The Essential Guide to YouTube Competitor Analysis

If you didn’t already know, YouTube is kind of a big deal

It’s the second most visited website in the world, the second biggest search engine (check out the latest top YouTube searches) and the most searched term on Google year after year.

When 55% of customers say they have a preference for video content from brands they follow, it’s fair to say that video marketing is an absolutely vital strategy for marketers

And, when over 1 billion hours of videos are watched every day, YouTube has become a fierce battleground for the attention of millions worldwide.

The key to winning in such a competitive YouTube arena? Knowing your competition inside out.

In this guide, we talk through how to conduct a thorough YouTube competitive analysis to reveal your closest competitors’ YouTube strategies, get more views on YouTube, uncover gaps and opportunities, and find the insights you need to improve your channel’s visibility and reach.

What is YouTube competitor analysis?

YouTube competitor analysis is the process of examining the strategies, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of your closest YouTube rivals.

You deep dive into their video content, assess their audience and engagement levels, analyze their target keywords and review their video marketing and SEO strategies.

All in an effort to dig out what works (and doesn’t work) in your small corner of a vast YouTube world.

Why is YouTube competitors’ analysis so important?

Did we mention that YouTube is one of the most influential platforms in the world? It really is the place to be for marketers wanting to tap into a broad and engaged audience.

But, competition is as significant as the platform itself. Your rivals are likely to try and steal your YouTube traffic and eat into your share of audience attention at every turn.

That’s why it’s so important to undertake regular competitive analysis to learn from your competitors’ wins and losses, keep abreast of new trends and changing preferences, and understand the opportunities and threats within your niche. Luckily we’ve got the competitive analysis tools to help.

10 benefits of YouTube competitor analysis

YouTube Competitive analysis helps you:

1. Evaluate and contextualize your video marketing performance
2. Collect ideas and inspiration to boost your video strategies
3. Learn from your competitors’ most successful tactics
4. Spot gaps and find opportunities that your competitors have missed
5. Enhance your SEO strategies by analyzing their keywords, titles and descriptions
6. Benchmark video quality and engagement levels
7. Get a sense of what resonates with your shared target audience 
8. Understand your audience’s interests and preferences on a deeper level
9. Identify new trends in video, as well as within your industry
10.  Set achievable goals for your video marketing campaigns

How to analyze your YouTube competitors

1) Identify your closest YouTube rivals

This is the easy bit. Simply head to the YouTube search bar to find channels similar to yours.

Enter in your target keywords, or any related to your niche, and see which channels and influencers appear high up in the search results. Zone in on the ones with a similar number of subscribers and views – these are your closest YouTube competitors.

Even if you don’t yet have a YouTube channel, understanding who you’ll be up against is an important part of your initial research.

2) Reveal your competitors’ audience

Before you peel back the layers of their YouTube strategies, take some time to get a general sense of their reach and performance outside of the platform.

Start off by gathering intel about your competitors’ target audience.

Use Similarweb’s Audience Overlap Feature to discover everything you need to know about those who regularly consume their content.

Simply type in your website and up to 4 competitors to see how their audience data compares with yours. Firstly, gauge the extent of your audience overlap:

Then, dive into the analysis of their audience demographics to identify which genders and age groups your competitors’ content resonates with most:

Dig a little deeper to see your competitors’ engagement metrics by gender and age:

This insight helps you understand your shared target audience on a deeper level so you start making engaging and targeted videos that hook in the right demographic.

3) Analyze your competitors’ overall performance

Continue your analysis by delving into their overall website performance to assess their traffic trends, cross-platform presence, and engagement levels.

Similarweb’s Website Performance overview gives you all the data you need for a high-level analysis. Type in a competitor’s website and see their visits, engagement metrics and marketing channel distribution:

Our comprehensive overview even lets you zero in on social traffic distribution. As seen below, you can compare how much social traffic you and your competitors are getting from YouTube specifically (and other social platforms):

While netflix.com dominates almost everywhere else, it appears that disneyplus.com has a clear lead when it comes to YouTube traffic. You can head straight to their YouTube channel to discover why (but we’ll get to that properly later on.)

4) Dive into some keyword analysis

It’s keyword research time! Deep dive into your competitors’ top keywords to get more insight into the kind of content your target audience wants to consume.

Looking at your competitors’ traffic-driving keywords will shine a light on the interests, pain points, common questions, topics, themes and trends you should be targeting in your YouTube content and attributes.

Step 1 – Competitive keyword research

Find your competitors’ top keywords using Similarweb’s Keyword Analysis tool:

Our keyword research tool helps you qualify relevant keywords for your own strategy by looking at the search volume, search intent and SERP features. These metrics will help you gauge whether the keywords will work for your specific business and audience niche.

Step 2 – Keyword inspiration

With the list of keywords you’ve found, head over to Similarweb’s YouTube Keyword generator to find a goldmine of similar keywords to add to your target list. This will form the backbone of your YouTube keyword research.

Say, for example, virtual reality is a big trend in your industry, this is an example of the related keywords you could choose from:

Geared specifically to keyword performance on YouTube, you can see the search volume, volume trend and average number of clicks each keyword had over the selected time period.

