Browser

analyzing-competitor-youtube-content-strategy

Name: analyzing-competitor-youtube-content-strategy
Author: apidojo-io

Analyzes a competitor's YouTube channel content strategy and performance using apidojo's YouTube scraper on Apify. Triggers when the user asks to: analyze what a competitor posts on YouTube, see what video types perform best for a competitor, reverse-engineer a competitor's YouTube content calendar, benchmark your YouTube channel against a competitor, identify content gaps vs. a competitor on YouTube, understand what topics drive views for a competitor, or compare subscriber growth and video performance between two YouTube channels. Returns video cadence, format mix, top-performing topics, view benchmarks, and engagement analysis. Ideal for content marketing teams, YouTube strategists, and brand video teams.

What it does

Analyzing Competitor YouTube Content Strategy

The skill document

Analyzing Competitor YouTube Content Strategy

Reverse-engineers a competitor's YouTube channel by analyzing their last 20-50 videos. Identifies which video topics, formats, and lengths drive the most views and engagement.

Prerequisites

APIFY_TOKEN environment variable set
Optional: Apify MCP server installed

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Notes
`startUrls`	array	Optional	`[]`	YouTube URLs — channels, playlists, Shorts, search results
`youtubeHandles`	array	Optional	`[]`	YouTube channel handles (e.g. `@kurzgesagt`)
`getTrending`	boolean	Optional	`false`	Retrieve trending videos
`keywords`	array	Optional	`[]`	Search keywords
`gl`	string	Optional	`us`	Country code for results (e.g. `US`, `GB`)
`hl`	string	Optional	`en`	Language code (e.g. `en`, `de`)
`uploadDate`	string	Optional	`all`	Upload date filter: `any`, `hour`, `today`, `week`, `month`, `year`
`duration`	string	Optional	`all`	Duration filter: `any`, `short`, `long`
`features`	string	Optional	`all`	Feature filter: `4k`, `hd`, `live`, `cc`, `3d`, `hdr`, etc.
`sort`	string	Optional	`r`	Sort order for search results
`maxItems`	number	Optional	Unlimited	Maximum videos to return
`customMapFunction`	string	Optional	—	JavaScript function to transform each output object

Workflow

Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Scrape competitor's recent videos
- [ ] Step 2: Classify video types and topics
- [ ] Step 3: Calculate performance metrics
- [ ] Step 4: Identify patterns and top performers
- [ ] Step 5: (Optional) Compare with own channel
- [ ] Step 6: Deliver strategy report

Step 1: Scrape Channel

Recommended — run_actor.js (handles waiting, output, and file saving automatically):

# Quick answer (prints table to chat)
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~youtube-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}'

# Save as CSV
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~youtube-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_results.csv --format csv

# Save as JSON
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~youtube-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_results.json --format json

APIFY_TOKEN must be set in environment or .env file.

If Apify MCP is available:

Tool: apify:run-actor
Actor: "apidojo~youtube-scraper"
Input:
{
  "startUrls": [{"url": "[COMPETITOR_CHANNEL_URL]"}],
  "maxResults": 30,
  "type": "video"
}

REST API fallback:

curl -X POST   "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apidojo~youtube-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN"   -H "Content-Type: application/json"   -d '{"startUrls": [{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@competitorhandle"}], "maxResults": 30, "type": "video"}'

Step 2: Classify Videos

video_type:
  TUTORIAL = title contains "how to", "step by step", "guide", "tutorial"
  LIST = title contains "top [N]", "[N] best", "[N] things", "mistakes"
  REVIEW = title contains "review", "tested", "worth it", "vs"
  THOUGHT_LEADERSHIP = opinion, trend analysis, "the future of", "why"
  NEWS = title contains news, announcement, breaking
  CASE_STUDY = "how [brand] grew", "inside", "behind the scenes"

video_length_tier:
  SHORT = < 5 min
  MEDIUM = 5–15 min
  LONG = 15–30 min
  DEEP_DIVE = > 30 min

Step 3: Performance Metrics

view_ratio = viewCount / subscriberCount  # corrected by subscriberCount at time of analysis

engagement_rate = (likeCount + commentCount) / viewCount * 100

publish_cadence = total_videos / (date_range_weeks)  # videos per week

Top performer: Sort by viewCount; also identify hidden gems where engagement_rate > 2× channel average despite lower views.

Step 4: Edge Cases

Channel is very new (< 6 months, < 20 videos): Reduce videos_to_analyze to all available; note limited sample
Views are all very low (< 1K per video): Channel may be struggling or niche is very small; provide absolute numbers, not just ratios
One mega-viral video skews averages: Report median views alongside mean; flag outlier
Channel posts in multiple languages: Group by language; analyze each cohort separately

Output Format

# Competitor YouTube Strategy: [CHANNEL_NAME]
Videos analyzed: [N] | Subscribers: [N] | Avg Views: [N] | Avg Eng Rate: [X%] | Date: [DATE]

## Content Mix
| Video Type | % of Videos | Avg Views | Avg Eng Rate | Best Example |
|-----------|------------|-----------|-------------|-------------|
| Tutorial | [X%] | [N] | [X%] | [title] |
| List | [X%] | [N] | [X%] | |
| Review | [X%] | [N] | [X%] | |

## Video Length Performance
| Length Tier | % | Avg Views | Avg Eng Rate |
|------------|---|-----------|-------------|
| Short (< 5min) | [X%] | [N] | [X%] |

## Top 5 Videos (by Views)
| # | Title | Type | Views | Likes | Comments | Length | Eng Rate |
|---|-------|------|-------|-------|----------|--------|---------|

## Publishing Cadence
Videos/week: [X] | Best day to publish: [Day] | Monthly trend: [↑/↓/flat]

## Key Opportunities vs. Their Strategy
1. [Gap: e.g. "No case studies — this format gets 3× their avg views when they do it"]
2. [Opportunity]
3. [Their weakness]

Troubleshooting

Scraper returns channel page but no videos: Try direct video search for channel name as keyword; some channel URLs need the /videos suffix. View counts are very low for an established channel: Channel may have declined — check publish date of latest video; may be dormant. Can't determine channel subscriber count from scrape: Use the video view-to-video count ratio as a proxy for channel health when subscriber count is unavailable.

