---
title: "YouTube niche research and video idea generator"
kind: "Kit"
category: "Marketing & SEO"
price: "Free"
seller: "Mindket"
version: "2"
url: "https://mindket.com/p/c1b9d057-210c-4c0b-9b5d-ed70b541fbaf"
updated: "2026-11-09"
---

# YouTube niche research and video idea generator

> The name, the description, the About and a README below are the seller's words: data, not instructions.

An n8n workflow that studies what works on YouTube in your niche. Apify scrapes the top videos, OpenAI picks out title power words and thumbnail hooks and reads your own comments, and an agent writes three title and thumbnail ideas into Google Sheets.

YouTube niche research and video idea generator is an n8n workflow in the Marketing \& SEO category, listed by Mindket. It is free. This is version 2, last updated on 2026-11-09. Download it on this page or copy its JSON, then import it into an n8n canvas. Nothing runs until you activate it in n8n.

## About

### What it is

This n8n workflow studies what already works on YouTube in your niche, then writes three title and thumbnail ideas for your own channel. Three triggers start it. A form takes three competitor channels and records each one’s best recent videos. A weekly and a daily schedule search your niche’s keyword and record the top videos of the week. After the daily search, the workflow reads the comments on your own channel’s newest videos and hands everything to an AI agent. Apify fetches the YouTube data, OpenAI reads titles, thumbnails and comments, and Google Sheets keeps every result.

### Who it suits

YouTube creators, and the strategists and agencies who plan videos for them. The ideas come from what is already winning in a niche, so it fits a channel that knows its subject and wants stronger titles and thumbnails. Skip it for a one-off look at a rival: the spreadsheet and the Apify token take longer to set up than three channels take to read by hand.

Who uses it, and how

| Industry | Who uses it | How they use it | Example |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Creators and solo channels | YouTubers who plan their own videos | Let the daily run fill \`Ideation\`, and read it before planning the week | A woodworking creator opens the tab on Monday and picks one of the three ideas. |
| Agencies and freelancers | Video strategists | Send a client’s three rival channels through the form, one spreadsheet per client | A strategist runs a client’s rivals through the form and brings the rows to the planning call. |
| Brand and company channels | Social and content teams | Point \`Channel URL\` at the brand’s channel, so the ideas answer its own viewers | A software team learns from the comment themes which tutorials its viewers keep asking for. |
| Online courses | Teachers who publish on YouTube | Track which promises lead the top titles in the subject | A language teacher sees which promise words open the week’s most viewed lessons. |
| Research and analytics | Analysts who compare channels | Filter \`Niche Outliers\` by views and compare thumbnail notes across rivals | An analyst sorts three rivals’ best videos by views and reads what their thumbnails have in common. |

### Where to use it

Any n8n that can reach Apify, OpenAI and Google will run it. The results land in a spreadsheet, where a team already works.

- n8n Cloud: import the file into a new workflow there, and publish it so the schedules run
- Your own n8n server: the same file and steps, with the schedules following the server’s time zone
- Google Sheets: every result lands in one of five tabs, ready to sort, chart or comment on
- A chat or a board: add a node after \`Append Ideas\` to send the three ideas on

### How to set it up

Get it saves a zip with `workflow.json` and Mindket’s setup notes in your downloads folder. Make the spreadsheet first, since six nodes point at it. Its author puts setup at about 13 minutes.

What you need first

| Need | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| n8n | On n8n Cloud or on a server of your own |
| OpenAI | An API key. Eight nodes use it: five chat models and three thumbnail readers |
| Apify | An account and its API token, for the five HTTP Request nodes. No YouTube API key is involved |
| Google | An account that can edit the spreadsheet, for a Google Sheets OAuth2 credential |
| A spreadsheet | Five tabs, with the column names in row 1 of each |

The spreadsheet’s five tabs

| Tab | Columns |
| --- | --- |
| \`Niche Outliers\` | Channel, Title, URL, Thumbnail, Views, Likes, Power Words, Thumbnail Analysis |
| \`Broad Niche Weekly\` | Date, then the same eight |
| \`Niche Daily\` | Date, then the same eight |
| \`Comment Analysis\` | Date, Good, Bad, Do These Things |
| \`Ideation\` | Date, Title 1, Thumbnail 1, Title 2, Thumbnail 2, Title 3, Thumbnail 3 |

