YouTube Competitor Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide to Growth

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You’ve launched your YouTube channel, you’re posting regularly. You feel the hype and excitement with every new like and comment to your videos and every new subscriber. But let’s be real—you probably have no clear idea if you're crushing it or just coasting. Before you spiral into imposter syndrome and convince yourself you’ll never compete with the top creators in your niche, think again!

You can actually sharpen your strategy and learn from your rivals by making a YouTube competitor analysis. That means real, actionable insights—like engagement tactics that build a loyal community, hidden monetization opportunities, and even potential collabs you never saw coming.

SubSub Analytics is the perfect tool to do all these things the right way. We've been doing this for over a decade, helping creators like you turn raw data into smart strategy.

This guide will walk you through a practical, step-by-step approach to analyzing your competition and turning data into a hands-on action plan.

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Mastering YouTube Channel Growth with SubSub Analytics: The Ultimate Competitor Analysis Workflow

YouTube Creator Studio doesn’t provide insights into your competitors, which makes it harder to size them up and craft a winning game plan. Did you know that content creators spend over 10 hours every week just gathering and processing data manually? Why not spend that time creating, strategizing, or, you know, just chilling? On top of that, most users don’t have the data they need to accurately forecast their organic growth, leaving them guessing instead of making informed decisions.

That’s where SubSub Analytics comes in. SubSub Analytics offers in-depth competitor tracking, detailed video insights, and powerful reporting tools to help you make smarter content decisions. It’s like getting the ultimate backstage pass to YouTube trends, combining market insights with internal analytics for a full 360° view. 

Track competitors, benchmark performance, and craft smarter, data-driven strategies—all without endlessly exploring YouTube pages. With SubSub Analytics, you can set realistic goals, cut down on tedious manual data collection, and say goodbye to costly errors.

Additionally, SubSub Analytics provides seamless access to global trends across various countries and categories. You can explore trending topics without the need to bypass geo-restrictions with the help of a VPN. 

Plus, its video tagging feature allows you to sort sections, shows, formats, guests, and products separately for a more detailed and insightful analysis. Get straight to what matters.

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How to Analyze a YouTube Competitor 

Before diving into the numbers, it’s essential to set up a structured workflow for tracking competitors. This ensures that you stay organized and can easily update your insights as trends evolve. 

Here’s a simple workflow to follow:

1. Identify competitor channels – Use SubSub Analytics’ YouTube Channel Base, Trends, or Similar Search to filter and find channels similar to yours. Or just add your competitors manually if you know them well.

2. Create a collection – Store competitor data in SubSub Analytics’ Collection feature to monitor over time.

3. Track key metrics – Monitor subscriber growth, views, audience engagement, and publishing strategies.

4. Analyze video performance – Use SubSub Analytics’ Video Tracker to compare individual video success.

5. Generate reports – Create a custom report using SubSub Analytics’ report templates for actionable insights.
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This structured approach ensures you consistently track competitor trends and adjust your strategy accordingly. Now, let’s detail each step.

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Step 1:  Make a List of All Your Key Competitors

This may seem obvious—you likely already know your main competitors. However, some niches are far more crowded than others on YouTube. If your YouTube channel focuses on food, travel, fitness, or gaming, you’re up against a much larger pool of creators.

Take a look at the infographic below to see some of the most competitive niches on YouTube.

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That said, your analysis targeting your competitors should go beyond the surface level and find YouTube channels that are in your niche, but very similar to yours, in terms of:

• Content topics
• Subscriber count
• Targeted audience
• Ranking keywords
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Dig Deeper with SubSub Analytics

For a more detailed analysis, tools like SubSub Analytics let you filter YouTube’s vast data by channel base, similar search behavior, and even trending topics. These filters help pinpoint rising channels and search trends, giving you an edge in content strategy.

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Step 2: Create & Manage a Collection in SubSub Analytics

With SubSub Analytics, you can organize and store competitor data in dedicated collections. If you’re wondering what exactly are these “collections”, think of them as your personal database of channels, making it easy to compare performance over time.

How to set up a collection in SubSub Analytics:

First, find relevant channels – use SubSub Analytics’ Filters, Similar Search, and Trends features to discover competitors in your niche.

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Next, add competitors to a collection – store their data in a dedicated collection within SubSub Analytics.

If you keep everything in one place, you’ll have a clear snapshot of your competitors' performance.

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Step 3: Key Channel Metrics to Track & Compare

• Track basic data – collect metrics such as subscriber count, views
• Look for advanced data, like average number of views per video, views-to-subscribers ratio for any of your competitor's videos, or metrics like V/S – the ratio of a video’s views to the number of subscribers on the channel, E/R– the ratio of the number of reactions to the number of views

For instance, for the V/S metric, the typical benchmark is 20-30%; lower percentages suggest a poor audience engagement with the channel.

You can use filters in the search bar to sort channels in descending order by view count, making it easy to see the most-watched ones first.

Then, dive into the data—view it as a whole or break it down by individual channels.

Once you consistently analyze and organize competitor data, you’ll start spotting trends and content gaps that you can leverage for your own channel. The goal isn’t to copy—it's to learn what works and apply those insights to fit your brand and audience.

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SubSub Analytics’ Channel Metrics feature gives you detailed insights into:

1. Subscriber & Views Growth—helping you track:

How fast are their subscribers increasing?

Do they have viral spikes or steady, organic growth?

Are older videos still generating views, or do they rely on new uploads?

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2. Audience Engagement—figure out details like:

What’s their average reaction-to-view ratio?

Which videos spark the most comments and shares?

