Good YouTube video creation requires tracking many different steps. A traditional spreadsheet will help, but spreadsheet.com has several modern data types that will allow you to upload thumbnails, store playlist names in a related table, and view your data as a Kanban or Gannt chart.
The content of the video itself is the most crucial aspect of a good video. However, the other factors described below will directly impact the success of your YouTube channel. Ultimately, you want to create engaging thumbnails, curate playlists of similar content, and have end screens that encourage viewers to watch another video.
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Contents
Video Tracker Overview
This spreadsheet template helps you track the elements of YouTube video creation. When you use this template as a guide, your content will develop logical connections encouraging your viewers to continue watching and learning from your channel. YouTube rewards creators whose content engages a viewer. Higher thumbnail click-through rates, longer watch time, and longer total viewing sessions all lead to better engagement.
Let’s dive into the fields available in this template and how they will help your videos succeed.
Video Explanation
Video Title
The title of your video needs to clearly describe what the video is about while also instilling curiosity. Titles typically are not repeated, so treat the first column as a unique name identifying each video. This column is a good choice for the primary column of the spreadsheet since it works as a descriptive label in other views such as Kanban or Gantt chart.
You can specify this column as the Text data type. Still, I have left it as Automatic as spreadsheet.com recognizes that values as text, and we do not need any additional functionality from the column.
Every row below the header row will show as a card in the Kanban view. Values from the primary column, the video titles, in this case, show as the label for the card.
Custom Thumbnails
The first and arguably most important way to increase views is to have a thumbnail that makes your potential viewers want to learn more. As a result, your thumbnail should grab the viewer’s attention, hint at the video’s subject matter, and lead them to think the video will answer their question.
This column uses the Attachment data type, which allows you to upload the image file of the thumbnail. You can use this field as file storage for the images, and it also allows you to see a thumbnail preview. You can change the size of the thumbnail. In this case, Medium displays the image well enough without making the rows too tall.
Choosing Strict as an option ensures the column does not accidentally take text or number values.
YouTube Video Link Tracking
Each video has a link that leads a viewer directly to that video on youtube.com. With this in mind, this YouTube tracker keeps these links handy, allowing you to jump directly to that video for quick viewing.
The template uses the URL data type for this column. This data type ensures that only valid website addresses can be entered, thus reducing data entry errors.
Status Drop Down
YouTube videos can spend quite a bit of time in different stages of development before you post them as a public video. You may want to look at your videos sorted by stage of development. Using the Select data type allows you to view videos by status.
The Select data type inserts a dropdown box into each cell that limits the choices.
The Select data type enables other functionality, such as the Kanban view shown below. Since there are a limited number of choices, you can use Select data types to sort the Kanban board.
The project management-centered view of a Gantt Chart uses this field. A Gantt Chart is another type of visual representation that is not available in a traditional spreadsheet.
Start and Finish Dates
Start and end dates are only required in this YouTube tracker spreadsheet if you use the Gantt chart view shown above. Also, these dates will help you to understand how long each video takes to produce.
Checkboxes
Your information structure may be different, but written content on a blog often accompanies a video. In the case of learnpsreadsheet.com, there is also a template associated with each video and page. Checkboxes are a method to visualize a boolean value. With the template and related blog fields, there are only two values for each. You have completed the blog page for the template, or you have not.
YouTube End Screen Tracking
Each video should have an end screen to encourage the viewer to watch another video. This template uses your existing video titles as choices using the Related row data type. The Related row links the values in this column to the values in another column of your choosing. In this case, it is a column in the same worksheet, but it could be to another file or worksheet if needed.
Duration, % Complete, and Assigned To
You will see the Duration, % Complete, and Assigned to columns. These are optional to use depending on if you plan to utilize the Gantt view. The % complete will control the display of the horizontal progress bars.
Playlists
Playlists can bring extra traffic to your videos by providing an alternative organization method. They should have 3 to 6 videos and enticing names indicating what the viewer will gain from watching them. Don’t make the mistake of thinking bigger is better for the size of the playlist. Keep them small so that a viewer can get through the videos in one sitting.
You can bring in multiple values to the YouTube tracker with Related fields, as seen here. Each video can be in more than one playlist.
The second worksheet of this YouTube tracking template contains the names of the playlists in one column and the videos in them in the other column.
The Videos field is the Related row data type with the ability to select multiple rows as values. The relationship can be one or two-way. In this case, it is 2-way since you can update either side.
Success with the YouTube Tracker
Let us know how this YouTube tracker works for you. We hope it brings success to your goal of serving your YouTube videos to an ever-growing audience.