How agencies run YouTube research for a roster of clients
Researching for clients is a different job from researching your own channel. The question never changes, only the niche does, and it has to be answered again for every client every month. That makes it the most automatable work an agency does.
Channels agencies study, analysed
Live analyses you can open and read, each showing subscribers, average views and the videos pulling above that channel's normal.
OutlierKit Channel Analysis
Iman Gadzhi
Business & self-improvement
- Subscribers
- 6.0M
- Avg views
- 378.2K
OutlierKit Channel Analysis
Nick Saraev
AI automation & agencies
- Subscribers
- 468.0K
- Avg views
- 55.8K
OutlierKit Channel Analysis
Liam Ottley
AI agencies & agents
- Subscribers
- 818.0K
- Avg views
- 123.2K
OutlierKit Channel Analysis
Codie Sanchez
Boring Businesses & Financial Freedom
- Subscribers
- 2.2M
- Avg views
- 427.8K
OutlierKit Channel Analysis
GaryVee
Business & entrepreneurship
- Subscribers
- 4.9M
- Avg views
- 92.9K
OutlierKit Channel Analysis
Nate Herk
n8n & AI automation tutorials
- Subscribers
- 851.0K
- Avg views
- 96.2K
Stats are from our most recent snapshot of each channel. Scroll sideways for more. For live numbers, outlier videos, and up-to-date revenue estimates, run a fresh analysis on OutlierKit →
The shape of the work
| Who it is for | Done-for-you social and YouTube agencies |
| What it covers | Several client channels on one account |
| Mix below | From a real agency account, June to October 2026 |
| How they work | Everything through the API, in batches |
| Shape of the work | Concentrated pulls, one client at a time |
| What they call | Mostly outlier search, plus keyword and channel lookups |
Scroll the chart sideways to see the full legend.
Nearly nine calls in ten are the same one. An agency is not exploring, it is answering the same question for a different client each time, and that is exactly the work worth scripting.
What the job actually is
An agency is not trying to understand one niche. It is answering the same question over and over, with the niche swapped out: what is working in this client's corner of YouTube right now, and what should they make next.
That question has three parts, and you can see all three in the mix above. Find the videos beating their own channel in the client's niche. Check the search demand behind the ones worth pitching. Keep each client measured against a set of comparable channels so the shortlist means something.
A creator can afford to browse for that. An agency cannot, because the work repeats per client and browsing does not divide by five. So it gets pulled in one pass per client, and almost all of it goes through the API rather than the web app.
How agencies usually automate it
Once the query stops changing, there is no reason to keep running it by hand. The usual setup is a scheduled job that does the whole sweep overnight, so the shortlist is waiting when the team logs on.
- Run it daily, per client. A cron job walks the client list and runs one outlier search per niche, filtered to videos published in the last week that are beating their own channel by a set multiple.
- Qualify the hits. For anything that clears the bar, pull keyword volume so you know whether the demand is there before anyone writes a pitch.
- Deliver it where the team already is. Post the shortlist into Slack or append it to a Notion board, one row per idea, tagged with the client.
- Review weekly, not daily. The job runs every day so nothing is missed. A human looks once a week and picks what goes into the next content block.
Two ways to wire it
- MCP, if you want it in plain language
- Point Claude at the OutlierKit connector and have a scheduled prompt ask the same question each morning, one client at a time. No code, and the answer comes back ranked with the videos attached.
- API, if you want it in your own stack
- A cron job plus a script, writing into whatever your team already reads. This is where agencies with more than a handful of clients tend to end up, and several of our heaviest API accounts run exactly this, every day.
Each call costs credits, so a daily sweep across a roster is worth sizing before you switch it on. The API docs list the cost per endpoint, and a demo is the quickest way to work out seats and volume for a bigger client list.
What you can copy
- One client, one sitting. Pull a whole content block for a client in a single pass rather than returning to the same channel all week.
- Keep a light check between batches. This agency opens the account every couple of days for a few searches, which is how the heavy days stay productive.
- Set up each client in Competitor Studio once. The comparison is then already made every time you come back, for every channel on the roster.
- Script it when only the client changes. If the query is identical and only the niche differs, that is the moment to move it to the API.
Questions agencies ask
How do agencies use OutlierKit across several clients?+
In batches, one client at a time. The agency pulls everything it needs for a client's next content block in one pass, rather than returning to the same channel all week. Nearly nine calls in ten are outlier search, and almost all of it goes through the API rather than the web app.
Can I track more than one channel on an account?+
Yes. Competitor Studio holds a channel and the competitors you want it measured against, and an agency can keep several client channels on the same account. This one tracks three. If you are running a bigger roster, a demo is the fastest way to work out seats and limits.
Does the API make sense for an agency?+
It is usually where agencies end up. The query is the same every month, only the client changes, which is exactly the case for scripting it. This agency drives almost everything through outlier search on the API, with keyword and channel lookups alongside.
What does a research batch actually produce?+
A shortlist of videos in the client's niche that beat their own channel's normal, the channels behind them, and the keyword demand underneath. That becomes the next block of titles and angles to pitch to the client.
The usage split above comes from a real agency account, published with their agreement and kept anonymous, covering June to October 2026. The workflow around it is the setup we recommend for a roster rather than a record of any one account.
Run client research for the whole roster
Keep every client channel in Competitor Studio and pull their next content block from the API in one pass. Start with the free trial.
Try OutlierKit Free