YouTube Playlists are an important tool because they allow you to organize your videos and, most importantly, turn one view into many views. Playlists help you take control of how your videos are displayed and discovered, letting you choose which content appears prominently alongside your video rather than leaving it up to YouTube. They also give you an easy way to surface and share the content that you want your viewers to check out, including your own videos and videos from other YouTube channels.

Playlists Overview in YouTube Analytics

There are a number of ways to direct your viewers towards watching in Playlist mode. Try using spoken calls to action in your videos, encouraging your viewers to watch a Playlist, or informing them of ones they might not know about. YouTube Annotations, InVideo Programming, and Cards can also help you point your viewers to Playlists. Perhaps most importantly, sharing Playlist links instead of individual video links will ensure that your viewers enter into Playlist mode, making them more likely to watch multiple videos and stay on your channel longer.

Playlist-Level Overview

Advanced Playlist features will help you make your Playlist more effective. Write a short description to let viewers know what they are watching, which can help your Playlist to be found through search and discovery. Set in-and-out points to remove part of a video or cut opening and closing credits. In Playlist Settings, you can choose the privacy of your Playlist and automatic or manual ordering of your videos. You can also choose whether or not you want to allow embedding of your Playlist. Choose the “Official Series” feature to keep the strictest order possible for your videos (ideal for sequential videos like parts of a movie, videos for songs on an album, etc.). It’s helpful to keep in mind that Official Series Playlists can only include videos from your own channel.Finally, keep an eye on how your Playlists are performing through the use of analytics. Click on Playlists in YouTube Analytics to see which Playlists are getting the most views and watch-time. Click on a specific Playlist for a detailed breakdown of viewing activity to get a better idea of if that Playlist is reaching your personal goals and increasing your channel’s overall watch-time.