What is YouTube Creator Studio and How Can It Grow Your Channel?

Due to its unique history, YouTube is one of the most intriguing social media channels today. What originally started as a failed online dating site back in 2005, quickly became the world's leading hub for sharing and watching videos. In their iconic statement, the Founders addressed the pivot by explaining: “Why not let the users define what YouTube is all about?”. This commitment to always focusing on what users want has helped YouTube garner 1.7 billion unique monthly visitors.

Today, with entertainment at the forefront of what users desire, YouTube is in never-ending competition with other social giants like TikTok and Instagram for users' attention, and creators are the driving force behind entertaining content in this new era. Due to the platform's many years of experience, it's no surprise that YouTube is able to serve as a highly effective tool for creators to manage and share their entertaining content— particularly through YouTube Creator Studio. 

What is YouTube Studio?

Simply put, YouTube Creator Studio or YouTube Studio is a home for content creators. Creators and brands have access to a number of features not available to regular YouTube users within it, including a YouTube Dashboard that provides an overview of your account, a Playlist Generator, Analytics, a Comments section, and even a Subtitles feature. And last but not least, a library of audio files and channel customization tools are also available. In essence, YouTube Creator Studio provides everything you could possibly need to create engaging YouTube content. For creators, it offers a great platform for tracking their entire channel, including copyright and monetization—factors that are not always straightforward.

How Can YouTube Studio Benefit My Brand Channel?

Investing time into learning how YouTube Studio can help your brand create content more effectively and build audience engagement, can help you gain more knowledge about how to make it work for your brand. Small yet significant elements can substantially impact your channel's performance when handled correctly. The Comments section is an example of this. It's a single dedicated space where creators can monitor and respond to comments in real-time instead of going to every video and scrolling for hours. You can apply filters based on whether questions are being asked, comments are being reviewed, or you have yet to respond to. Ultimately, this type of control will lead to a more active community and higher brand engagement.

Subtitles is another great feature within the Creator Studio as it allows you to add and edit subtitles for your videos. By adding subtitles in various languages, you're welcoming users from around the world to enjoy your content, rather than just those who speak the language it was originally created in. Using Customization, brands can select their video spotlight and see how their channel is laid out to give users the best first impression. There are many other features of YouTube Studio that make it an excellent tool for brands on the channel.

How to Use YouTube Studio

Since YouTube has been around for 15 years, it has had plenty of time to perfect its creator experience. Thus, one of the best aspects of YouTube Creator Studio is its simplicity and user-friendliness. Below are some tips to help you start using YouTube Studio right away and grow your channel. 

YouTube Dashboard

When you sign in to YouTube Studio, the YouTube Dashboard will first greet you. This feature provides an overview of your channel's performance, as well as a News and Creator Insider feature to keep creators informed and inspired. Additionally, you can drill down into what's new within YouTube Studio at the bottom of your YouTube Dashboard, which lets you stay up to date on new features and updates. Besides general info on creator safety and upcoming policy changes, there is also a bullet point dedicated to New Creator Tips, which gives deeper meaning to monetization and more. 

Content 

The Content Tab is where Creator Studio users can see all the content they have posted in a snapshot. Each video will display a thumbnail, visibility, restrictions (if any), the date it was posted, how many views it has accumulated, and likes versus dislikes. Suppose you want to narrow down exactly which piece of content you are interested in accessing or learning more about. In that case, you can also filter your content by age restriction, description, copyright claims, made for kids, title, views, and visibility. If you have live content, this will also be stored within the Content Tab.

Although the actual editing of your content will take place outside of YouTube Studio, there are still some editing features available within the Content Tab’s editing feature. Using this tool, you will prepare your videos for posting by editing their titles, descriptions, thumbnails, tags, and more. This step is crucial, so do not skip it and ensure that the tags you add are relevant to the content you are creating, as it will help users find you and your videos. Creating a good title and thumbnail can really set your content apart from the rest. Ensure they are eye-catching, engaging, and honest, so users will know what to expect when they click on your video. And finally, a great description is concise and gives the users any additional information or links they may need regarding the content you have created. 

