Views on YouTube don’t matter as much as the actions viewers take off-platform. YouTube Studio and YouTube analytics often push creators toward algorithm wins instead of business wins, so tracking email signups and link clicks is essential.
Below is an AI-assisted summary of the key points and ideas covered in the video. For more detail, make sure to check out the full time stamped video above!
Why YouTube Studio metrics can push you into the wrong content
YouTube Studio Analytics shows what’s good for YouTube, not what’s good for the business. That mismatch steers creators toward algorithm-friendly content instead of content that drives real results.
Here’s what the usual “success” metrics really tell creators:
- Views: what gets clicked and served more often
- Watch time: what keeps people on YouTube longer
- Click-through rate (CTR): what thumbnails and titles trigger clicks
- Subscribers: who’s likely to come back for more YouTube content
Those metrics remain useful, but they don’t answer business questions like which video made someone join the email list or which video drove affiliate link clicks. When only algorithm metrics are visible, it becomes easy to keep making “algorithm content” and ignore the stuff that actually builds the business.
The “top performing” videos (by views) didn’t drive conversions
A 30-day window inside YouTube Studio showed the expected top performers: big view counts and strong platform metrics. Examples included a high-performing “How to use OBS Studio” video, a Canva video editing video, a DaVinci Resolve video, and a video on the best camera apps for iPhone.
Those top-view videos had strong CTR and watch time. If content decisions were made purely from that dashboard, the obvious move would be to double down and make more of the same. The problem: those “best” videos didn’t show whether they were producing email signups or link clicks.
The North Star metric: email signups (not views)
For a business using YouTube strategically, a North Star metric keeps the channel aligned with real outcomes. Email signups matter more than views and subscribers because email enables distribution and deeper engagement.
Email allows sharing content that doesn’t fit inside YouTube videos. Email makes it possible to go deeper and help people get a result. Email builds an ongoing relationship beyond a single watch.
That shift changes what “good content” looks like. The best video isn’t the one that hits the most views—it’s the one that brings the right people into the rest of the ecosystem.
Proof with data: smaller-view videos drove way more leads
Reviewing the top converting videos in the same 30-day period produced surprising results. The OBS Studio video and the high-view Canva video did not appear in the top 10 converting videos. A different Canva video did show up, but the big views winners were not the conversion winners.
One strong example: a video with around 11,000 views in the 30-day window generated 138 leads and 413 link clicks. Digging into that video’s link performance revealed the primary email-list link had 258 clicks and 138 registrations, a 53% conversion rate. That same video also drove affiliate link clicks to tools like Placeit and Artlist.
Another example: a CapCut iPad tutorial with 12,400 views generated 218 clicks and 93 email signups. That equals a 42% conversion rate from just one visible point where people could join the email list. Meanwhile, some videos with millions of views still drove far fewer conversions into the business. Huge reach doesn’t automatically equal meaningful action.
Don’t confuse “adding value” with “driving business results”
High-view tutorial content isn’t bad. It can earn ad revenue, add value to the internet, and be genuinely fun to create. Those things matter in their place.
If the goal is ROI and business growth, relying only on YouTube’s built-in dashboard can lead to poor priorities. Relying on platform metrics can cause time to be wasted on topics that don’t move the needle. It can also lead to chasing subscribers when the real win is building a deeper relationship elsewhere.
Having conversion data gives the power to choose deliberately. Keep making high-view content if it serves a purpose, but prioritize content that attracts the right viewers and gets them to take the next step.
How to track what matters: link clicks, leads, and even sales
An advanced YouTube link tracking tool called Video Stats was built and co-founded in partnership with Jack from Deadline Funnel. The goal: track what YouTube Studio doesn’t show clearly, like email signups, affiliate link clicks, and sales tracking.
That approach removes the need to cobble together multiple tools, which made the data hard to extract and a nightmare to run. Centralized tracking makes the metrics actionable and easier to report.
What Video Stats lets the channel owner see (at a channel + video level)
Inside the dashboard, tracking can include:
- Date-range filtering for clean comparisons
- Link clicks over time for every tracked link in a description
- Leads and opt-ins per day
- Sales counts if sales tracking is set up
An affiliate tracking example showed clicking into an Artlist link with 87 clicks from one video in the last 30 days. The dashboard also showed which videos sent the most clicks to that link across the period. That kind of data helps with content planning and supports brand conversations with real reporting.
Using conversion data to guide content strategy (simple workflow)
Use this process to stop guessing and start making win-win-win content—good for viewers, good for YouTube, and good for the business.
- Pick a North Star metric (email opt-ins is a no-brainer for many businesses). Make sure every content decision ties back to it.
- Track every meaningful link in descriptions (email list, affiliate tools, key resources). Use consistent tracking so the numbers stay clean.
- Review performance on a set window (like 30 days). Compare “top videos by views” against “top videos by conversions.”
- Double down on what converts. Create more topics that attract the right people and lead to signups or clicks, even if they won’t pull millions of views.
- Detach from vanity metrics. Stop treating low views as failure if the video still brings the right people into the business.
Level up results (make content choices that grow the business)
Stop letting YouTube Studio decide what “success” means. Track email signups and link clicks so content choices line up with business goals. Make more of what converts, not just what gets views, and turn YouTube into a real business tool rather than a vanity-metric trap.
