How to Analyze YouTube Shorts Analytics

YouTube Shorts analytics can feel like an intricate code, but cracking it is the difference between posting into the void and building a real audience. This guide cuts through the noise to show you exactly which metrics matter, what they mean, and how to turn those numbers into a powerful strategy for creating Shorts that people actually watch. We'll walk through how to find your data, break down the most important metrics, and show you how to connect the dots for sustainable channel growth.

Where to Find Your YouTube Shorts Analytics

First things first, you need to know where to find the data. YouTube houses all this information inside YouTube Studio. There are two primary ways to access your Shorts performance:

• For an overview: Go to your YouTube Studio dashboard, click on the "Analytics" tab in the left-hand menu, and then select the "Content" tab at the top. From there, you can filter by "Shorts" to see the overall performance of all your short-form videos combined.
• For individual video stats: Go to the "Content" tab from the left-hand menu, click on "Shorts," and then hover over any video in the list. Click the small "Analytics" icon (it looks like a graph) to see the detailed performance data for that specific Short.

Getting comfortable navigating to both a single video’s stats and your channel’s overall Shorts performance is the first step. The individual data tells you why a specific video worked (or didn't), while the aggregate data reveals the bigger patterns in your content.

The Key Shorts Metrics That Actually Matter

When you first look at the analytics page, the sheer number of graphs and percentages can be overwhelming. The good news is that you only need to focus on a handful of key metrics to understand 90% of what's happening. Here are the big ones you should be tracking.

1. Views vs. Shown in Feed (%)

This is arguably the most important metric for understanding if your initial hook is working. Here's how it breaks down:

• Shown in Feed: The number of times your Short was presented to a user scrolling through the Shorts feed.
• Viewed: The number of times users actually watched it (meaning they didn't immediately swipe away).

By dividing Viewed by Shown in Feed, you get your view-through rate. If your Short is shown 1,000 times and viewed 600 times, your view-through rate is 60%. A high percentage here (generally 50% or more) tells YouTube that your Short is catching people's attention and stopping the scroll. A low percentage (below 40%) signals that your opening, your title, or your visual thumbnail isn't enticing enough for people to give it a chance.

Actionable Advice: If your view-through rate is low, obsess over the first one to two seconds of your videos. Your goal is to create an immediate sense of curiosity, motion, or value that prevents viewers from swiping past.

2. Average Percentage Viewed (Audience Retention)

If the View-Through Rate is gatekeeper #1, then Audience Retention is gatekeeper #2. This metric tells you what percentage of your video people watched on average. For a 30-second Short, if your average percentage viewed is 90%, it means the average viewer watched for 27 seconds. That is an incredibly strong signal to the YouTube algorithm.

Why? Because it proves your content delivers on the promise of its hook and keeps viewers engaged until the end. High retention means you’ve created a genuinely compelling video.

What's a "Good" Retention Rate?

This is the golden question. Here's a general guideline for YouTube Shorts:

• Good: 80-95%
• Excellent: 95-100%+

Wait, over 100%? Yes. If your audience retention is above 100%, it means that so many people rewatched your Short (or "looped" it) that the average view duration exceeded the video's actual length. This is a massive win and often leads to videos getting picked up by the algorithm and pushed to a much wider audience.

Actionable Advice: Watch your audience retention graph for individual Shorts. Do you see a big drop-off at a specific point? Go back and watch your video to figure out what happened there. Did the energy dip? Was there a long pause? Use that feedback to make your editing tighter on the next video.

3. Subscribers Gained

Views are nice, but subscribers build a brand. This metric shows you a direct line between a piece of content and its impact on your community. When you filter your Shorts by "Most Views," are your top videos also your top subscriber-drivers?

Sometimes, a Short that gets millions of views might only generate a handful of subscribers if it’s pure, shallow entertainment. On the other hand, a Short with fewer views that provides immense value or shows off your personality might bring in a ton of loyal subscribers.