Are they responding to their audience, fostering community engagement?

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3. Content Format Strategy—analyze your competitors’ approach:

• Are they focusing on long-form videos, Shorts, or livestreams, and which of these video types performs better?
• How does their mix of content formats impact their engagement?
• What’s their most successful content type? Are they using tutorials, vlogs, reviews, or listicles?
• Which topics get the most views on their most popular videos?

Lastly, take a moment to explore their channel’s overall design and structure. Is it easy to navigate? Do they organize their content in a way that makes sense? 

Also, look for any featured videos—these can give you a clue about the content they want to highlight most.

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Step 4: Dive Deeper into Specific Competitors’ Channels

While you can you can compare multiple competitors side by side and track trends over time, you can also closely analyze one YouTube channel at a time. With SubSub Analytics, you can go over specific data points on a competitor’s channel page, like:

• Overall channel data – subscribers, total video uploads, average view count per video.
• Content performance – identify which videos have the highest engagement and why.

Views and engagement in a specific time frame—check number of views and reactions gained ane even for a certain video category.

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Track & Compare Individual Video Metrics

Are you intrigued by the performance of certain videos from your competitors and want to see exactly why they hit the mark? Individual video performance offers valuable insights into what content resonates with audiences. 

SubSub Analytics’ Video Tracker helps you monitor specific videos based on the category and format of videos. This gives you clear clues on what types of videos are popular on your competitors’ channels, so you can replicate the same type of content that resonates with your target audience. It increases the chances of attracting and retaining viewers.

You can identify elements that drive higher engagement, such as video length, style, and presentation. This way, you can track:

1. Engagement (Likes, Comments, Shares)

Probably the juiciest part is uncovering what topics spark the most discussions, shares, and comments. Look closely and find content gaps or areas where their content could be improved.

Sharpening Your Content Strategy with Competitor Insights

A well-executed competitor analysis can shape your YouTube content approach, helping you decide what to create, when to post, and how to better connect with your audience.

1. Build a results-driven content calendar – If top creators in your niche are thriving by uploading twice a week, it might be time to adopt a similar rhythm.
2. Adapt video formats to audience preferences – Noticing that short-form videos are dominating engagement? Consider adding more YouTube Shorts to your strategy.
3. Boost audience interaction with proven tactics – If competitors are leveraging polls, community posts, and pin comments to drive engagement, why not integrate these into your own approach? 

2. SEO & Metadata

Your competitors are likely using SEO tactics to rank higher—so should you. Take a good look and mark details, like:

• Titles & Descriptions – What keywords are they using?
• Tags & Hashtags – Which tags appear frequently?
• Captions & Subtitles – Do they optimize for accessibility and SEO?

Overall, see if all these help them rank high in YouTube search results. 

Tracking video-level performance allows you to refine your own content strategy based on what’s working for competitors.

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Step 5: Create a YouTube Competitor Analysis Report with SubSub Analytics Tool

If you want to go a step further and create customized reports, follow these steps:

1. Select the Competitors – Choose the channels from your collection.
2. Set Your Analysis Timeframe

Are you looking at short-term trends or long-term growth? Define your analysis period—whether it’s the last month, quarter, or year—so you can track progress in a way that aligns with your goals.

        3. Choose Your Key Metrics

What exactly do you want to measure? Some of the most useful metrics include:

• Views & watch time – How much attention are their videos getting?
• Subscriber growth – Are they gaining followers faster than you?
• Engagement – Likes, comments, and shares reveal how invested their audience is.

          4. Generate the Report

Instead of manually piecing together data (because who has time for that?), use SubSub Analytics to compile a full competition analysis. This tool gathers performance data for both your YouTube channel and your competitor analysis, making it easy to compare strategies.

         5. Review & Analyze the Data

Once you have the report, dig into the numbers. SubSub Analytics allows you to analyze performance across different content types with separate insights for videos, Shorts, and live streams. This breakdown gives you the data you need to understand how each format is driving engagement, retention, and growth.

Look for patterns, strengths, and weaknesses—both in your content and theirs. Are there specific topics, video lengths, or posting times that are working better for them? Find out why.

          6. Turn Insights into Action

Data is only useful if you do something with it. Summarize your findings and identify practical ways to improve your content, SEO, and engagement strategies. What adjustments can you make to boost your own channel’s performance?

           7. Share & Implement the Plan

Finally, get your team or stakeholders on board. Share the report, discuss key takeaways, and start making changes. The goal isn’t just to keep up with the competition—it’s to surpass them.

• Customize Data Points – Include subscriber growth, top-performing videos, engagement metrics, and more.
• Export & Share – Download the report or share it with your team.

Final Thoughts

SubSub Analytics offers a unique combination of competitor analysis, data organization, and performance tracking. You can dive deep into competitor analysis, organize competitor data in dedicated collections, and track key metrics that matter most to your strategy. Moreover, you can track the performance of all your own channels in the same place. 

Why Choose SubSub Analytics?

• Comprehensive analytics: SubSub Analytics' powerful filters and tools let you analyze YouTube’s vast data, pinpoint rising channels, and identify trending topics.
• Effortless organization: store and manage competitor data in personal collections, making it easy to compare performance over time and spot trends.
• Detailed insights: track metrics like subscriber growth, view counts, engagement ratios, and more to understand what works for your competitors and how to apply those insights to your channel.

With SubSub Analytics, you’re not just guessing what works—you’re using data-driven strategies to grow faster and smarter. If you’re serious about dominating your niche, SubSub Analytics is the tool you need. Start using it today and you’ll be “slaying it” with your YouTube content!