VideoHerd
The Confusing World of YouTube Impressions
Category: B2B YouTube Marketing
If you're reading this article, you've likely heard the word 'impressions' tossed around in the marketing meeting.
While it's an often discussed social media metric, only some people know exactly what it does, how it's measured, and what it truly means for your B2B YouTube success.
Since each media platform counts them differently, things can get disorienting fast.
In this article, we'll clarify everything you need to know about the YouTube impression and explain how they can help and hinder your path to growing your business's YouTube channel.
What is a YouTube Video Impression?
A YouTube video impression is a statistic that indicates how many times your video thumbnail has appeared on a user's device.
Please note that we did not say they viewed the video.
Essentially, video impressions show how many people saw the video thumbnail.
Because of this, it's a great way to tell if your video is being promoted within the YouTube algorithm.
Besides the algorithm, impressions also give marketers a way to understand which YouTube topics, titles, and thumbnails are working well and which content is spreading nicely on the platform.
But be careful using impressions to make die-hard analysis decisions because it's a top-funnel marketing metric - meaning impressions can only be meaningful if used in the proper context.
How is a YouTube Video Impression Counted?
Google and YouTube can be ambiguous and secretive when it comes to revealing the inner workings of their products.
Counting video impressions is a prime example of this.
Multiple parameters must be hit on YouTube for an impression to be officially counted in your YouTube statistics.
Here are the criteria as of 2023 (It can change at anytime):
You'll get an impression when your video thumbnail…
Appears on a viewer's screen for more than 1 second.
And
includes 50% or more of the thumbnail appearing on the screen
And
Has appeared on the YouTube Search, homepage, feeds, recommendations, and playlists page on YouTube. Embedded videos won't count.
When your video thumbnail meets these parameters, you get a registered impression.
Where are YouTube Impressions Not Counted?
There are areas of YouTube where impressions should be counted.
If your thumbnail appears in any areas of the platform mentioned below, you won't receive a registered impression.
These areas are:
External websites and apps (links and embeds outside of the YouTube website. Ex. an embedded youtube video on a third-party blog won't give that channel any impressions when watched on the blog)
YouTube mobile website
YouTube Kids app
YouTube Music app
Videos recommended as end cards
On a YouTube video embedded within an email or Microsoft Teams chat,
Inside the YouTube notification widget
Videos you are playing in a background tab
Videos whose thumbnails are less than 50% visible or visible for less than 1 second
TrueView video discovery ads
Now, if that was a lot to hang in, here is a handy graphic to remember it all:
Using Impressions to Drive B2B Video Strategy on YouTube
While impressions alone are a poor indicator of your YouTube marketing success, they become much more valuable when divided by the video's number of views.
Impressions / Total Views on a video give us the Impression Click Through Rate (CTR).
This rate tells us how well your YouTube thumbnail, video concept, and title did at attracting viewers to watch your video.
Knowing this can be a massive decision maker in which content you should be focusing on for your next upload.
Furthermore, when you have a video idea getting people to click, you get critical information on what your audience values - even if it's just a few. We mentioned this concept deeper in our article here:
Eitherway, when YouTubing for business, this is extremely helpful as it tells us what’s important and what’s a pain point our audience is having.
Then we can strategically position our products and services in our videos to help them with their pain points.
Creating a win-win scenario for your prospects, products, and your channel.
Where to Take your B2B YouTube Channel Next
At VideoHerd, we know that being an information leader in your industry is crucial for your B2B business.
That's why we've developed a simple yet powerful diagnostic report that can help you identify the right B2B content to create, how to position it, and when to post it for maximum impact.
Our proven YouTube Marketing Strategy Session has helped numerous channels to position themselves as information leaders and attract decision-making buyers to their business. And now, we want to share this strategy with you.
Click here to start your journey toward becoming an industry information leader on YouTube today!
