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There are factors to consider before starting your competitor analysis. Those factors determine which info you acquire. The template shared here is the one I personally used while working with smaller YouTubers in competitive niches and the information acquired was relevant to their content production guidelines.
What is Competitor Analysis?
Knowing what others in your niche are doing reveals content gaps, thumbnail hooks, and growth strategies you can adapt—so you don’t reinvent the wheel or miss obvious opportunities.
Competitor analysis means studying other YouTube channels like yours to learn what works and what does not. It helps you make better videos and grow faster by seeing:
- Content strategy (topics, formats, cadence)
- Engagement benchmarks (views, watch-time, comments)
- Audience overlap (shared subscribers, demographics)
- Monetization tactics (sponsorships, merch, memberships)
How to Conduct a Competitor Analysis for YouTube?
When I started out, this question went mostly unanswered. Where do I even start? What do I search? Do I ask ChatGPT?
So, here are simple ways to find out your audience’s demographics:
There are two approaches when it comes to searching for competitors:
Direct: Channels serving the same audience.
Indirect: Channels adjacent to your niche (complementary topics).
You can use different tools to gather channel-level metrics. I’ve listed both free and paid. If cost is an issue for you, free tools will work just as good as paid. It’s a creative process, so don’t stress too much over this.
Free Tools: Social Blade, YouTube Studio Analytics, Google Trends
Paid/Freemium: VidIQ, TubeBuddy, Social Blade Pro
What to track:
- Subscriber growth,
- Average views per video,
- Upload frequency.
Export a competitor’s top 10 videos by views/watch-time.
Note titles (keywords, power words), thumbnails (color, text), length, and publish date.
Think of keywords as “power-ups” for new / smaller channels. Established YouTubers are searched by their names and not the keywords. What does that mean?
You can take the opportunity to rank on keywords to appear in YouTube and Google Searches, which will help you gain organic traffic for the long run.
Free Tools: YouTube Autocomplete, Keyword Tool (free tier), Google Trends
Paid: SEMrush, Ahrefs, VidIQ Pro
Identify high-volume keywords your competitors rank for but you haven’t covered.
Scan comments for recurring questions or pain points.
Note what gets shared on Reddit/Facebook Groups.
Create a simple scorecard (e.g. assign 1–5 for views, engagement rate, topic relevance).
Highlight 2–3 quick-win gaps (e.g., thumbnail style you can adopt, topic angle they missed).
Draft 3–5 video ideas based on uncovered gaps.
Set deadlines for A/B testing titles or thumbnails.
Schedule a bi-monthly review to update your sheet and track your progress.
Tip: Keep your template evergreen by adding a “Last Reviewed” date and keeping one tab for “New Finds”—that way you capture emerging competitors or tactics.