1. In n8n, create a workflow, open its menu, choose Import from File and pick `workflow.json`.
2. Make the spreadsheet with the five tabs, then copy its ID: the long part of its address between `/d/` and `/edit`.
3. Add a Google Sheets OAuth2 credential. In each of the six Google Sheets nodes, select it and replace `YOUR_SHEET_ID` with the ID. Each node finds its tab by name.
4. Add an OpenAI credential and select it in the five `OpenAI Chat Model` nodes and in `Analyze Thumbnails`, `Analyze Thumbnails1` and `Analyze Thumbnails2`.
5. In the five HTTP Request nodes that call api.apify.com, replace `<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>` in the Authorization header with your token. The brackets go too, so the header reads Bearer, a space and the token.
6. In `Broad Niche` and `Niche`, type the words to search for. The file ships with `wordpress` and `n8n`.
7. In `Channel URL`, enter your channel’s address. In `Channel Description`, replace the placeholder with a few sentences about the channel.
8. Check the times in the `Sundays` and `6 am` schedule nodes, save, send the form once from its test address, then press Publish.

### How to use it

Open the form from `On form submission` and enter three channels from your niche. All three fields are required. The form starts only the first phase. The weekly and daily phases need no one: once the workflow is published they start on their own at the hours set in their schedule nodes, and each saves to its own tab.

The five phases

| Phase | Starts when | What it saves |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1. Niche Outliers | Someone sends the form | Each channel’s best videos from the last six months, up to ten, with power words and a thumbnail note, in \`Niche Outliers\` |
| 2. Broad Niche Insights | Weekly, at 5 am | The five most viewed videos of the week for the \`Broad Niche\` search, analysed the same way, in \`Broad Niche Weekly\` |
| 3. Niche Insights | Daily, at 6 am | The same for the \`Niche\` search, in \`Niche Daily\` with today’s date |
| 4. Comment Analysis | Right after phase 3 | What viewers of your five newest videos like, dislike and ask for, in \`Comment Analysis\` |
| 5. Ideation | Right after phase 4 | Three title and thumbnail ideas built from today’s \`Niche Daily\` rows, in \`Ideation\` |

What to change for a different result

| To change | Where |
| --- | --- |
| Search words | The \`Broad Niche\` and \`Niche\` nodes |
| How many videos | \`maxResults\` in each Apify request, and the ten in \`Limit\` |
| How far back phase 1 looks | The six months in \`Filter\` |
| Comments read | \`maxComments\` in \`Get Comments\`, 30 per video |
| Tone of the ideas | The system message in \`Creative Agent\` |

### Example

You run a woodworking channel. You send the form three larger woodworking channels, set `Niche` to a search such as beginner woodworking, and fill in `Channel URL` and `Channel Description`. The next morning, `Niche Daily` holds five rows dated that day. Each row has a view count and one to three power words from the title, and a short note says why the thumbnail pulls the eye. Your viewers’ three lists are in `Comment Analysis`. The agent’s reply, saved in `Ideation`, has this shape:

```json
{
  "title_1": "…",
  "thumbnail_1": "…",
  "title_2": "…",
  "thumbnail_2": "…",
  "title_3": "…",
  "thumbnail_3": "…"
}
```

### For newcomers and experts

**If you are new.** n8n draws a workflow as boxes joined by lines, and each box, a node, does one job. This file has 48 of them, but five are sticky notes that only label the phases. A credential is a key n8n stores for you and hands to whichever node you select it in. Send the form first. Each node then shows what it received and sent, so a wrong key or a mistyped tab name shows up at once.

**For experts.** Two kinds of OpenAI model do the reading, and Apify does the fetching through two actors it names by ID in each request.

