Why You Should Audit Your YouTube Channel
By Neil Patel
How do you ensure your YouTube channel is reaching the right audience and helping you achieve your marketing objectives? By performing a YouTube audit.
With over 2 billion active users, YouTube is among the world’s most popular social media platforms. Roughly 73 percent of US adults have a YouTube account, which means it’s an excellent opportunity for marketers to generate new leads and promote content.
But, if you want to make the most of this channel, you need to ensure your content is high-quality, targeted, and optimized.
Why Your YouTube Channel Needs an Audit
YouTube isn’t just a social media platform. It’s also a highly sophisticated search engine, just like Google.
In other words, you need an effective YouTube search engine optimization or “SEO” strategy to maximize your chances of:
- Appearing in video search results
- Reaching the right audience
- Converting users into subscribers and, ultimately, paying customers
If you’re totally new to SEO, you might find this video helpful.
A YouTube audit reveals how well your channel is performing and whether it’s helping you achieve your business objectives.
Among other things, it will help you understand:
- Which videos have the most views
- If people watch your videos all the way through
- How many subscribers you have
- Whether your videos appear in search results
Keep in mind that over 500 hours of new content appears on YouTube every minute, which means there’s fierce competition. Everything on your channel should be geared towards standing out and providing value.
Roughly 50 percent of shoppers use online videos to decide between different products. What’s more, a whopping 90 percent of users discover new brands just by browsing their favorite YouTube channels.
That means there’s a huge opportunity to find new customers and build brand trust— if you provide users with valuable content. A YouTube audit is the best way to check if you’re leveraging your channel to its fullest potential.
Ready to overhaul your channel and ensure you’re getting the most from your video marketing strategy? Let’s get started.
YouTube Audit Phase 1: Analyze Your KPI Performance
You need to understand how your channel is performing right now. This is where KPIs, or key performance indicators, come in.
What exactly are KPIs, though? Well, they’re metrics that help you assess how effectively it’s generating results for your business. On YouTube, that might include watch times, views, impressions, and clicks.
With KPI data at your fingertips, you can take targeted action to improve your content, increase your subscriber base, and boost your YouTube rankings. For example, you can track where your viewer traffic comes from and your most popular videos.
You can access these KPIs through YouTube analytics, which is the platform’s metrics tool.
- Log into your YouTube account
- Click on your account avatar at the top right-hand corner
- Choose “YouTube Studio” from the menu options to access the analytics center