The Audience tab in YouTube Analytics offers a deep dive into your viewer base. From these charts, you can learn about who’s watching, how they’re interacting with your content, and how often they come to your channel. Knowing your audience can help you plan your content strategy to introduce your content to a wider audience and build a loyal community.
New versus casual & regular viewers
The new, casual, and regular viewers data within the Audience tab gives you more granular segmentation on viewer behavior.
- New viewersare viewers who watched your channel for the first time in the selected time period.
- Casual viewersare viewers who watch your channel occasionally.
- Regular viewershave been watching your channel consistently for a long time. They are your most loyal audience members.
New viewersare viewers who watched something on your channel for the first time in the selected time period.
Ways to attract new viewers:
- Consider experimenting with your content to appeal to a wider audience. New videos about topics you’re interested in and designed to reach more people could help you attract new viewers to your regular programming. For instance, lifestyle creators may vlog about fashion week or a chef may review a new restaurant or food trend.
- Look at how you package this new content. Boost discovery by making the most of your thumbnails and titles . Be sure to keep your channel fresh with uploads and playlists.
- Be sure to also think about how to redesign it to reach new viewers who may not know you.
- Collaborate with other creators.
- Create content around trends and seasonal events.
Keep in mind that:
- If you’re seeing more new viewers than casual and regular viewers, viewers may be more interested in a specific topic or video than the theme of the channel as a whole.
- New viewership can be seen with “how-to” channels. For example, channels where viewers watch videos that answer specific questions. Viewers may not necessarily return after they get their answer.
Casual and regular viewersare both viewers who have watched your channel previously and returned to watch more. However, regular viewers have been watching your channel consistently for longer than casual viewers.
Ways to build a more loyal audience:
- Try creating content that’s more consistent and similar in topic or format, or work with the same host.
- Create a series of videos from topics that have already proven popular with your viewers.
- Think of ways to engage more with your community, like responding to comments .
Finally, you could have an equal mix of new, casual, and regular viewers. This mix may mean that you’re doing well at maintaining engagement while also attracting new viewers.
For the period of time that you see an even mix, pay attention to the type of content you’ve produced. Think about what you’ve been doing that’s working for your channel and how to continue it.
Does YouTube’s recommendation system optimize for regular viewers?
Our recommendation system aims to offer viewers more videos and channels they’re likely to enjoy. If your casual and regular viewers are returning to your channel regularly to watch more, they’re more likely to be recommended more of your videos in the future.
Why is my regular viewer count low?
You may notice that your regular viewer count is a lower percentage than expected, especially compared to your channel’s subscriber count.
Regular viewers are viewers who have returned to watch your content for at least six months in the past year and is a high standard. Learn more about regular viewers .
To grow regular viewers, publish content regularly and maintain a strong connection with your audience. You can use community building strategies like posts , comments , live premieres/chats , and brand consistency .
Get a true sense of your audience size with Unique viewers
You can use unique viewers data to get a clearer picture of your audience size. Viewer data can also be used to estimate the number of viewers who came to watch your videos over a given time period. Whether they watch on a computer or mobile, or watch more than once, that counts as one unique viewer.
Some ways you can use unique viewers data include:
- Compare unique viewers to your subscribers and identify videos that helped you tap into a wider audience beyond your subscribers.
- Identify where your video appealed to new audiences. You can find this by comparing your channel’s unique viewers before and after publishing the video.
If your subscriber count is higher than your unique viewers:
Don’t worry, most creators notice this on their channel. Subscribers can become inactive over time as they may:
- Only watch videos occasionally
- No longer keep up with your channel
- No longer log in to YouTube
If you would still like to take action to increase your unique viewers:
- Remind viewers to turn on channel notifications.
- You may be looking at a shorter time range. Expand the time range—new uploads may get viewers to come back so your unique viewers may increase.
Subscribers
Total number of channel subscribers chart in the Audience tab of Analytics.
Your audience’s watch time divided between non-subscribers and subscribers.
- Subscribers ≠ viewers:While your subscriber count is a good indicator of your channel's overall popularity, reflecting how many people have hit the 'subscribe' button, it doesn't indicate if they are still watching. For a more accurate measure and clearer picture of your active audience, look at your unique viewers or monthly audience.
- Subscribers have been shown to watch twice as much video as non-subscribers:Look at what subscribers like and watch in comparison to non-subscribers. This info can help you think of ways to engage your subscribers to become long-term fans.
Next: Check out tips to learn who your viewers are .
