YouTube Reporting API adds reach reports with thumbnail impressions and click-through rate

What this means for you

A thumbnail is the small picture people see before they click a video. YouTube now lets apps download two numbers: how many times your thumbnails were shown, and how often people clicked. So your reporting tool can tell you which pictures and titles get the most clicks.

The details

• Report types (channels): channel_reach_basic_a1 with dimensions date, channel_id, video_id; channel_reach_combined_a1 adds traffic_source_type, traffic_source_detail, operating_system and device_type.
• Report types (content owners): content_owner_reach_basic_a1 and content_owner_reach_combined_a1.
• Metrics: video_thumbnail_impressions counts thumbnails shown "for more than 1 second and at least 50% of the thumbnail is visible on the screen". video_thumbnail_impressions_ctr is clicks divided by impressions.
• API: these are YouTube Reporting API bulk reports. Create a job with jobs.create for the report type, then download the daily files. The revision history does not mention matching metrics in Analytics API targeted queries.

What to do next

• Business owners: Nothing.
• Marketers and agencies: Ask your reporting tool to add thumbnail impressions and click-through rate to YouTube reports.
• Developers: Schedule a Reporting API job for the reach report types and map the two new metrics into your data model.