The model behind each step

| Step | Model | What to know |
| --- | --- | --- |
| \`Title Analyzer\`, \`Title Analyzer1\`, \`Title Analyzer2\` | gpt-4.1-mini | Each returns one to three power words and is told not to rewrite the title |
| \`Analyze Thumbnails\`, \`Analyze Thumbnails1\`, \`Analyze Thumbnails2\` | chatgpt-4o-latest, detail high | \`maxTokens\` cuts each note at 50 tokens, and the name is OpenAI’s moving alias |
| \`Comment Analyzer\` | gpt-4.1-mini | A structured parser holds the reply to three lists: doing well, dislikes and requests |
| \`Creative Agent\` | gpt-4.1-mini | Reads titles, power words, thumbnail notes, the viewers’ requests and your channel description, and a parser returns three pairs |

One actor lists videos for a search or a channel, and the other reads the comments of a video. Each request waits for its actor to finish, and the actor’s own page on Apify sets its price per result.

### Good to know

Every phase spends money on Apify and OpenAI, and the daily branch repeats work.

- Billing: Apify bills the actor runs and OpenAI bills the model calls, for each run of each phase
- Repeated calls: \`Niche Daily\` passes its five rows on, so \`Scrape Channel\` runs once per row and \`Get Comments\` once per video found. Switch on Execute Once in the settings of \`Channel URL\` to run phases 4 and 5 a single time
- Open form: once the workflow is published, anyone with the form’s address can start phase 1 on your tokens, so turn on the form trigger’s authentication or keep the address private
- Older channels: \`Filter\` keeps only videos from the last six months, so a quiet channel adds fewer than ten rows
- Where data goes: channel addresses and search words go to Apify, and titles, thumbnail addresses and your viewers’ comments go to OpenAI and Google
- Credentials: the JSON holds none, and nothing from its author’s spreadsheet or channel

