Check your YouTube impressions and watch time

You can use the Content tab (or Reach tab at the video level) in YouTube Analytics to understand your video's traffic. Find out the number of times that your video thumbnails were shown on YouTube and how those thumbnail impressions turned into views and watch time. Learn more tips for using impressions and click-through rate data.

View impressions and click-through rate data

Sign in to YouTube Studio.
From the left menu, select Analytics .
From the top menu, select Content.

Impressions and how they led to watch time

Note: For detailed analytics, please use YouTube Studio.

With the 'All' filter selected, you can view the 'Impressions and how they led to watch time' report, which gives you a visual of your thumbnail's impressions that led to views and watch time. You may also see what percentage of your impressions came from YouTube recommending your videos to viewers.

Note: You may see a difference in metrics between the key metrics card and the 'Impressions and how they led to watch time' report. This difference is because the data in the key metrics card is updated more often.

Under the Videos, Shorts, Live and Posts tabs, the key metrics card gives you an overview of your impressions. This card also gives you info on views, click-through rate, average view duration, subscribers (Shorts), likes (Shorts) and shares (Shorts). This data is available within a few hours of publishing your content.

Where are impressions counted?

Impressions are counted if the thumbnail is shown for more than one second and at least 50% of the thumbnail is visible on the screen. See details on where impressions are counted below.

Impressions are counted on:	Impressions are not counted on:
YouTube on computers, TVs, game consoles, Android, iPhone and iPad YouTube Search YouTube homepage (includes auto-play) YouTube feeds (Subscriptions, trending, history, Watch Later) 'Up next' recommendations on the right-hand side of the video player (includes auto-play) Playlists	External websites and apps (e.g. links and embeds outside of the YouTube website) YouTube mobile website YouTube Kids app YouTube Music app Content within the video player (e.g. in cards or end screens) Email or notifications Videos that play in the background tab (no visible impression) Videos whose thumbnails are less than 50% visible or visible for less than one second TrueView video discovery ads

Impressions are counted on:

Impressions are not counted on:

YouTube on computers, TVs, game consoles, Android, iPhone and iPad
YouTube Search
YouTube homepage (includes auto-play)
YouTube feeds (Subscriptions, trending, history, Watch Later)
'Up next' recommendations on the right-hand side of the video player (includes auto-play)
Playlists

External websites and apps (e.g. links and embeds outside of the YouTube website)
YouTube mobile website
YouTube Kids app
YouTube Music app
Content within the video player (e.g. in cards or end screens)
Email or notifications
Videos that play in the background tab (no visible impression)
Videos whose thumbnails are less than 50% visible or visible for less than one second
TrueView video discovery ads

Metrics to know

Impressions	How many times your thumbnails were shown to viewers on YouTube through registered impressions.
Impressions click-through rate	How often viewers watched a video after seeing a thumbnail.
Unique viewers	Estimated number of viewers that watched your content within the selected date range.
Views	The number of legitimate views for your channels or videos.
Views from impressions	Views that originated from impressions for the selected date range.
Watch time (hours)	The amount of time viewers have watched your video.
Watch time from impressions	Watch time that originated from impressions for the selected date range.

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