Related skills

AdMapix

Fetch raw ad creative, app, ranking, and revenue data from AdMapix as structured JSON.

by fly0pants4.3k installs296 stars

Join meeting

Join a video meeting as an AI bot with voice, avatar, and screenshare across four operating modes.

by johnpatternai22 installs8 stars

SEO (Site Audit + Content Writer + Competitor Analysis)

Site audit, content writing, and competitor analysis for organic search rankings.

by Iván574 installs31 stars

Productivity

Find why your productivity system keeps failing, then apply the smallest fix — capacity math, bottleneck routing, durable local notes.

by Iván855 installs69 stars

diagram-generator

Generate and edit Draw.io, Mermaid, and Excalidraw diagrams from natural language using a structured JSON spec.

by nssa.io1.0k installs47 stars

Memory

Stores durable facts in a categorized, plain-markdown vault on disk, alongside your agent's built-in memory.

by Iván559 installs18 stars

More from apidojo-io

Browse all skills

tracking-twitter-thought-leaders

Identifies and tracks thought leaders and key voices in any industry on Twitter/X using apidojo's scrapers. Triggers when the user asks to: find the top voices in an industry on Twitter, identify thought leaders in a niche, discover who has the most influence in a topic area on X, find experts tweeting about a subject, build a list of influencers to engage with on Twitter, track who is gaining followers fastest in a category, or identify key opinion leaders in a field for PR or partnership outreach. Returns name, handle, follower count, engagement rate, bio keywords, and recent top tweets. Ideal for PR teams, community managers, and B2B content marketers.

by apidojo-io1 installs

building-twitter-prospect-lists

Builds targeted B2B prospect lists from Twitter/X profiles and posts using apidojo's Twitter scrapers on Apify. Triggers when the user asks to: find Twitter users with a specific job title or keyword in bio, build a list of founders or executives on Twitter, find people tweeting about a topic for outreach, identify potential customers on X, scrape Twitter profiles matching an ICP description, find decision-makers in a specific industry on Twitter, or export a list of leads from Twitter bios. Returns name, username, bio, follower count, location, and recent tweet samples per prospect. Ideal for B2B SDRs, growth hackers, founder-led sales teams, and partnership managers.

by apidojo-io1 installs

extracting-tiktok-comments-for-research

Extracts and analyzes TikTok comments from any video or creator using apidojo's TikTok Comments scraper on Apify. Triggers when the user asks to: scrape TikTok comments from a video, analyze what viewers say about a TikTok post, extract comment data for sentiment analysis, find top comments on a viral TikTok video, collect TikTok user feedback from comments, build a dataset of TikTok community reactions, study audience sentiment on TikTok content, or research what a target audience cares about from TikTok comments. Returns commenter username, comment text, likes on comment, reply count, and timestamp. Ideal for market researchers, brand managers, content creators, and academic researchers.

by apidojo-io1 installs

finding-trending-twitter-topics-for-content

Finds trending Twitter topics and conversations for content ideation using apidojo's Twitter scrapers on Apify. Triggers when the user asks to: find trending topics on Twitter for content, discover what is being discussed in a niche on X right now, identify Twitter conversations to join with content, find trending hashtags in an industry on Twitter, research what topics are generating engagement in a space on X, discover viral tweet themes for blog or video content, or find what your target audience is talking about on Twitter this week. Returns trending topics, tweet volume signals, top engagement posts, and content angle suggestions. Ideal for content marketers, social media managers, newsletter writers, and real-time content teams.

by apidojo-io1 installs

finding-youtube-micro-influencers

Finds YouTube micro-influencers and niche creators using apidojo's YouTube scraper on Apify. Triggers when the user asks to: find YouTube channels under 100k subscribers in a niche, discover emerging YouTube creators for sponsorship deals, find YouTubers covering a specific topic, identify high-engagement YouTube channels with smaller audiences, build a YouTube influencer outreach list, compare YouTube channel growth rates in a category, or find YouTube channels for affiliate or brand partnership programs. Returns channel name, subscriber count, total views, average views per video, and contact info. Ideal for brand sponsors, podcast networks, and affiliate marketing teams.

by apidojo-io1 installs

finding-youtube-sponsorship-candidates

Finds YouTube channels suitable for brand sponsorships using apidojo's YouTube scraper on Apify. Triggers when the user asks to: find YouTube channels to sponsor, discover YouTubers who accept brand deals in a niche, identify YouTube influencers for mid-roll or integration sponsorships, find channels that already run sponsors in a product category, research YouTube sponsorship opportunities for a brand, identify high-CPM YouTube audiences for B2B or SaaS sponsorships, or build a YouTube outreach list for a sponsorship campaign. Returns channel name, subscriber count, avg views, engagement rate, niche, and sponsorship history. Ideal for brand partnerships managers, SaaS marketing teams, and sponsorship agencies.

by apidojo-io1 installs