YouTube Studio: Better Insights, New Metrics & Faster Access to News

One of the most important tools for creators is the Creator Studio: the hub where you upload videos, manage your channel, and grow your community. In June of last year we announced a new beta version, renamed YouTube Studio. Hundreds of thousands of creators have been using the beta and providing invaluable feedback, which we've been implementing to make YouTube Studio a more efficient, empowering and enjoyable tool for you. Over the coming weeks, we’ll begin to make YouTube Studio the default experience for many creators (but will still give you the option to go back to Creator Studio Classic if you want to).

YouTube Studio’s most anticipated features include three new metrics that will give you better understanding of how your videos perform, and an all new Dashboard that shows you personalized news and information for your channel.

New ways for creators to understand their reach on YouTube

Moving forward, you’ll see three new metrics in YouTube Analytics – Impressions, Impressions click-through rate, and Unique Viewers – that give a deeper understanding of your reach on YouTube. These new metrics are rolling out to a small group of creators today and will be available to everyone in YouTube Studio within a few weeks. A couple of weeks after that they will be available in Creator Studio Classic. 

Impressions

An Impression is counted when a viewer on YouTube sees one of your video thumbnails. Impressions tell you the potential reach of your content on YouTube, since each impression is an opportunity to earn a view.

It’s important to note that the impression metric only reflects impressions generated by your thumbnails on YouTube, including thumbnails on the homepage, subscription feed, search, and “up next” section. This help center article describes in detail what is and isn’t included in the impressions metric.

Impressions click-through rate

We’re also adding Impressions click-through rate, which shows you the percentage of your impressions on YouTube that turned into views. Different factors affect your click-through rate. For example, effective thumbnails and titles that attract your target audience may drive this rate up. This metric can help you make more informed decisions on how to optimize your titles and thumbnails, especially when you look at how this metric changes between past videos. For more best practices, we recommend you read this help center article. 

Unique viewers

Unique viewers shows the estimated number of different people who watch your videos over a period of time. Whether they watch on desktop, mobile phone or watched more than one of your videos, that person will count as one unique viewer.
You can use this data to compare your audience size to your subscriber base, and identify videos that helped reach a wider audience. This information can also help guide your content strategy, and showcase your true reach when discussing brand deals and sponsorships.

We encourage you to check out our Creator Insider Video, Creator Academy lesson and help center articles for additional tips on how to use these metrics. 

Introducing the YouTube Studio Dashboard

You’ve asked us for a “one stop shop” for data, insights and news so you don't have to spend time searching for it. The new dashboard will now provide a snapshot of your latest upload, personalized recommendations, and instant access to news.

What you'll see:

• Video Snapshot: You'll get a snapshot of how your newest video is performing compared to your previous uploads over the same time period. Previously, you had to pull this data from multiple sources and calculate it on your own.
• Personalized Recommendations: Here we'll surface Creator Academy content based on the specific needs of your channel. In the future we’ll also help you understand why certain videos perform better than others so you can adapt your plans for future videos.
• News: You shouldn’t have to search for the news; it should come to you. With this feature, you’ll get the latest updates from across YouTube so you can easily stay up to speed on everything that affects the creator community.

The Dashboard will roll out to all channels over the next couple of weeks and we’ll continue to add more content based on your feedback. We're dedicated to making YouTube one of the best places for creators and hope these new features help make that possible.