Article Main Image
Author avatar

by Sergiy Bilenko

Brand Strategy Specialist

Have you ever thought that creating content requires a complex plan in which you must consider many metrics affecting its success? In particular, you need to understand how to convert impressions into views. Today, we'll explain what they are and how you can use them to engage your potential followers more. 

What Are YouTube Impressions?

Impressions are a significant indicator that shows the number of views of your thumbnails in different YouTube sections. Specifically, these are impressions on the homepage, search results, suggested videos, and other pages where people can see your content. They directly influence the interaction and interest of the public in your videos.

To optimize impressions on YouTube, you should create exciting and attractive thumbnails.

Why Are YouTube Impressions Important?

YouTube impressions allow you to estimate the number of your potential viewers. Thus, the more eye-catching the thumbnail and title of your clips are, the more likely people will watch them. YouTube shows every video you upload to a "test audience"; the algorithms will distribute it to a broader public if they like it. If you get more impressions on YouTube than views, you must optimize the thumbnail and title to entice people to stop scrolling there. 

How to Track YouTube Impressions

YouTube Analytics is your primary tool for understanding how well your videos rank as people watch them. At the same time, there are certain conditions under which YouTube counts impressions; people must see them for more than 1 second, and more than 50% of the thumbnail must be visible on the screen. Impressions are available for all official applications, the search, the homepage, feeds, recommendations, and playlists. There is no possibility of gaining new impressions on external websites, such as the YouTube mobile website, YouTube Kids and Music apps, prompts and end screens, email, videos in background tabs, and TrueView Video Discovery ads. You can get the analysis on any of your downloads, even live streams, in a few simple steps.

YouTube Desktop

  • Open the YouTube Studio.
  • In the menu on the left, click “Analytics.”
  • Select "Content" from the menu at the top.

YouTube app for iPhone and iPad

  • Open the YouTube application.
  • Click on your profile picture.
  • From the menu, select “Analytics,” where you'll find a quick summary of your channel's data.

YouTube Studio app for iPhone and iPad

  • Go to the YouTube Studio app.
  • Click on the "Content" tab in the menu.
  • Select the material for which you want to get data.
  • In the "Analytics" tab, select “VIEW MORE.”
  • Click "Reach" in the top menu.

YouTube app for Android

  • Go to the YouTube application.
  • Click on your profile icon and “Your Channel.”
  • From the menu in the middle, select "Analytics" to see data about the performance of your videos.

YouTube Studio app for Android

  • Go to the YouTube Studio app.
  • Click "Content" in the setup menu.
  • Select the video for which you want to view the data.
  • Click "Reach" in the top menu.

How to Increase YouTube Impressions

As you can already understand, expanding the YouTube impression rate is very important for promoting your videos and increasing their views. Therefore, we want to provide you with some tips on how to improve this metric.

Create captivating thumbnails

Make the thumbnails recognizable and stand out against the crowd of other vids. You need to explain to the audience what the clips will be about. Therefore, use high-quality text descriptions and images.

Optimize video titles and descriptions

Enrich your titles and descriptions with keywords your potential viewers will most likely use in search queries. You can also fill the description with additional details to increase the likelihood that search results will include your uploads.

Use relevant tags

Meta tags allow YouTube to understand the context of your clip. Thus, pay attention to correctly inserting such words into your texts so the platform can offer viewers content that suits their interests.

Use end screens

To encourage your viewers to watch more of your videos, you can create end screens and get prompts that redirect them to your other videos. This way, you can boost their interest in your content, ultimately giving you more subscribers.

Consistently publish high-quality content

You need to make new uploads regularly to raise the number of views. Don’t forget that your content should be exciting and enticing so that the public can return to your channel repeatedly to watch your new videos.

So What’s Next?

The more impressions you have, the greater the likelihood that more people will join your channel. Therefore, increasing this metric should be one of your priorities. To do this, you have to create engaging content, use keywords and key phrases, and encourage your audience to leave comments on your videos.

Keep track of which of your videos get the most attention, and use this data to improve your future downloads. Moreover, always make catchy titles and beautiful thumbnails that will allow you to enhance the number of followers. Now that you know everything you need, we hope you can expand your channel's potential viewers many times over. We wish you success!