May 19, 2024
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Like you, I frequently encounter videos with millions of views on YouTube. Some creators possess a Midas touch or luck, enabling them to produce viral videos without much effort. However, most full-time YouTubers implement plans and strategies to succeed. For instance, many creators do keyword research to improve their search rankings, discoverability, and visibility. Other users implement several tactics to increase their subscribers.
Although YouTube’s Studio application is robust, many creators use third-party products and services to support planning, strategy, and channel management. One such tool is VidIQ, which is popular among YouTubers. This post will review how it can help you get more views, subscribers, and revenue.
Review Criteria
Many YouTube tools help creators in different areas, from thumbnail creation to marketing to tag generation. VidIQ bills itself as an “audience development and management suite that helps brands and agencies grow their views and subscribers.” It also claims to be an “end-to-end solution.” As such, VidIQ should be able to tackle the following areas:
- Analytics
- Artificial intelligence
- Bulk updates
- Comment management
- Competitor research
- Data backup
- Demonetization prevention
- Marketing and social media
- SEO and keywords
- Tags
- Thumbnail generation
- Tips and insights
- Video optimization
VidIQ Overview
VidIQ launched in 2012 and has its headquarters in San Francisco, California. It offers tools to help creators, marketers, and agencies grow their channels and brand awareness. Its free Chrome browser extension features ratings, search engine optimization scores, keyword research, tag management, analytics, and more. In addition, its web app provides dashboards and charts for various video and channel metrics. Many features are free to access, while others are available through paid plans.
VidIQ has raised $4M in funding through three rounds. Its main competitor is TubeBuddy.
Analytics
Analytics are needed to understand what’s working and not working on your channel and make intelligent and strategic decisions. VidIQ provides video and channel statistics on any user through its browser extension and web application.
Browser Extension
VidIQ’s “Scorecard” is its primary offering. The Scorecard is a side panel that’s brimming with analytics and statistics. The overview section includes a score, views per hour, total views, and duration. The VidIQ score accounts for various data points to determine the likelihood of a video appearing in YouTube search results and related and recommended videos. The rating considers social engagement (across YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook), velocity, and views. The closer a score is to 100, the better.
The social media section highlights Facebook and Reddit engagement stats, such as the number of Facebook likes. Twitter stats sit atop the panel. Historical performance data and trending videos are available for paying users.
A real-time stats bar at the top of a YouTube channel webpage shows views per 60 minutes and 48 hours. Hovering over the data will reveal performance stats regarding views, minutes watched, and subs. Additionally, channel subtotals and ratings are visible without clicking on videos for those details.
The Channel Audit tool displays your month-over-month views, subs, and watch time percentages on the left-hand side of a YouTube webpage. It indicates what videos to “double down on” based on views per hour and subscribers gained. It also highlights top search terms and videos that are improving.
Web Application
VidIQ’s web application isn’t as exciting or impressive as its browser extension. Nevertheless, it does provide some valuable insights.
The analytics tab reveals various statistics for your videos and channel, including views, subscriber metrics, demographics, and viewers by country.
The video tab shows individual video stats, including tags, views, likes, and comments. From this page, you can edit video metadata.
The subscriber tab is a premium feature that identifies what your subscribers are watching and liking. It also reports what channels your subs follow and the best time to post your videos.
Artificial Intelligence
First, VidIQ’s AI video title generator offers unlimited recommendations for better SEO. Secondly, its AI description generator only needs keywords related to your video to create an engaging description. Finally, Daily Video Ideas uses AI to recommend content opportunities.
The AI Coach is a ChatGPT-like chatbot offering information about YouTube growth. For instance, I asked, “How do I get 1,000 subscribers?” Here’s the response I got.
Bulk Updates
Updating videos one at a time is time-consuming. While VidIQ doesn’t process bulk edits to metadata and descriptions, it does support the bulk copying of cards and end screens (and edits to end screens). Those features will increase your productivity.
Comment Management
VidIQ has one feature to help manage comments. Comment templates enable the creation of standardized responses to questions and comments. Suppose you frequently get asked, “What’s the quickest way to reach 1,000 subs?” or something similar. You could answer with your 1000 Subs template that reads, “1,000 subs? No problem. In this video (https://youtu.be/example”), I discuss the fastest ways to reach 100, 1,000, and 10,000 subs.
Competitor Research
The browser extension and web app have competitor tabs. You can compare your channel’s total and cumulative views, subscribers, and uploads to others and review your competitors’ trending videos for different time intervals.
The Scorecard displays every video and channel’s insights, stats, and ratings. For example, compare views for the first 28 days of your video to any video, playlist, or channel.
Data Backup
VidIQ lets you download all your video and channel metadata to a CSV file.
Demonetization Prevention
Demonetization concerns are ever-present on YouTube. VidIQ’s controversial keywords feature identifies words and phrases in your metadata that might be inappropriate for advertisers. For example, the title, “How to Shoot Great Pics With Your Smartphone,” would be identified as potentially troublesome because “shoot” could refer to tragedy or conflict. Since YouTube isn’t transparent about its demonetization practices, VidIQ recommends using its feature as a guide.
Marketing and Social Media
With VidIQ’s Facebook Syndication feature, you can post videos directly from YouTube to your Facebook page. Connect your account to VidIQ, select “send to Facebook,” configure your options, and you’re ready to go.
More great reads:
- 19 Best Tools for YouTubers
- VidIQ Vs. TubeBuddy
- 17 Best AI Tools for YouTube Creators
- 6 Best YouTube Tag Generators
SEO and Keywords
Understanding search engine optimization (SEO) techniques can be a game-changer on YouTube. SEO aims to improve search rankings, discoverability, visibility, and relevance. There are many pre- and post-publishing factors.
