Channel: youtube.com/@pointgamepod
Audit date: July 2026
Prepared by: Brendan Cole
Data source: YouTube Studio owner exports (per-video performance, traffic sources, subscription status, demographics, retention curves) covering all 135 videos from channel launch (Nov 2025) through June 2026, benchmarked against comparable basketball podcasts.
Goal of this audit: Assess how Point Game is positioned, packaged, and programmed on YouTube, and identify the highest-impact changes to grow subscribers, watch time, and consistent episode-level viewership heading into Season 3.
Primary KPIs: Subscribers, avg views per episode, watch time per upload, CTR, audience retention
<aside> 🧭
How to read this. YouTube 101 teaches the language. Content Architecture and the Content Audit are the diagnosis. Growth Strategy is the build. Five minutes only? Read the five points below, then the 90-Day Scoreboard at the bottom of Growth Strategy.
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<aside> 1️⃣
This is a click-through problem, not a content problem. YouTube served 1.86M impressions this season, nearly 2 million chances, and the packaging converted 2.75%. The Nate Robinson episode proved 5.73% is possible with the same host and same studio. Fastest lever on the channel.
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<aside> 2️⃣
Episodes lose 55-60% of viewers in the first 90 seconds, then hold beautifully. Cold viewers click a story and get a title card. Fix the open and the entire retention gap versus comparable shows closes in one edit change.
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<aside> 3️⃣
The machine around the show was never built. Clips shipped at the wrong spec (4-7 minutes, 99-286 views), and Shorts went from 15 a month to 2 right as the biggest month arrived. One weekly recording should feed six days of content. It currently feeds one.
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<aside> 4️⃣
Episodes are the business. 91% of watch time, 15.3 subscribers per 1,000 views, fourteen times the rate of Shorts. Everything else exists to feed them.
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<aside> 5️⃣
The cheapest test on the board is already shot. A handful of episodes are still pulling impressions with weak packaging, Shoe Culture got 196K and converted at 1.94%. New titles and thumbnails on those cost minutes, and YouTube re-tests changed packaging. Worth running before the next episode tapes.
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