning into learning more about the YouTube backend.

No wlet’s look at this in the simples way possible:

YouTube traffic explained like it’s a grocery store:

Sometimes you walk in looking for one specific ingredient. → That’s Search. Other times, you browse your regular aisles and pick up the classics. → That’s Browse. And then there’s the stuff that catches your eye at the checkout line or on an endcap you didn’t plan to buy. → That’s Suggested.

Each one is a different kind of customer journey and YouTube’s algorithm knows this.

Lately, I’ve been spending more time in the advanced view of YouTube Studio, especially on Impressions by Traffic Source. Discovering a previously hidden pattern.

Whenever my CTR took a nosedive, it’s usually because the algorithm decided to push the video in Suggested. It’s testing the video with a wider (and often less targeted) audience. It’s the YouTube equivalent of putting your video in front of someone who didn’t even know they were hungry, just to see what happens.

So your CTR might now be what you think it is.

Instead of freaking out over that 1-out-of-10 ranking or a sudden drop in CTR, try this:

In the top right corner hit Compare to and:

👉 Compare views, impressions, ctr and watchtime of two similar videos.

👉 Track which traffic sources are growing over time, not just the totals.

👉 Take notes on which changes affected it’s performance.

📈 Closing Thought:

We often look at analytics as a scorecard. But it’s better to see them as an invitation to learn.

If you make small conscious changes and track how they perform over time, you’ll start seeing patterns. And with enough patterns, you’ll build your own formula for success. One that works for your voice, your content and your future audience.

PS:

I just released the YouTube Thumbnail Magnet to help you collect remarkable videos in one place.

My favorite things this week

Can we talk about OK GO for a moment? They launched an amazingly complex music video this week and didn’t just launch it on their channel but spreading content for it over at least 4 others.

The full BTS is on the videos sponsors channel.
Universal Robots went deeper on the technical side
Digital Spaghetti had a conversation about the creative aspect and
Fast Company did an exclusive outside look of the production

Each channel adding a different perspective and adding to the cultural relevance of the video.

Cheat Code I Discovered This Week

Type this into chatGPT and enter a relevant subreddit to learn about your audiences real pain points.

site: reddit.com/[subreddit]

Summarize common frustrations and problems expressed by Reddit users in this subreddit in growing their YouTube channel

Output: Bullet list of top 5 pain points based on frequency with accurate user's quotes

In case you missed it:

⬅️ Last week I shared Jenny’s guide on turning coals into diamonds

➡️ Next week you can expect a step by step guide on better podcasting.

Thank you for reading.