5) Analyze their YouTube channel and content

The next step is to explore every nook and cranny of your competitors’ YouTube channel

Here’s a step-by-step to ensure you cover all bases:

1) Analyze their video content

Examine the number of videos, the type of video content they post (tutorials, vlogs, reviews etc.), and how often they are posting (daily, weekly, monthly) to spot patterns in their posting schedule.

Then, categorize their videos into themes or topics to better understand their key focus areas and start piecing together their overall video marketing strategy.

2) Review how their channel is organized

Get a general feel for the layout of their channel. Observe how easy it is to navigate, how they categorize their videos, whether they have created playlists (and what themes they follow), and if they have any featured videos.

3) Assess their audience engagement

Gauge how their videos are being received by their audience. Zone in on their video views, like-to-dislike ratios and scan over the comments section to get a sense of viewer feedback.

Identify their most and least successful videos so you know what does and doesn’t appeal to your shared target audience.

4) Analyze audience interaction

You’ve seen how the audience reacts to them, but how do they respond? Assess the interactions they have with users in the comments section. Do they reply back to comments, or encourage viewer engagement with leading questions or calls-to-action?

5) Examine their SEO tactics

Look at how well their channel is optimized for SEO. Check out their video titles, descriptions and tags to see what keywords and key phrases are they using – are they relevant and catchy? Do they include any links or CTAs in their descriptions?

6) Evaluate the quality of their videos

Critique their video and audio quality (resolution and clarity), editing style (transitions, graphics and effects etc.) and overall presentation (storyboarding and structure.) See how their use of imagery and color align with their brand aesthetic.

7) Review their collaborations and sponsorships

Sift through their videos to see if they collaborate with any other brands, YouTube creators or celebrities to help endorse their products or services. This will give you a good idea of their network and reach.

6) Identify content gaps

Now that you’ve spent time analyzing your competitors’ YouTube channels, the next step of our competitive analysis is undertaking some content and keyword gap analysis.

It’s likely their videos have already sparked new content ideas and highlighted a few gaps here and there. But to ensure you’re capitalizing on both their successes and missed opportunities you should leave no stone unturned.

Head to Similarweb’s Keyword Gap tool, enter in your website and up to 4 competitors to see the keywords they are successfully targeting (and you’re not). Filter by ‘Video Search’ and remove branded keywords for the most relevant results possible:

See how much traffic each keyword drives, the competitive traffic share between you and your competitors, and the search volume, intent and difficulty of each keyword to evaluate the most relevant ones to target in your YouTube videos and copy.

Build a new YouTube strategy

By now you should have a wealth of competitive data to leverage in your new and improved video marketing strategy ⚡️

Here’s a quick and easy 3-step action plan:

1) Make new video content

Gather together any new ideas and content gaps discovered during your analysis to begin crafting new, better-than-ever video content.

Thanks to your competitive analysis, you can incorporate:

• Topics, themes and stories that most resonate with the target audience
• Video quality and editing that meets both industry standards and audience expectations
• Effective audience interaction and engagement strategies 2) SEO-optimize your existing content

You’ve now got a shed-load of competitive YouTube keyword data at your fingertips – how can you best leverage it?

You’ve already used your competitors’ high-performing keywords to spark some new video content ideas, so begin optimizing your existing content next.

Optimize your YouTube titles, descriptions and tags with keywords to improve your videos’ visibility and searchability and drive more traffic to your channel.

2) Reorganize and restructure

Lastly, give your channel a bit of a makeover. Take cues from how the most successful competitors organize their content:

• Reorganize your playlists, channel layout and video categorization to enhance user experience
• Make your channel’s homepage as navigable, inviting and user-friendly as possible
• Ensure your most popular and relevant content is clear and accessible to really grab and retain their interest

In conclusion…

This revamped strategy, informed by your thorough competitive analysis, puts you in a position to capture your audience’s attention and differentiate your channel in a crowded and competitive arena.

Remember, the key is to continually adapt and evolve, keeping an eye on the competitive landscape while staying true to your unique brand and content style.

FAQs

What is a YouTube competitive analysis?

YouTube competitor analysis involves evaluating the strengths, weaknesses and strategies of brands similar to yours on YouTube. This process helps you understand what works in your niche within YouTube, allowing you to adapt and improve your own strategies.

Why should you carry out a competitive analysis for YouTube?

With YouTube’s vast influence and the intense competition on the platform, understanding your competitors is key to success. Competitive analysis helps you learn from the successes and failures of similar channels, keeps you updated on new trends and audience preferences, and identifies opportunities and threats within your niche. It’s a vital step to stay ahead and maintain a strong presence on YouTube.

How do you analyze a YouTube competitor?

Once you’ve identified your closest competitors on YouTube, conduct an in-depth analysis of their video content, audience engagement, target keywords, and overall video marketing and SEO strategies.

Which of Similarweb’s tools can you use in your YouTube competitive analysis?

Similarweb boasts a comprehensive range of competitive analysis tools. For a YouTube competitive analysis, Similarweb’s Website Performance Analysis tool helps you assess their overall performance, while our Keyword Analysis tool and dedicated YouTube Keyword Generator help you extract the impactful keywords you need to find new content opportunities and boost your existing content – improving the visibility and reach of your videos.