Tips to learn what content to create

When deciding what kind of content to create, it’s important to look at YouTube Analytics to demystify the how and why behind video performance. Data from YouTube analytics can help to establish which content your audience is interacting with the most. From there, you can determine where your time would be best spent creating.

Here are some steps to get you started.

Organize your channel content.

Are there any potential “buckets” you can organize your content into?

Format, series, style, or tone
Intended audience
Longevity of topic
Cost / Budget to produce

Analytics lets you create groups of channel content or use your channel playlists to see performance data across a set of videos. This first step will help us identify patterns and trends to make data-driven decisions when creating content.

Dive into your data.

Let’s look at the metrics of the groups that you put together throughout a wide date range, such as 90 days. Review the performance of your groups over a shared time period, taking note of:

Has there been an increase or decrease in any of the groups in a particular period? When? Why?
Do any of the groups over or underperform in a particular area?
What are the averages for each video or episode in a group? Is a single popular video skewing these averages?

After separating vlogs and tutorials into two groups in analytics, this creator noticed that their vlogs were outperforming their tutorials, except for one outlying peak related to the upload of a holiday related tutorial.

Within both high and low-performing formats, it’s important to look at the individual episodes or videos that are driving the overall performance. Look for patterns in:

Topics
Thumbnail and title
Length and retention
Average view duration and average percentage viewed relative to total run time; are longer or shorter episodes performing better relative to others?

This creator also noticed that their vlogs have a better avg. view duration than their tutorials.

Understanding your audience is key to planning future programming. At both the channel level and across content groups, look at the following data:

Age, gender, geography
Subscriber vs. non-subscriber splits
The audience interests card

Can you take further steps to tailor your content to your main audience? Or reach a new one?

This creator noticed that they have mostly a non-subscriber audience. With a renewed focus on vlogging and an added call to action for their audience to subscribe, they have seen some channel growth.

Deciding what content you create should be a balance between doing what you love and a little data-driven research. With this perspective, you can determine which content to create next with the greatest possibility of channel success and audience satisfaction.

Things to keep in mind

Demystifying the how and why behind past video performance will directly impact your efforts to develop future content.
The audience for a trend might not be the same as your existing fanbase. For example, if you're a beauty creator, it might not make sense to create content around a fitness trend.

We recommend

Sustainability: While you might find success with a trend, your viewership will rise and fall based on the popularity of the trend itself rather than your content. We recommend focusing on unique, sustainable content to avoid a situation where you’re always chasing the hottest new trend.
Go beyond a one-off: Think about creating a repeatable format that allows you to pull in your audience and maintain viewership long term.

Next: check out new and returning viewer tips

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