Track engagement metrics in YouTube

1. Click on your profile photo on the upper right corner, select YouTube Studio from the dropdown menu, and click on Analytics in the side menu.

2. Click on the Engagement tab and view the total watch time and average view duration charts.

This information is useful to gauge the overall performance of your videos compared to previous time periods. Click the down arrow next to the date in the upper right corner of your screen to change the time period the chart covers.

3. Click on See More to view a complete report of viewer metrics, including total views, watch time, average view duration, likes versus dislikes, and shares.

This can give you a sense of what viewers think of your videos.

4. Use the Key moments for audience retention section to understand where viewers are losing interest in your videos.

This section shows your last 10 published videos. Compare metrics across videos to determine patterns that are affecting user engagement. Use the following tabbed views: Intro View shows the percentage of viewers still watching after 30 seconds. Since your video has only a short amount of time to convince viewers to keep watching, this section of your video is crucial. Continuous Segments View shows sections of your video that experienced no dropoff in viewers—viewers are very engaged with this content. Spikes View shows sections of your video that are of particular interest, either because viewers skip to them, or rewatch or share them. Dips View shows areas of your video that experience a very large drop in viewers. Pay particular attention to these dips to identify things you could do differently. For example, if you say that’s all for this video and then give information on what your viewer should do next after, you’ll likely see far fewer viewers are watching critical CTAs you’re giving at the end of your video.

5. Explore other sections of the Engagement tab to analyze other engagement signals in your videos, like popular playlists and the most-clicked elements in your videos' end screens.

Add relevant videos to popular playlists. Use most-clicked elements information to optimize future end screens.

6. Optimize your video content based on insights from your engagement metrics.

For example: If viewers are dropping off before the end of your videos, reduce video length or add a CTA earlier. Look for commonalities in your most popular content and tweak your videos to reflect these learnings. Note topics that viewers often skip to, and either cut down videos to meet this need or add content on these topics. If viewers are consistently dropping off in the first 30 seconds, improve your intros to give them good reason to keep watching.