Actionable Advice: If you find a Short that is bringing in tons of subscribers, treat it like a golden ticket. Your content on that topic, in that style, and with that tone clearly resonates. Make more content just like it. Don't be afraid to create a series or "Part 2" based on your subscriber-winning formats.

4. Likes, Comments, and Shares

While YouTube's algorithm seems to weigh watch time and retention most heavily, engagement signals still play a vital role. They are indicators of how your content makes your audience feel.

• Likes: A quick signal of approval. A high like-to-view ratio (aim for 1 like for every 10-20 views) is a great sign.
• Comments: Indicates that your content sparked a conversation or an emotional reaction. Answering comments can further boost this engagement.
• Shares: A strong indicator that your content was so valuable or entertaining that someone wanted to send it to a friend.

Actionable Advice: Look at the comments on your best-performing videos. What questions are people asking? What are they reacting to? This is free market research in its purest form. Use it for ideas for your next videos.

Putting It All Together: A Framework for Analysis

Knowing the metrics is one thing, but using them to make better decisions is where the real growth happens. Here's a simple, repeatable process for analyzing your Shorts and building a strategy.

Step 1: Identify Your Winning Content Archetypes

Once you have about 15-20 Shorts posted, go to your analytics and sort them by "Most Views." Ignore the top video for a moment (sometimes one just gets lucky) and look at the cluster of videos in your top 2-5 spots. Ask yourself:

• What do these top videos have in common?
• Are they a specific format (e.g., talking head, tutorial, comedy sketch)?
• Do they address a specific sub-topic within your niche?
• Is there a common editing style (e.g., fast cuts, text overlays, specific background music)?
• What kind of hook did you use in the first 2 seconds?

This simple exercise will help you identify what type of content your audience has already voted for with their attention. Your job isn't to reinvent the wheel every time, it's to find out what works and iterate on it.

Step 2: Diagnose Your Underperforming Videos

Now, do the opposite. Sort your Shorts by "Fewest Views." For a video that didn't do well, run through this diagnostic checklist:

My Short Got Served in the Feed, but Few People Watched It

If "Shown in Feed" is high but "Viewed" is very low (leading to a poor view-through rate), the problem is your hook or opening. For whatever reason, people didn't stop scrolling. Your visual wasn’t engaging, your title fell flat, or the first second of audio wasn’t interesting.

My Short Got Watched, but Almost No One Finished It

If your view-through rate was decent (say, 50%+) but your audience retention is terrible (below 60%), the problem is your content's payoff. Your hook worked, but the rest of the video didn't live up to the promise. You have to ask yourself: Was it too slow? Did it get boring? Was the information not as valuable as you thought?

By diagnosing whether the problem is the hook or the payoff, you can focus your creative energy on a specific part of the process instead of just guessing why a video failed.

Step 3: Analyze Audience and Traffic Sources

Finally, zoom out to your channel-level analytics. Two charts are particularly helpful:

• When your viewers are on YouTube: Found under the "Audience" tab, this chart shows you the days and hours your audience is most active. Use this data to schedule your Shorts to go live about an hour before peak time, giving the algorithm time to index and start pushing it as your audience logs on.
• Traffic Sources: Found under the "Reach" tab, this shows you where your views are coming from. For Shorts, the primary source should always be the "Shorts Feed." If you're getting significant traffic from "YouTube Search," pay attention to the keywords in the titles of those videos - you've successfully tapped into what people are looking for.

Final Thoughts

Analyzing your YouTube Shorts performance moves you from being a creator who guesses to one who knows. By consistently tracking metrics like view-through rate and audience retention, you can better understand your audience and intentionally craft content that resonates, turning simple data points into meaningful channel growth.

At Postbase, we believe that focusing on your content shouldn’t be complicated by clunky, hard-to-understand tools. That's why we’ve built an analytics dashboard that brings all your performance data - from YouTube to TikTok to Instagram - into one clean, simple view. It's about spending less time hunting for numbers and more time acting on insights, so you can get back to creating.