CREATOR’S GEM

How to share YouTube Analytics without sharing screenshots, passwords or logins

Sharing YouTube Analytics’ graphs and stats to a trusted 3rd party — do it the lame way .. or do it like a pro.

[Author’s digital art collection]

YouTube Analytics here refers to the Analytics section inside the YouTube Studio.

In order for a channel to provide access to it, access to the YouTube Studio is required.

As this article digs deeper, we shall learn that access may come with different levels of privileges.

But for starters, let’s start with the 3 kinds of scenarios for a YouTube channel to give its YouTube Studio’s access to a trusted 3rd party:

1 — YouTube Channel Management

This is when the channel owner hires a manager to oversee the day-to-day operation of the channel. The access allows the YouTube manager to do the following tasks:

• Uploading and scheduling videos
• Engaging with viewers in the comments section and Community Tab
• Updating the titles, captions, tags, and video descriptions
• Managing live chatrooms
• Deleting content in all tasks mentioned above

2—YouTube Stakeholders Engagement

This is when a successfully growing channel reaches out to external stakeholders who might benefit from the channel’s growth.

Two major stakeholders come to mind:

• YouTube brand sponsors — Marketers who are actively promoting brands under their responsibility would be interested to consider sponsoring a YouTube video in exchange for product endorsement by the YouTuber.
• Media buyers — Whilst ‘keyword targeting’ remains as the most popular way for media buyers to promote their YouTube video ads, some prefers the ‘placement targeting’ strategy instead. YouTube video ads can be strategically placed on top of specific channels or specific videos on the YouTube platform, provided that those videos are public and not set to Unlisted or Private. A YouTube channel may share its Analytics with these media buyers directly, but a cooperation with a content creation strategist will be more strategic and convincing when making the case.

By allowing access to the data in the Analytics section, you’re providing the extra push that they need to justify their decisions to sponsor your videos or to place their ads on your channel/videos.

3—YouTube Audits

This is when a poorly performing channel intends to make significant improvements with how the channel is growing.

The audit is done by a consultant, auditor or strategist familiar with the YouTube platform and its Analytics section who’s able to help you device a strategy and identify the areas to focus on to help your YouTube channel grow. These are the trusted 3rd parties, ideally with diverse knowledge & skillsets encompassing data analytics, marketing, content creation and a keen eye for creative design.

The graph showing a channel’s LIFETIME views is used to quickly assess if there’s a need to conduct a YouTube audit. Such a graph indicates your current performance relative to past performance, and is useful to justify for or against audit outsourcing to a trusted 3rd party.

Here’s how it looks like for a channel that’s doing well and therefore has no strong need for an auditor to step in:

Graph 1 [Click to enlarge — Source: Twitter, anonymized for privacy] In the last quadrant over its lifetime period (annotated by the green box), the channel has a higher support line than the previous period (annotated by the pink lines). The upward trend (annotated by the dark red line) follows the latest performance trajectory indicating growing views.

Graph 2 [Click to enlarge — Source: Twitter, anonymized for privacy] In the last quadrant over its lifetime period, the channel has a higher support line than the previous period. The upward trend follows the latest performance trajectory indicating growing views.

Graph 3 [Click to enlarge — Source: Twitter, anonymized for privacy] This shows a similar analysis to the previous two graphs. But what’s interesting for this channel is that it seemed to go over a hiatus period for a long time, but later on was able to repeat its previous success.

Graph 4 [Click to enlarge — Source: Twitter, anonymized for privacy] This channel took a long time to gain traction, but the wait was worthwhile. In the last quadrant, we can see 3 different supporting lines, whereby each next succeeding line gains more traction.

And here’s how it looks like for a channel in urgent need for help:

Graph 5 [Click to enlarge — Source: Twitter, anonymized for privacy] In the last quadrant over its lifetime period (annotated by the green box), the channel has a lower support line than the previous period (annotated by the pink lines). The downward trend (annotated by the dark red line) follows the latest performance decline indicating worsening views.

Graph 6 [Click to enlarge — Source: Twitter, anonymized for privacy] In the last quadrant over its lifetime period, the channel has a lower support line than the previous period. The downward trend follows the latest performance decline indicating worsening views.

Graph 7 [Click to enlarge — Source: Twitter, anonymized for privacy] This is a given. There’s no activity at all in the last quadrant. If the channel is not already dead, it will be.

Graph 8 [Click to enlarge — Source: Twitter, anonymized for privacy] This channel has the same analysis as Graph 5 & Graph 6, but it has a lot of potential, considering the first three quadrants has a strong support line for 2 years. An auditor would be able to identify what went wrong if the channel owner asks for an audit.

And here’s how it looks like for a channel that’s doing okay, yet can still benefit from an auditor’s touch:

Graph 9 [Click to enlarge — Source: Twitter, anonymized for privacy] This channel has the same analysis as Graph 1 & Graph 2, except that it isn’t able to increase its support line in the last quadrant. Considering the multiple view spikes over the course of its lifetime, the channel has a lot of potential to get more frequent spikes. This is a stock trading channel. From my observation, this channel gains spikes when certain stock companies managed to capture the viewers’ attention. A proper content pillar backed by sufficient content research is the remedy for this kind of challenge.

