How do you know that your YouTube channel is performing at its best? Through a YouTube Audit.
But most of the YouTubers and brands on YouTube don’t know how to conduct a YouTube audit.
Many of them rely on YouTube Analytics, which no doubt is a great source of insights. But it isn’t enough when it comes to evaluating the overall performance of the channel.
And why should you audit your YouTube account? A study says that YouTube is the 5th most used platform by marketers.
As the viewership has drastically increased in the past couple of years, so has the interest of marketers who want to invest in this platform.
In this article, we will discuss what a YouTube audit is and the top 7 things you should include in your social media audit for YouTube.
So without further ado – as most YouTubers say in their videos – let’s get started.
What Is a YouTube Audit?
In Layman’s terms, a YouTube audit is a measure of the performance of a YouTube channel.
Although audits are not the most exciting thing for a YouTube marketer, they are as necessary as optimizing your YouTube videos for more views.
YouTube audits can reveal quick wins that you can utilize for growing your channel.
Audits also allow you to take a step back from the process of creating the content and have an objective look at what’s working.
Want to know how to conduct a YouTube audit? Keep reading.
Things You Should Include in a YouTube Audit
Now that you know what a YouTube audit is, it’s time to learn the top things you should include while conducting one.
1. Subscribers-to-Views Ratio
Irrespective of the subscriber count you have on your YouTube channel, you need to find out what percentage of your subscribers watch your content.
Many YouTubers concentrate their focus on increasing their subscriber count, whereas they should be focusing on creating content that connects with their audience and provides value.
The subscribers-to-views ratio can help you understand how well you are performing in terms of catering valuable content to your subscribers.
But, what is a good subscribers-to-views ratio for YouTube?
There is no clear answer to a good subscriber-to-views ratio. A general conception is to aim for a ratio between 0.12 to 0.20.
Here is how you can calculate the subscribers-to-views ratio:
Average views per video ÷ Total number of subscribers
2. Views-to-Engagement Ratio
Another crucial factor of a YouTube audit is finding out which content generates more engagement.
The engagement metrics include likes, dislikes, comments, and shares.
Engagement is a huge factor for the YouTube algorithm because the platform is all about delivering content that people desire.
If a video generates likes and comments in a large quantity, it is more likely to be suitable for the intended audience.
Even the dislikes indicate engagement, despite being a negative one. This is because if the audience doesn’t care, they are unlikely to click on any of the engagement options.
To calculate the view-to-engagement ratio, you need to gather engagement data accumulated in your CRM for sales.
Go to your YouTube analytics and sum up the counts for Likes, Dislikes, Comments, and Shares to calculate total engagement.
Note that the statistics for engagement parameters can overlap each other.
Suppose that the user who liked, let’s say, your email hosting tips video might also have commented and shared your video. For this one user, the engagement count will be three.
However, on a broader scale, this does not matter. Here is how you can calculate the views-to-engagement ratio:
Total number of Engagements for a period ÷ Total number of views for the same period
You should calculate the views-to-engagement ratio for every video.
3. Audience Retention
Audience retention is the key success indicator of every YouTube video.
One mistake YouTube marketers make is considering audience retention and watch time as the same. But, they are different metrics.
Watch time for a particular video is the total duration your viewers watched your video before clicking away.
In contrast, audience retention indicates how many viewers watched your video till the end. The retention metrics on YouTube also show the average percentage of views by the total audience.
You can put a column for audience retention in your YouTube audit spreadsheet.
4. Traffic Sources
The traffic sources for a YouTube channel can be YouTube search, direct or unknown, suggested videos, external, YouTube advertising, and others.
During your YouTube audit, you need to make sure that you include the parameters that matter to your YouTube marketing strategy.
Suppose you are focusing on improving SEO for several keywords that you’ve researched through Semrush.
In such a case, considering that you are not advertising on YouTube, you should include YouTube search as the prime traffic source metric in your YouTube audit.
5. Check How Often Your Content Is Suggested
Although Suggested Videos is a part of traffic sources, you should include it in a separate column in your YouTube audit spreadsheet.
Improving traffic via suggested sources is an excellent way of accelerating the growth of your YouTube channel.
Suppose you have created a couple of videos on online form builders, and these videos are getting more traffic from suggested sources compared to other videos on your channel. If you can replicate their success in other videos, you will get a lot of organic traffic without putting too much effort into promotion.
6. Channel Setup
YouTube marketers often underestimate the importance of auditing the channel setup.
Once you have a huge YouTube channel with tons of content, you need to start organizing them into categories, playlists, and sections.
Also, check your About section and see what message it has.
We often forget to update this content, and it remains the same for years, while our brand strategy changes multiple times.
If the content in your About section doesn’t make sense to your brand, change it right away as per your brand guidelines.
One more aspect of channel setup is the profile picture and the banner image.
During your YouTube audit, have a look at them and see if you need to make a change.
7. Broken Links
Some of your videos may have been banned by YouTube, or you could have deleted them purposefully. This can result in broken links.
Therefore, while auditing your YouTube channel, check if the links in your video descriptions are valid and live.
You have to do it manually. If you find broken links, replace them with the latest and most relevant videos.
Pro Tip: Remove or Replace Content That Doesn’t Align With Your Branding
Once you have all the above-mentioned information in your YouTube audit, you need to start making amendments to your YouTube channel.
Start by finding out which content is not relevant to your YouTube channel branding.
Our recommendation here is to be careful and think twice before making the judgment to remove any content from your channel.
If you find content that does not suit your brand image, you can remove it. Don’t forget to remove or replace their link from other videos.
Conclusion
YouTube audits can prove to be a cornerstone for your YouTube marketing strategy.
When done right, a YouTube audit can unveil several improvements which lead to greater video engagement and organic traffic.
If you are not a marketer and find it difficult or don’t have experience auditing social media channels, outsource the work to experts who can help you grow your YouTube channel.
Otherwise, long-live DIY.
