The YouTube Glossary

CPM (Cost Per Mille) is the amount advertisers pay per 1,000 ad impressions on a YouTube video, measured before YouTube takes its 45% cut.

RPM (Revenue Per Mille) is the dollar amount a creator earns per 1,000 video views, after YouTube's revenue share and across all monetization sources.

CTR (Click-Through Rate) is the percentage of impressions that turn into clicks on YouTube — the share of viewers who saw your thumbnail and chose to watch.

AVD (Average View Duration) is the average length of time a viewer watches one of your YouTube videos before leaving, reported in minutes and seconds.

Watch Time is the total number of minutes viewers have spent watching your YouTube videos in a given period — the cumulative measure YouTube optimises against.

Retention Rate is the percentage of a video the average viewer watches — the moment-by-moment curve that shows where viewers stay and where they leave.

Engagement Rate measures how often viewers interact with a YouTube video — likes plus comments divided by views — expressed as a percentage.

A YouTube impression is counted each time your video thumbnail appears on a viewer's screen for at least one second and occupies more than 50% of the viewport.

View Velocity is the rate at which a YouTube video accumulates views in the hours and days after publish — a leading indicator of algorithmic recommendation.

The YouTube algorithm is the recommendation system that decides which videos appear on Home, Suggested, Search, and Shorts — optimised primarily for viewer Watch Time.

Browse Features is YouTube's traffic source label for impressions delivered on the Home page and the Subscriptions feed — the largest discovery surface on the platform.

Suggested Videos are the related videos shown next to or after a playing YouTube video — the algorithm's "what to watch next" surface.

A shelf on YouTube is a horizontal row of recommended videos grouped by theme — like "Shorts," "Live now," or "Recommended for you" — displayed on Home or channel pages.

End screens are the interactive elements YouTube creators add to the last 5-20 seconds of a video — links to other videos, playlists, subscribe buttons, or external destinations.

YouTube cards are mid-video pop-ups that link to other videos, playlists, channels, or polls — small interactive elements that appear during long-form playback.

AdSense is the Google product that handles ad payments to YouTube creators — the account where YouTube ad revenue and YouTube Premium revenue are deposited.

YPP (YouTube Partner Program) is the monetization program creators join to earn money from ads, Premium revenue, channel memberships, and Super Chat on YouTube.

Super Chat is a paid live-stream feature where viewers buy highlighted, pinned chat messages — a direct tip from viewer to creator during live broadcasts.

Channel Memberships are recurring monthly subscriptions viewers pay directly to a YouTube creator in exchange for perks like badges, emojis, and member-only videos.

Monetization Eligibility refers to whether a YouTube channel — and each individual video on it — qualifies to earn revenue under YouTube's ad and monetization policies.

Ad revenue is the creator's share of money paid by advertisers to run ads on YouTube videos — the largest income source for most monetized channels.

A YouTube sponsorship is a paid partnership where a creator features a brand or product inside their video — typically as a 30-90 second read or integration.

A brand deal is a paid agreement between a creator and a company for promotional content — broader than a single sponsorship and often spanning multiple videos or platforms.

YouTube Shorts are vertical videos up to 60 seconds long, played in a swipeable full-screen feed — YouTube's answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels.

Long-form video on YouTube is any horizontal upload longer than 60 seconds — the platform's original format and still the primary monetization tier.

A YouTube livestream is real-time video broadcast where viewers can chat and tip the creator during the stream — versus uploaded videos that play on demand.

A YouTube Premiere is a scheduled debut of a pre-uploaded video — viewers watch the upload together at a set start time, with a live chat running alongside.

VOD (Video on Demand) refers to standard pre-recorded YouTube uploads that viewers can watch any time — as opposed to live broadcasts or Premieres.

A vlog is a video blog — a creator-led, often diary-style YouTube video where the creator narrates moments from their daily life or a specific event.

A niche on YouTube is the specific topic or audience a channel focuses on — narrow enough to win against the broader category and broad enough to sustain enough content.

A channel trailer is a short YouTube video that plays automatically for non-subscribed visitors to your channel page — a 30-90 second elevator pitch for new viewers.

The Community tab is a YouTube channel feature for posting text, images, polls, and GIFs directly to your subscribers — a social-media-style layer inside YouTube.

A YouTube playlist is an ordered collection of videos — used to organise content into watchable series and to extend session length by auto-playing the next video.

Channel branding is the consistent visual and verbal identity of a YouTube channel — logo, banner, colour palette, thumbnail style, and tone of voice.

A YouTube subscriber is a viewer who has opted in to follow a channel — receiving its uploads in the Subscriptions feed and (when notifications are on) push alerts.

YouTube demographics are the breakdown of your audience by age, gender, country, and device — the data YouTube Studio shows about who actually watches your channel.

Audience overlap measures the share of your viewers who also watch other specific YouTube channels — useful for spotting competitors and collaboration targets.

YouTube SEO is the practice of optimising videos and channels to rank for search and recommendation — using titles, descriptions, tags, thumbnails, and retention signals.

YouTube tags are creator-set keywords attached to a video that help YouTube understand the topic — a minor SEO signal compared to title and description.

YouTube hashtags are clickable, viewer-visible keywords starting with # — placed in the title or description to help discovery and to surface a video in hashtag-specific feeds.

Title optimization is the practice of writing YouTube video titles that maximise CTR and Search ranking — clear, specific, and intent-matching without being clickbait.

A YouTube thumbnail is the small image representing a video in feeds — the single most important CTR driver and the visual half of the click decision.

YouTube keyword research is the process of finding search terms with real demand and reasonable competition — the foundation of every Search-optimised video.

B-roll is supplementary footage cut over the primary on-camera audio — illustrative clips that visualise what the host is talking about without interrupting the spoken line.

A jump cut is an abrupt edit between two similar shots of the same subject — used on YouTube to remove pauses and tighten the pace of talking-head content.

Color grading is the post-production process of adjusting a video's colours, contrast, and tone — applied for both technical correction and creative stylistic effect.

Lower thirds are on-screen text graphics placed in the lower portion of a video — used to introduce speakers, label scenes, or display key information without interrupting the visual.

YouTube Studio is the official creator dashboard at studio.youtube.com — where channel owners upload videos, edit metadata, check analytics, and manage monetization.

The YouTube API (specifically YouTube Data API v3) is Google's official interface for programmatic access to public YouTube data — channels, videos, comments, playlists, and metadata.

YouTube Premium is the paid YouTube subscription that removes ads, enables background playback, and includes YouTube Music — and pays creators a share of subscription revenue based on watch time.