Check subscriber notifications

Creators often wonder how notifications affect their video views. You can use the 'Subscriber bell notifications' and 'Bell notifications sent' card in YouTube Studio to learn about the impact of notifications. These cards will automatically appear when you have enough reachable subscribers. Learn more about notification options on YouTube.

Were notifications sent to my subscribers?

View subscriber bell notification metrics

Sign in to YouTube Studio.
In the left-hand menu, select Analytics.
Select Audience.
Find the 'Subscriber bell notifications' card.

Learn about subscriber bell notification metrics

The 'Subscriber bell notifications' card gives you an idea of what percentage of your subscribers get notifications from your channel, including: new video uploads, Premieres and live streams.

Subscribers who turned on 'All notifications' for your channel: The 'Subscribers who turned on "All notifications" for your channel' metric represents the percentage of your subscribers that have chosen to get all notifications.

Subscribers who turned on 'All notifications' for your channel and enabled YouTube notifications: The 'Subscribers who turned on "All notifications" for your channel and enabled YouTube notifications' metric tells you what percentage of subscribers have turned on all notifications for your channel. These subscribers also have notifications enabled for their Google Account and device.

If subscribers ring the bell but turn off YouTube notifications for their account or mobile app, they won't count towards this metric. Subscribers who 'enabled YouTube notifications' are signed in and can receive notifications on at least one device. These subscribers have turned on account notifications either:

On a computer under Settings Notifications Channel subscriptions OR
On mobile under Settings Notifications Subscriptions

and have also enabled YouTube notifications on at least one device:

For computers, turn on Settings Notifications Computer notifications
For mobile devices, make sure that YouTube app notifications are enabled within your device's settings

View bell notifications sent metrics

The 'Bell notifications sent' card is automatically shown on the Reach tab of YouTube Analytics when you have enough subscribers. The card is only available for individual videos.

Sign in to YouTube Studio.
From the left-hand menu, select Content.
Click the video's title or thumbnail.
In the left-hand menu, select Analytics Reach.
Find the 'Bell notifications sent' card.

Learn about bell notifications sent metrics

Bell notifications sent: The number of bell notifications sent to subscribers who get all notifications from your channel, and have turned on YouTube notifications for their account and device.
Notifications CTR (click-through rate): The percentage of people who clicked the bell notification that they got about your video.
Views from bell notifications: Views that you got from viewers who clicked a bell notification and immediately watched your video. This number does not include viewers who saw your bell notification and watched your video later. You can get a breakdown of views from app notifications versus email updates in your Reach report.

Subscriber bell notification FAQ

What does 'turned on "All notifications" for your channel' mean?

There are a few different versions of the bell to help viewers understand the different types of YouTube notifications:

All: Subscribers will get all notifications from your channel, except notifications that exceed daily limits.
Personalised: Subscribers will get a customised subset of notifications from your channel.
None: Subscribers will see this version of the bell if they can't get notifications from your channel due to their device settings.

The 'Subscribers who turned on "All notifications" for your channel' metric does not include subscribers who choose to receive personalised notifications, or those who turned off notifications from your channel in their Subscriptions manager or Channel settings. Learn more about settings that impact notifications.

How do I get my viewers to subscribe to all notifications from my channel?

Some viewers will not want to receive all notifications from every channel that they subscribe to. For some, all notifications can be overwhelming and can lead to a viewer turning off notifications altogether.

Encourage your subscribers to choose the notification level that's right for them. If you have viewers who want to get all notifications, but are having trouble getting them, send them the notifications troubleshooter.

I'm below the 'Typical on YouTube' range. Is that bad?

Subscribers who turned on 'All notifications' for your channel

Many channels don't fall in this range and still perform well. Notifications are one of many traffic sources for views (for example: Up next, Home or search). Different channels will see varying percentages of traffic from different traffic sources.

There are many factors that influence whether a subscriber wants to receive all channel notifications all the time. Subscriber notification choice may be influenced by factors like upload frequency, video topics or other channel subscriptions.

Subscribers who turned on 'All notifications' for your channel and enabled YouTube notifications

If you are within the typical range for subscribers who turned on all notifications for your channel, but below the range for notifications enabled, consider asking viewers to use the notifications troubleshooter. These viewers showed interest in receiving all notifications by ringing the bell. They may not know that they're unable to get notifications.

Can I see my subscriber notification metrics for previous time periods?

The Subscriber bell notifications card only shows current metrics. Historical values are not available.

If I get new subscribers, will my subscriber metrics increase immediately?

Subscriber metrics are updated daily, but have a two-day delay. If you post a video on Monday and get new subscribers, they'll be reflected in your metrics on Wednesday.

Bell notifications sent FAQs

How should I use the 'Bell notifications sent' card?

The 'Bell notifications sent' card works together with the 'Subscriber bell notifications' card:

The 'Subscriber bell notifications' card shows what portion of your subscribers clicked the bell to get all notifications from your entire channel. It also shows how many of those subscribers are eligible to get notifications, based on their device and account settings.
The 'Bell notifications sent' card shows how many viewers got your bell notification, clicked it and watched your video. This card also shows the number of subscribers that you had when publishing your video who were eligible to get a bell notification.

How is my notifications CTR different from my thumbnail CTR?

Your notifications CTR represents how many viewers saw a bell notification for your video and clicked it. Your thumbnail CTR represents how many viewers saw your video thumbnail on YouTube and clicked it. Learn more about your impressions and CTR.

Why is my notifications CTR lower than my impressions CTR?

It's typical for your notifications CTR to be lower than your impressions CTR.

People get notifications throughout their day, but can't watch videos. They may be at work or cooking dinner. Your impressions CTR is measured based on activity on YouTube. It represents behaviour from viewers who are actively looking for something to watch on YouTube, rather than viewers in the midst of their day-to-day life.

Why weren't all my notifications sent?

Here are the most common reasons your 'Bell notification sent' may be less than 100%:

Your channel already sent the maximum of 3 video notifications in a 24-hour period.
You published more than 3 videos in a short amount of time.
Your subscriber count changed significantly in the last 24 hours. Learn more.
You changed your video's privacy settings before all notifications were sent.
You skipped notifications for this video.

How do changes in my subscriber count affect my percentage of bell notifications sent?

It's typical for your subscriber count to change often. If for some reason your subscriber count significantly changes just before you publish a video, you may see less than 100% bell notifications sent.

In these situations, we'll still notify all eligible subscribers, but the card may show less than 100% due to reporting delays.

I'm below the 'Typical on YouTube' range for notifications CTR. Is that bad?

There are many factors that influence whether a subscriber will click to open a notification. Viewers may not click on a notification depending on the time of day, what they're doing and so on.

Many channels don't fall in this range and still perform well. Notifications are just one of many traffic sources for views. Other sources include Up next, Home, search, external sources and the Subscriptions feed. Different channels get varying percentages of traffic from different traffic sources.

Can I check the 'Bell notifications sent' card for previous time periods?

Historical values aren't available for the 'Bell notifications sent' card. If you change the date range in YouTube Analytics, the data in the card will stay the same.

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?