How to analyse your platform analytics

Regularly reviewing your platform analytics is the single most effective way to stop guessing what your audience wants and start producing content that actually grows your business. By looking at the data provided by platforms like YouTube, Spotify, or Substack, you can see exactly where people are clicking away, what makes them stay, and which topics are driving the most growth.

The core metrics you should track

While every platform has its own terminology, most creative businesses should focus on these four key areas to understand their performance:

Metric	What it tells you
Click-Through Rate (CTR)	How effective your titles and thumbnails/headers are at grabbing attention.
Audience Retention	The exact moment people stop watching or listening; it reveals if your intro is too long or your middle section is boring.
Watch Time / Download Numbers	The total volume of consumption, which is often what platform algorithms use to decide whether to recommend you to others.
Conversion / Engagement	How many people took action (commenting, sharing, or clicking a link in your description).

Steps to analyse your performance

1. Establish a monthly review: Don't check your stats every hour; it's bad for your mental health and leads to over-reacting to small fluctuations. Instead, set a recurring date once a month to look at the bigger picture.
2. Identify your 'Outliers': Look for your top three best-performing pieces of content and your bottom three. What do the winners have in common? Was it the topic, the guest, the thumbnail style, or the time of day you posted?
3. Interrogate the 'Dips': Look at the retention graphs for your videos or podcasts. If you see a sharp drop-off at the 30-second mark, your intro might be too slow. If there's a spike in the middle, you may have shared a particularly valuable tip that people are re-watching.
4. Compare against your goals: If your goal is brand awareness, look at reach and new followers. If your goal is sales, look at the clicks on your links. Don't get distracted by 'vanity metrics' (like likes) if they aren't helping you reach your specific business objective.

Pro Tip: Look for patterns, not one-offs. One video going viral doesn't always mean you should change your entire strategy, but if every video about 'UK Tax Tips' gets double the views of your other content, the data is telling you to make more of that.

Best practices for long-term growth

Data should inform your creativity, not replace it. Use these tips to stay on track:

• Focus on 'Returning Viewers': Most platforms will tell you how many people are coming back. High returning viewer numbers mean you are building a loyal community, which is more sustainable than chasing one-time viral hits.
• Read the comments (selectively): Quantitative data (numbers) tells you what happened, but qualitative data (comments) often tells you why. If multiple people ask the same question, that's your next content idea.
• Test one thing at a time: If you want to improve your CTR, try changing your thumbnail style for a month while keeping your titles the same. If you change everything at once, you won't know what actually worked.