On this week’s Creators Tip, we discuss what metric ratios to track in order to understand how your YouTube channel is performing. We are always being asked for advice regarding how many comments to views, or likes to views is a good measure of the success of your video content. Also, how many views should you expect to get based on the level of subscriber growth? We take a look at 3 of the most important ratios to measure.
3 YouTube Ratios to Measure the Success of Videos and Channel
At the 2014 ReelSummit, we were joined by Dane Golden of Octoly, and host of ReelSEO’s Tubetalk podcast. Dane is an experienced YouTube marketer who confirms that creators need to look at the bigger picture when it comes to metrics, especially comparable data. If you can understand how well you are doing with 1000 views, then you should be able to determine how well you could perform with 100,000 views. He focused specifically on the follow ratios for YouTube success:
- Comments to Views
- Likes to Views
- Views to Subscribers
Comments to Views: How High is Engagement?
The best ratio for measuring success for comments vs views is comments:views = 0.5%. What does that mean in the wild? Well, if your video has generated 1000 views, a good measure of success would be 5 comments. So, a good comment count on a video that has attracted 4000 views would be 20. You can use this a guide to see how your subscribers or viewers are engaging with your videos.
Tips for YouTube Success: Aim for at least 5 comments for every 1000 video views (Click to Tweet)
Likes to Views: How Popular is Your Video?
The clearest ratio for measuring success when it comes to Likes on your video is likes:views = 4%, that’s 4 Likes for every 100 views. If you are not clearing these averages, then your videos aren’t doing as well as expected. Viewers, especially your subscribers, will take the time to Like your content if they find it informative and entertaining, so if your Like count remains low, try a different approach.
Tips for YouTube Success: Aim for at least 40 Likes for every 1000 views of your video (Click to Tweet)
Views to Subscribers: How Well Are You Growing Your Channel?
If your YouTube channel has 100,000 subscribers, then you should expect between 12-15,000 views per video. That’s an average ratio of views:subscribers = 14%. Dane has done a lot of research in this area and this kind of percentage is what the average creator should expect to see. If your channel has 1,000 subscribers, than you should expect around 140 views per video.
1000 YouTube subscribers will mean an average of 140 subscriber views per video – so increase your subscriber base! (Click to Tweet)
Ratios can change depending on the video of course, but they are a good measurement stick to use across your channel to see how well you are doing – and where you can improve.