How to Know Your Audience for Your YouTube Success?

Do you know who your target audience is?

Before we even think about hitting the 'record' button or penning down our next viral video script, there’s a crucial step we can’t skip getting to know our audience inside out.

There are many ways to get more views on YouTube, but researching your audience is the most underrated one. After all, you can only chase viral trends for so long. Eventually, viewers will need a deeper reason to stay on your channel, like getting a problem solved or enjoying your personality.

Why Your Audience Matters More Than You Think:

It's like being a DJ at a party. You wouldn't play slow dance songs at a high-energy dance party, right? YouTube is similar. Figuring out who's coming to watch helps you pick the perfect "music" (or content) that gets everyone excited and sticking around for more!

Here’s how you can target your audience in six powerful steps:

This newsletter will teach you how to research your viewers, to understand them better, and use that information to sharpen your YouTube strategy.

Best of all, we’ll do it using free data that exists in the YouTube Studio.

So let’s start it with a small step,

First, Find the YouTube Audience Tab

YouTube’s Audience tab is the best place to learn more about your viewers, subscribers, and non-subscribers alike. It has almost everything you need to know, from viewer demographics to the type of videos your audience is watching.

Here’s how to find the YouTube Audience tab:

1. Go to the YouTube Studio and click Analytics in the left navigation menu.

?2. Select the Audience tab.

This page has a dashboard that shows your channel's unique viewers, subscribers gained over time, and how many new viewers return to your channel.

Ready to grow your YouTube content strategy with precise audience insights?

Below that is a series of panels with even more insights

The Audience tab and its data will help you build accurate content. So let's explore it in detail, and give you the tools to develop a content strategy and make successful YouTube videos.

Now,

Jumping towards the first step of how to build that foundation:

1. Basic Audience Demographics

If you want to know your viewers better, always start with the basics:

??????? Age

??????? Gender

??????? Location

??????? When they’re on YouTube (days and times)

??????? Top subtitle/closed caption languages

This will help you build the foundation of your audience persona. Knowing their age, gender, where they live, and more brings context to their YouTube behavior.

Second step is about the content that resonates your viewer, don’t miss it out!

2. Other Content Your Viewers Watch

Which videos do your viewers watch when they’re not on your channel? This question is important because they interact with other creators’ content too not just yours. To truly understand why they’re on YouTube, you need a broad understanding of what they do on the platform.

You’ll find this data on two panels within the Audience tab:

??????? Channels your audience watches

??????? Content your audience watches

Here, you’ll learn which topics your viewers follow on YouTube and who your competitors are.

It also answers a gigantic question: Why do my viewers visit YouTube?

3. New vs. Returning Viewers to Your Channel

“New viewers” is a pretty straightforward metric, but what does returning viewers mean on YouTube? Overall, it’s the number of viewers who have visited your channel before and returned to watch more content.

According to YouTube, the breakdown of new versus returning viewers on your channel indicates your audience's loyalty.

If you have more new viewers than returning viewers

“This indicates that viewers may watch some of your videos but are less likely to return to watch more. It’s common to see this trend among channels that upload videos about different topics, which attract different types of viewers, or 'how-to' channels, where viewers watch a video to learn how to do something but aren’t likely to return to watch more.”

If more people are “returning” to your channel versus discovering it

“This indicates that a channel has a loyal audience likely to return to watch more. It’s common to see this trend among channels that upload consistent content about similar topics or in a familiar format, channels with consistent hosts such as familiar faces and personalities that viewers grow to love, or channels that create popular series to keep viewers coming back for more.”

Are you trying to build audience loyalty or spark growth with new viewers?

Depending on what you find, it may be wiser to target new viewers (if your channel is stagnant) or aim for loyalty (if you’re new to YouTube).

4. Videos That Bring Viewers Back to Your Channel

Are you wondering what kinds of videos draw people in again and again? Look through the videos that increase the size of your audience and find content that makes people want to come back.

Now that you’re familiar with new versus returning viewers, let’s take it a step further. Which videos inspire people to return to your channel?

To find out, navigate to the Videos growing your audience panel.

Study this panel closely, and you’ll learn which videos turn new viewers into repeat viewers!

Want to increase the number of subscribers you have? Let's talk about how powerfully engaging videos can be!

5. Videos That Make People Subscribe

You probably know that most YouTube viewers don’t hit subscribe right away. There’s a little dance at first, where creators have to “prove themselves” by posting good videos, and viewers have to decide if the channel is right for them. Depending on the audience, you could end up “dancing” for months.

But you can end this tango by discovering which videos bring in the most subscribers. You won’t see this on the Audience tab, though, so here’s how to navigate there:

1. Go to the YouTube Studio and click Analytics in the left navigation menu.

2. Click See More below the YouTube dashboard showing monthly views, subscribers, revenue, and watch time.

3. Select Subscribers Gained in the first filter box.

4. See which videos attract the most subscribers. Write those ideas down because you’ll need them later!

6. Videos With the Highest Watch Time

Lastly, check the Audience tab to see which videos get the highest watch time on your channel. Watch time is the total amount of time people spend watching your content, both on your channel and individual videos.

Like the previous metric, you won’t find this information on the Audience tab. So here’s how to get it:

1. Go to the YouTube Studio and click Analytics in the left navigation menu.

2. Click the Watch Time tab on the analytics graph, then click See More.

3. Next, you'll see a list of videos and the watch time they accumulated, starting with the highest amount. You can filter data by the last week, month, 90 days, year, or since the beginning of your channel. Be sure to write these videos down.

Putting it All Together:

?By this point, you should know a few things about your audience:

??????? Their demographics

??????? How many are new versus returning viewers

??????? The type of videos they watch, in general

??????? Which videos make them return to your channel

??????? Which videos make them subscribe

??????? Which videos hold their attention (watch time)

Now Are you prepared to customize your content strategy to maximize viewer loyalty and engagement?

The next step is creating videos that appeal to the needs of that Audience, plus using relevant keywords that signal their deepest desires.

You should also take new versus returning viewer data into account. If you have an overwhelming amount of new viewers, maybe it’s time to “niche down” and post what they’re most interested in to build loyalty.

If they’re loyal already, perhaps it’s time to experiment with other topics to reach a new yet similar audience.

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If you’re still unsure about the Niche & YT strategy thing..

Schedule a free consultation to discuss your vision and get expert tips. (Link mentioned in the featured section of profile)

Don’t forget to leave your valuable remarks in the comment section.

Hey, I'm Yousaf, your go-to YouTube Expert. Intrigued by finding your niche & strategy to carry out? Let’s make your channel stand out together.

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P.S What are some common mistakes that youtube channels make when trying to appeal to their audience?

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