Find content ideas with Research
Learn what each Research view shows, how to analyze a keyword, and how to read outlier and breakout signals in your YouTube niche.
Updated September 30, 2026
Research helps you find topics, videos and channels worth studying in your niche. It learns what you make from the YouTube channels selected in your Workspace context.
Before you start
Research needs at least one connected YouTube channel among your selected channels. Without one, only For you is shown, with a prompt to connect a channel.
Research views
Open Research in the sidebar, then choose a view.
| View | What it answers |
|---|---|
| For you | Recommended keywords, videos, Shorts and breakout channels for your channel, plus Top search terms viewers used to find you in the last 28 days |
| Keywords | How much demand and competition a phrase has. Switch between Recommended, Your search terms and Saved |
| Videos | Which long-form videos in your niche are outperforming their channel's usual results |
| Shorts | The same view for Shorts |
| Channels | Which channels are active around your topics. Breakout shows smaller channels whose recent videos perform unusually well for their size |
| Thumbnails | Visual references from your niche, as Video thumbnails or Short covers. Select two to four to compare them side by side |
Analyze a keyword
- Open Keywords.
- Under Analyze a keyword, enter a phrase and choose a Market.
- Check the price on the button (Analyze · Free or a Token amount), then select it.
- Review Monthly searches, Competition, Trend, the Demand and competition map and Broader searches.
- Select Save to add the keyword to Saved, which everyone in the Project can see.
All signals apply to the market you chose. Search volume estimates demand. It does not predict how your own video will perform.
Read video signals
Open a video to see how it compares with a typical video from the same channel:
- Far above normal, Above normal, Normal for this channel or Below normal compare its views with the channel's usual results.
- Too early to judge means the video is less than 48 hours old.
- No channel baseline yet means NOWScale has not yet measured at least 5 older videos from that channel.
Use More like this or Not my niche to tune your results.
Filter and export
In Videos, Shorts and Thumbnails, use Published, Sort and Filters (views, outlier, views per hour and channel size). Use Export to download results as CSV or JSON, or choose Save as PDF.
Free preview and Tokens
Without a paid plan, you see the Free Research preview: saved data only, up to 3 keywords and 8 results per list, and advanced filters are turned off. On a paid plan, a keyword analysis or a search that needs fresh data shows its Token price before you confirm.
Troubleshooting
- Building your feed: recommendations are still being discovered. Check back in a few minutes.
- The daily research budget is used up: saved results still work, and new searches resume the next day.
- This channel does not have enough content yet: publish more videos or select another channel.
Get help
Support can check your saved keywords and whether Research is available in your Workspace. Support cannot run new searches or refresh Research data for you.
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