A Glossary of YouTube Terms and Acronyms



50 Random Facts About Me 
A YouTube video that gives the audience insights into a YouTuber’s life by him or her running through 50 random facts about himself or herself.

AVV 
Average video views.

Bitly 
Shortened, trackable URLs.

Challenge

A video focused on a specific challenge. The objective of a cinnamon challenge video, for example, is to watch people trying to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon in under 60 seconds without drinking anything. A chubby bunny challenge involves putting as many marshmallows in one’s mouth as possible.

Channel
A collection of videos uploaded by a particular YouTube content creator.

CPA 
Cost per action. An advertiser pays when the desired action has occurred.

CPM 
Cost per mille or cost per thousand views. On YouTube, CPM is discussed when brands are paying for ads on the network and also when YouTubers are being compensated as part of YouTube’s partnership program. Estimates of YouTube CPMs range widely with most between 25 cents and $9.

CTA 
Call to action. Call-to-action overlays appear when a video begins and can be closed by the viewers. They share information about the content of videos. When viewers click on the call-to-action overlays, they are directed to external Web sites.

CTR 
Click-through rate. A good click-through rate on YouTube is 2 to 5 percent, but multi-channel networks claim some channels will achieve 25 to 30 percent click-through rates.

Draw My Life 
YouTubers literally sketching out their lives in videos.

Haul 
A video showing merchandise purchased during a shopping trip. Recently, searching for “clothing haul 2013” and “makeup haul 2013” has been rampant on YouTube. At one point this year, those searches rose by more than 1,000 percent.

Homepage Takeover

A homepage masthead allows an advertiser to take over the YouTube homepage for a day.

Hitting Pan
Finishing a makeup product.

Merch Annotations 
Annotations allow text and links, including to external retailers, to be layered on top of YouTube videos. YouTube’s shoppable video annotation is a channel gadget that allows viewers to move from watching how-to videos to finding retailers that carry products shown, check availability, compare prices and make a purchase.

MCN or Multichannel Network 
An entity affiliated with multiple YouTube channels that works with those channels on their programming, funding, promotional activity, brand partnerships, ad sales and audience development in exchange for a percentage of the channels’ ad revenues.

OOTD 
Outfit of the day or offer of the day.

Playlist 
A collection of videos that can be viewed sequentially and shared with other YouTube users.

Tag
A video concentrating on one subject. For example, a video called “Getting Ready Tag” is all about getting ready, while “Favorite Things Tag” runs through a YouTubers’ must-haves.

TrueView
A video ad format used by YouTube that gives viewers control over which ads they watch. They can, for example, skip an ad after five seconds. TrueView ads are in-stream, in-slate, in-search and in-display. Marketers pay for TrueView ads only when viewers watch ads and not by impression.

Channel Changers: 5 Key Points

Millennials Heart YouTube Stars: For many Millennial shoppers, YouTube stars and videos are more credible—and more engaging—than the online efforts of mainstream brands.

Noteworthy Numbers: A superstar YouTuber like Michelle Phan has racked up more than 600 million views, while the platform’s rising stars have often reached half that number.

Letting Go: When it comes to relationships between brands and YouTubers, creative control is a contentious issue. Those with experience recommend relinquishing control for credibility.

Teacher’s Pet: Millennials are watching YouTube before they shop, using information gleaned from videos to guide their in-store shopping trips.

Sizing Down: As with all things digital, YouTube’s audience is increasingly viewing content on mobile devices—a key factor for producers to take into account.