Who’s Watching You on YouTube?

It’s an old viral marketing nightmare: You’ve posted your clever video on YouTube and by the number of views you’ve received, there’s no question that people are watching it. But who are these people? And where in the world are these viewers? How are they influenced by the video? And what specific videos are behind your channel subscriptions? These questions and more used to riddle digital marketers. It was hard enough to come up with amazing viral video content — let alone try to figure out how effective it was. But last week, YouTube Analytics was unveiled and those old nightmares may be a thing of the past.

Just as the advanced yet easy-to-read analytics for Facebook and Hootsuite released earlier this year have turned out to be real life savers for social media marketers, YouTube Analytics could be an equally powerful tool for video content. According to YouTube’s official blog, Analytics will deepen users’ knowledge of their audiences. Insight, YouTube’s old analytics tool, already allowed users to find out where their video views were coming from. Now with the new analytics, video content producers can find out more about those viewers. The Audience Builders feature lists which videos are behind the most views and are driving subscriptions, while the Audience Retention report gives analysis into which viewers came back to watch more.

For statistics-obsessed marketers, YouTube has in-depth reports packed with all of the data to satisfy for your curiosity. But for those of us who want a fast look at who’s watching what, the new Quick Overview does the trick nicely. Since YouTube Analytics is a Google product, we’re expecting numerous updates to make the tool progressively easier to use.

With social media dashboards and websites providing at-your-fingertips analytics, the impact of our digital marketing efforts has never been easier to track. So, dear readers, here’s the question of the day: Do you actually use analytics tools or is the whole thing still a big, all-consuming nightmare? Sound off in the comments section below!