Graph 10 [Click to enlarge — Source: Twitter, anonymized for privacy] This channel has the same analysis as Graph 5 & Graph 6, except that it isn’t able to show an upward trend in the last quadrant. Considering the successful recent growth, however, the channel has a lot of potential to grow further. This is a graphic design channel. I love how cohesive the overall branding looks, and I can see that the channel is well thought out in many aspects. The main issue from my external observation is that the channel is too Adobe-heavy. It needs more diversification, and I’d enjoy studying the traffic sources for this kind of case if I’m given the chance. Different traffic sources require different content strategy.

ACTIVATING THE MULTI-USER MODE — WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON YOUTUBE ANALYTICS FOR AUDITING PURPOSES

👨‍💻 For first timers, in your YouTube Studio, go to Settings > Permission. Your screen will appear like this:

[Click to enlarge] Source: My YouTube Studio, as seen on February 2023

Choose Manage Permission, and since you’re the Owner, you’ll see this next screen:

[Click to enlarge] Source: My YouTube Studio, as seen on February 2023

On the screen shown above, click the ‘Invite’ feature on the top right corner, to get to this next screen shown below:

[Click to enlarge] Source: My YouTube Studio, as seen on February 2023

Double check that you’re giving permission to access the correct YouTube channel (if you own multiple channels). The email section is to be filled with the email address of the invitee (e.g. the newly hired YouTube auditor). Then, choose the appropriate privilege access from the drop-down menu underneath it. Here’s a list of the full descriptions for each level, taken from the official source.

Source: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9481328 (This official link also contains instructions to remove/undo given access, so be sure to bookmark it on your browser to keep it handy when needed)

For the purpose of YouTube Analytics auditing, it’s suffice to choose the second choice from the bottom (Viewer).

Once you’ve clicked ‘Save’, you’ll be prompted to confirm that you are who you say you are. This is an additional measure taken by YouTube, just in case if this request is made by someone who’ve just hijacked your YouTube account. The confirmation screen looks like this:

Source: My YouTube Studio, as seen on February 2023

Click ‘Proceed’ to get to this next step:

Source: My Chrome browser

Log in as usual to your Google account which owns the specified channel. This completes the process from your side of the equation (as the Owner).

In order for the permission to be granted, the invitee will receive an email right after you’ve identified your identity just now.

Here’s how the email sent to your invitee looks like:

[Click to enlarge] Source: My (other) email’s inbox — the invitee

Please note that YouTube doesn’t send a notification to the inviter (YouTube channel owner) for updates on any of the steps mentioned above. You — the owner — can only do a manual check to see if a permission grant was successful by going to the Settings section in the Studio > Permission tab.

Once the Invitee clicks on the ‘Accept’ button in the invitation email, they will be directed to the YouTube page with the following screen, indicating a complete success.

[Click to enlarge] Source: My YouTube Studio, as seen on February 2023

NEXT STEP FOR THE INVITEE (TO START WORKING AFTER BEING GRANTED ACCESS)

👨‍💻 The very first thing they should do is … under their YouTube’s account icon, choose ‘Switch account’:

Source: My YouTube Studio, as seen on February 2023

Next, choose the respective YouTube account that you’ve been given access to. In this example, the privilege level is ‘Viewer’:

Source: My YouTube Studio, as seen on February 2023

This is how the YouTube Studio looks like from a Viewer’s (third party) perspective:

[Click to enlarge] Source: My YouTube Studio, as seen on February 2023

The Viewer is now able to view everything to its tiny little detail.

Super helpful for auditing purposes.

That’s it!

I’ve covered everything from head to toe on how to setup a multi-user YouTube channel. 😙

No password exchange taken place.

Do it the legit way — the way of the professionals.

A CALL FOR AUDIT

👨‍💻 As a budding content creation strategist, I’ve made it my goal to help up to FOUR YouTube channels to grow further, by the end of 2023. And to do that, I need to reach out to many channel creators, but it would be easier if they’re notified through someone they already trust.

That someone could be YOU.

If you know a channel creator with the following channel criteria, please help spread the word. A channel befitting the following criteria is the one that will see the strongest results within the set timeframe:

• Gained at least 2,000 subs, but their Lifetime Views graph shows similar trends to any of the above-mentioned Graph 5 until Graph 10.
• Currently has at least 35 videos set to Public, and shows recent upload activities (i.e. not on a hiatus)
• Majority of the content sits on videos of 7 to 21 minutes long per video.
• Any niche is possible. Let’s take an example of gaming content, where some niches like recordings of gameplays might not be a good fit, but informational videos about games, game equipment, technologies in the gaming industry might be. The point is, I’ll have to see it with my own eyes first, to be able to make initial assessment. I don’t make promises that I can’t keep, hence it’s important for me to be selective from the get-go.
• The channel owner must have a decent LinkedIn profile to display a sense of trustworthiness — facial photo viewable to public, a minimum of 300 connections & a complete section for both Job and Education.

I‘m committing 2 months of my time for each channel, one channel at a time. What’s the catch? Rather than looking to receive payments, I’d rather get LinkedIn references (testimonies) at the bottom of my LinkedIn page instead.

If that sounds like a fair deal to you, hit me up on LinkedIn to have a quick chat. Just know that I don’t jump to emails right away, and certainly not phone calls, ever. I respect everyone’s right to privacy, and respect goes both ways.

Let’s create value together!