Playlists

The Playlist tab is one of the best features within YouTube Studio, and we’ll explain why. It may seem simple, but playlists can be highly beneficial to your channel as organizing your content means that users can easily find what they're looking for. How you organize your playlists depends on what's right for you, but most brands manage their playlists by latest videos, product releases, reviews, lifestyle, or behind-the-scenes. In addition, playlists are set up to play automatically, so users can keep watching your related content without having to do anything.

Analytics

Now that you've created content with YouTube Studio, it's time to analyze performance, and the YouTube Analytics tab is where brands can evaluate their efforts. The Overview function allows users to see live views, watch time in hours, and see subscriber growth live, as they update in real-time. In the Content function, you can see specific analytics about your published content, while the Audience tab provides data on returning viewers, unique viewers, and subscribers. You will also be able to see when your viewers are on YouTube, what other channels and videos they view, and what demographics they belong to. 

As if these weren't enough, you can also explore what viewers are looking for on YouTube under the Research section. Knowing the content and products users search for puts you one step ahead of the competition. Rather than wondering what users want, you'll know right away. This information will help inform what type of content you make next and ensure that you are consistently on the right track.

Additional YouTube Studio Tools

There are more features within the YouTube Creator Studio than YouTube Dashboard, Content, Playlists, and Analytics. As previously mentioned, Comments, Customization, and Subtitles are fantastic features, but the Creator Studio goes one step further with Copyright, Audio Library, and Monetization. Copyright allows your brand to submit or receive removal requests, Audio Library lets you access copyright-free music for use in your content, and the Monetization tab shows you how much money you can earn from your content. However, it is important to note that new YouTubers need a minimum of 1000 subscribers and 4000 public watch hours before they are eligible for monetization. 

YouTube Insights by Dash Hudson

A lack of tangible insights can make it challenging to communicate performance to your teams and stakeholders other than with large decks and spreadsheets. Consequently, it has become mandatory for any social media channel, especially YouTube, to provide analytics to its users. While the analytics provided by YouTube Studio are definitely useful, they often fail to reveal the bigger picture or what to do next. YouTube Insights by Dash Hudson has the answers.

These customizable insights tailored specifically to YouTube remove the guesswork that can come with social reporting by showing brands exactly what their analytics mean and allowing them to organize this data in a way that makes sense to them. Marketers can choose exactly how they want to interpret and present their analytics—generally, granularly or both. 

Beyond metrics and insights, Dash Hudson will help with competitive insights and benchmarking, scheduling videos, segmenting, and surfacing top-performing content, and managing your valuable community on YouTube. By using YouTube Studio’s analytics in tandem with Dash Hudson, brands are guaranteed to see success in growing their channel. 

FAQs

How to get to YouTube Studio?

YouTube Studio can be accessed in multiple ways from the YouTube homepage. The first method is through the menu on the left side of the page. Scroll past Subscriptions and Explore to More From YouTube. Under this heading, you will see Creator Studio. 

You can also access it through your profile image, which is located in the top right-hand corner of the page. You will see a dropdown menu with a YouTube Studio option when you click on your image. You can use this option on your mobile device as well.

Is YouTube Creator Studio free?

Yes, YouTube Creator Studio comes free of charge with your YouTube account.

How do I enable creator studio?

To have access to Creator Studio, you must have a YouTube channel, not just a Google account. In order to do this, you simply need to click on YouTube Studio, or Creator Studio options on YouTube, and if you don't have a channel, it will prompt you to create one. Once you do this, you will have enabled YouTube Creator Studio.

How to edit videos in YouTube Studio?

YouTube Studio does not allow extensive editing of videos, but it does allow minor edits like trimming. To do this, sign into your YouTube Creator Studio account and select Content from the menu on the left-hand side. Click either the thumbnail or title of the video you want to edit and then select Editor from the left menu.