The SEO tab on the Scorecard panel provides an SEO score. The score considers actionable and performance factors, such as high-ranking tags, tag count, keywords in the title and description, and more. Stats on creator-suggested content, word count, links in your description, end screens, and external referral links to the video are also visible.
For example, when you search YouTube for “passive income ideas,” VidIQ provides a side panel with actionable keyword insights. You’ll get scores for search volume and competition to assess the probability of ranking for a keyword. Related queries and top keywords are also available. Enable inline keywords to see and copy tags from your competitors.
The web app SEO tab offers keyword research, tag management, and bulk editing tools for paying users. Free users can retrieve up to four results and ratings for related keywords.
The Keyword Inspector displays related keywords, trending videos, scores, and reports. Click on highlighted terms to get more insights.
Tag Management
VidIQ makes managing tags user-friendly and efficient. The terms used for any video are listed on the Scorecard under the video and channel tag headings. You can copy them by clicking the paperclip icon or download them to a CSV file. You can translate, reorganize, and copy tags on your video’s YouTube page and create tag templates to reuse. Furthermore, VidIQ offers tag recommendations and rankings.
Thumbnail Generation
An eye-catching thumbnail stands out and increases click-through rates. VidIQ has a custom thumbnail editor that uses three steps. First, select a video still, solid color, image, or current thumbnail. Second, add text, styles, shapes, and pictures and create templates for future use. Finally, click the save button, and you’re done.
Tips and Insights
VidIQ walks the walk with a robust YouTube channel. It has hundreds of videos featuring tips, ideas, tutorials, strategies, interviews, live streams, Q&A, YouTube news, and promotions. It has a blog with content that differs from its YouTube channel and an online course, Launch a Successful YouTube Channel In Just 30 Days!
Video Optimization
A video optimization checklist identifies what user actions have been taken; for instance, cards and end screens are used. The list consists of ten items and appears on all videos, including your competitors.
Other Features
Would you want to know how a keyword performs or how many views a competitor gets? Trend Alerts enable you to track keywords, categories, and competitors. It’s an excellent tool for keeping tabs on viral and breakout videos. Set up notifications by views per hour and email frequency. Receive email alerts to track trending topics by day, week, or month. Finally, monitor your competitors to see what videos are trending on their channels.
The Most Viewed function supports video creativity and research. Search for the top trending videos using various filters, including terms, category, country, rating, views, and length. This feature goes beyond YouTube’s trending videos to pinpoint what’s performing well.
The Achievements feature monitors your accomplishments and top-performing months for subscribers, views, uploads, likes, hours watched, and comments. It also forecasts when you might achieve other milestones. Case in point, it shows me that I reached 3,000 subscribers on September 28, 2019. Easily share your YouTube achievements on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
VidIQ Rewards offers free products, discounts, and exclusive deals on audio, graphics, video, and other tools. Deals and offers will depend on the customer’s plan. For example, you’ll get 25% off PlaceIt by Envato.
The web app description tab offers a premium feature that enables Description Campaigns. A description campaign allows you to simultaneously add text (including URLs) to all your video descriptions. All URLs in the campaign are shortened with vid.io so that you can monitor click-through rates and performance. Use description campaigns to promote new videos, encourage users to subscribe, and drive traffic to your website and social profiles.
Live Group Coaching sessions with expert YouTubers are available twice monthly. You’ll also get access to previously recorded sessions.
Missing Features
VidIQ is an excellent all-in-one YouTube tool with a myriad of benefits. However, compared to its main rival, TubeBuddy, it’s missing a few capabilities.
VidIQ’s comment template is functional but one-dimensional compared to TubeBuddy’s six comment functions. Secondly, bulk updates would be much better if they included changes to metadata and playlists.
VidIQ doesn’t offer a mobile app or integrate with other apps like Patreon.
Pricing
VidIQ has five plans: Basic, Pro, Boost, Coaching, and Enterprise. In addition, discounts are available for annual billing and multiple channels. For example, the Pro plan costs $10 monthly but can cost as little as $7.50 by paying annually.
| VidIQ Plans | Monthly Pricing | Annual Pricing (25%) | Features |
| Free | $0 | $0 | 8 |
| Pro | $10 | $60 ($5/mo) | 16 |
| Boost | $49 | $294 ($24.50/mo) | 23 |
| Coaching | $199 | $1,908 ($159/mo) | 26 |
| Enterprise | Request a demo | 26+ |
Affiliate Program
VidIQ has an affiliate program. An affiliate program is a way to earn money by sending visitors (traffic) to a website. VidIQ pays a recurring commission of up to 25% per sale, making the program an excellent way to earn passive income.
Grow Your Channel
VidIQ is one of the best YouTube creator tools on the market. It’s packed with extensive features to support the most critical areas of channel development and video optimization and regularly adds new features. Although VidIQ’s Chrome browser extension is much better than its web software, both applications are user-friendly and valuable.
VidIQ excels in analytics and data, competitor research and insights, and demonetization prevention. Its various keyword research tools significantly increase your chances of appearing on the first page of YouTube search results, and its tag research and management capabilities simplify the implementation of high-ranking terms. Therefore, VidIQ is a terrific partner for supporting your SEO strategy and increasing your visibility, discoverability, and views. VidIQ has a mobile app for optimizing videos on the go.
Ultimately, VidIQ should be on your shortlist of creator tools to help you succeed on YouTube. Its Scorecard is too valuable not to have on your side. The many video scores and ratings across its apps enlighten and motivate creators to improve their activities. The real-time status bar, overlays, and alerts will keep you informed. Its milestone tracker will ensure you’re moving in the right direction and accomplishing your goals.
Install VidIQ’s free browser extension to boost your views, subscribers, performance, and revenue. You can also test TubeBuddy’s free browser extension alongside VidIQ for a direct comparison.