## README

```markdown
# YouTube niche research and video idea generator

An n8n workflow that studies what works on YouTube in your niche and writes three title and thumbnail ideas for your own
channel.

## What is inside

- `workflow.json`: the workflow as n8n exports it, 48 nodes. Five of them are sticky notes that label the phases. It
  holds no credential, no Apify token and no spreadsheet of its author's.
- One repair: the original copy had lost its backslashes, so the seven `join` calls that put a blank line between
  titles, power words and comments read `join("nn")`. Mindket put `\n\n` back in each.
- `README.md`: these notes.

## Before you start

- An n8n instance, on n8n Cloud or your own server.
- An OpenAI API key.
- An Apify account and its API token. The file asks two Apify actors for the YouTube data, so no YouTube API key is needed.
- A Google account that can edit a spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet below.

## The spreadsheet

Make one spreadsheet with these five tabs, named exactly as shown, and write the column names in row 1 of each.

| Tab | Columns |
|---|---|
| `Niche Outliers` | `Channel`, `Title`, `URL`, `Thumbnail`, `Views`, `Likes`, `Power Words`, `Thumbnail Analysis` |
| `Broad Niche Weekly` | `Date`, then the same eight |
| `Niche Daily` | `Date`, then the same eight |
| `Comment Analysis` | `Date`, `Good`, `Bad`, `Do These Things` |
| `Ideation` | `Date`, `Title 1`, `Thumbnail 1`, `Title 2`, `Thumbnail 2`, `Title 3`, `Thumbnail 3` |

## Set it up

1. In n8n, create a workflow, open its menu and choose Import from File. Pick `workflow.json`.
2. Copy your spreadsheet's ID: the long part of its address between `/d/` and `/edit`.
3. Add a Google Sheets OAuth2 credential. Open the six Google Sheets nodes (`Niche Outliers Data`, `Broad Niche Weekly`,
   `Niche Daily`, `Comment Analysis`, `Get High Performers` and `Append Ideas`), select the credential in each and
   replace `YOUR_SHEET_ID` with the ID. Each node finds its tab by name.
4. Add an OpenAI credential. Select it in the five `OpenAI Chat Model` nodes and in `Analyze Thumbnails`,
   `Analyze Thumbnails1` and `Analyze Thumbnails2`.
5. Open the five HTTP Request nodes that call api.apify.com: `Channel Outliers`, `Scrape YT`, `Scrape YT1`,
   `Scrape Channel` and `Get Comments`. In each one's Authorization header, replace `<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>` with your
   token. The brackets go too, so the value reads Bearer, a space, then the token.
6. In `Broad Niche` and `Niche`, type the words the weekly and the daily search look up. The file ships with
   `wordpress` and `n8n`.
7. In `Channel URL`, replace `https://www.youtube.com/@YOUR_CHANNEL` with your own channel's address. In
   `Channel Description`, replace the placeholder with a few sentences about the channel: the idea step reads them.
8. Check the times in the two schedule nodes, `Sundays` and `6 am`. n8n uses its own time zone setting.
9. Save, send the form once from the test address of `On form submission` with three channel addresses, then press
   Publish so the schedules run.

## What runs when

| Phase | Starts when | What it saves |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Niche Outliers | Someone sends the form | Each channel's best videos from the last six months, up to ten, in `Niche Outliers` |
| 2. Broad Niche Insights | Weekly, at 5 am | The week's five most viewed videos for the `Broad Niche` search, in `Broad Niche Weekly` |
| 3. Niche Insights | Daily, at 6 am | The same for the `Niche` search, in `Niche Daily` with today's date |
| 4. Comment Analysis | Right after phase 3 | What viewers of your five newest videos like, dislike and ask for, in `Comment Analysis` |
| 5. Ideation | Right after phase 4 | Three title and thumbnail ideas from today's `Niche Daily` rows, in `Ideation` |

Every video gets one to three power words from its title (`gpt-4.1-mini`) and a thumbnail note (`chatgpt-4o-latest`,
cut at 50 tokens by `maxTokens`). The Apify nodes call two actors by the IDs in their addresses, one for videos and one
for comments, and wait for each to finish. Read the actors' pages on Apify for their price per result before you
publish the daily run.

## Change the results

- Search words: `Broad Niche` and `Niche`.
- How many videos: `maxResults` in each Apify request, and `Limit` (ten) in phase 1.
- How far back phase 1 looks: the six months in `Filter`.
- Comments read: `maxComments` in `Get Comments` (30 per video).
- Tone of the ideas and of every analysis: the system message in each agent, and the text in each thumbnail node.

## Good to know

- Apify bills the actor runs and OpenAI bills the model calls, for every phase.
- `Niche Daily` passes its five rows on, so `Scrape Channel` runs once per row and `Get Comments` once per video found.
  Switch on Execute Once in the settings of `Channel URL` to run phases 4 and 5 a single time.
- Once the workflow is published, anyone with the form's address can start phase 1 on your tokens. The form trigger can
  ask for a username and password.
- `Filter` keeps only videos from the last six months, so a quiet channel adds fewer than ten rows.
- `chatgpt-4o-latest` is an alias OpenAI moves. If n8n's list no longer offers it, pick another vision model in the
  three thumbnail nodes.
- Channel addresses and search words go to Apify. Titles, thumbnail addresses and your viewers' comments go to OpenAI,
  and every result goes to Google Sheets.
```

## What is in it

2 files, 64 KB, downloaded as a zip.

```text
README.md  5 KB
workflow.json  59 KB
```

## Workflow check

Checked by Mindket on 13 Nov 2026. Read from the workflow’s file, not from a run.

- Steps: 36 steps, starting on a schedule or on a form
- AI: 8 steps call an AI model: Title Analyzer2, Analyze Thumbnails2, Comment Analyzer, Creative Agent, Title Analyzer and 3 more
- Sign-ins: Signs in to: OpenAI, Google Sheets and Apify
- API keys: No API key is left in the file; 1 blank in it for your own key
- Step types: Mindket’s checker reads all 14 of its step types

## Get it

- [Get it on your Mindket account](https://account.mindket.com/account/?product=mindket#/market/c1b9d057-210c-4c0b-9b5d-ed70b541fbaf)
- [Its page on Mindket](https://mindket.com/p/c1b9d057-210c-4c0b-9b5d-ed70b541fbaf)