Using Intel for Research

Intel is Subscribr's competitive intelligence database - over 60,000 YouTube channels updated daily. Use it to research competitors, find outlier videos, and discover what's working in your niche.

What is Intel?

Intel gives you access to data on thousands of YouTube channels and their videos. Unlike manually researching channels one by one, Intel lets you:

• Search across all indexed channels at once
• Filter by subscriber count, views, language, and more
• Find channels similar to any channel
• Identify outlier videos that performed unusually well
• Analyze what makes successful content work

Searching for Channels

From the Intel dashboard, you can search for channels by:

• Topic or niche - "productivity", "cooking", "tech reviews"
• Channel name - Search for specific creators
• Keywords - Terms that appear in channel descriptions or content

Advanced Search Syntax

Intel supports natural language search with specialized filters. Combine multiple terms to find exactly what you need.

Channel Search Examples

By subscriber count:

• channels under 10,000 subscribers
• channels 10k-100k subs
• channels with at least 50k subs

By velocity:

• velocity > 2
• velocity score higher than 3.5
• channels velocity > 2 created past 3 months

By engagement:

• views/sub > 2
• high views/sub ratio

By creation date:

• created past 3 months
• created in the past year

By video count:

• channels with at least 3 videos

Combined examples:

• fitness channels velocity > 2 created past 3 months
• meditation channels under 50k subs
• cooking niche channels velocity score > 2

Video Search Examples

By performance:

• videos over 1M views
• outlier score > 5
• high outlier score

By time frame:

• past month
• past 3 months
• videos from 2024

By format:

• shorts
• longs
• over 10 minutes

Combined examples:

• fitness motivation shorts over 100k views
• product review videos outlier score > 5
• viral cooking videos past month
• long form business strategy videos outlier > 1 past month

Filtering Your Results

Narrow down your search with powerful filters:

Subscriber Count

Focus on channels at your level, find aspirational targets, or discover emerging creators. Filter by minimum and maximum subscriber counts.

Velocity Score

Find channels that are growing quickly, even if they're still small. The velocity score (shown as a green number like "13.2x") measures a channel's current momentum and growth potential.

A high velocity score indicates a channel that's gaining traction with:

• Recent videos outperforming their usual content
• Consistent publishing schedule
• Strong viewer engagement relative to subscriber count
• Multiple breakout videos in the last month
• Accelerating viewership growth

This helps you identify channels building momentum before they become mainstream - giving you early insights into emerging creators and trends.

Language

Focus on channels in your language or explore what's working in other markets.

Content Type

Filter for long-form content, Shorts, or both.

Finding Similar Channels

Found a competitor you want to learn from? Click "Similar Channels" to discover:

• Other creators in the same niche
• Channels with overlapping audiences
• Potential collaboration opportunities
• Competitors you might not have known about

Analyzing a Channel

Click on any channel to see detailed analytics:

Performance Metrics

• Subscriber count and growth
• Total views and average views per video
• Upload frequency and consistency

Top Videos

See which videos performed best, sorted by views or outlier score.

Outlier Videos

These are videos that performed significantly better than the channel's average. Outliers often reveal:

• Topics that resonate strongly with the audience
• Title/thumbnail strategies that drive clicks
• Content formats that work exceptionally well

Understanding Outlier Scores

The outlier score (shown as a yellow/orange number like "10.9x") measures how exceptionally a video performs compared to surrounding videos from the same channel.

Here's how it's calculated:

1. For each video, we look at a window of up to 10 surrounding videos (published before and after)
2. We calculate the average view count of this window
3. The outlier score is the ratio of the video's views to this average

For example, if a video has 20,000 views and the average of surrounding videos is 10,000 views, the outlier score would be 2.0x - meaning it performed twice as well as typical videos from that channel.

What scores mean:

• 5x or higher - Exceptional performance, strong validation signal
• 2x - 5x - Good performance, worth studying
• 1x - 2x - Average to slightly above average
• Below 1x - Underperformed compared to surrounding content

Views/Sub Ratio

The Views/Sub ratio indicates how well videos reach beyond a channel's subscriber base. A "High" label indicates strong performance - these videos are being discovered by viewers who aren't subscribed.

For example, a video with 100,000 views on a channel with 10,000 subscribers has a 10x Views/Sub ratio - meaning it reached far beyond the existing audience.

Analyzing Individual Videos

Click on any video to see:

• View count and engagement - How did it perform?
• Outlier score - How much better than average?
• Views-to-subscriber ratio - Did it reach beyond the existing audience?
• Title and thumbnail - What made people click?

Chat with Channel

Want to go deeper? Click "Chat with Channel" to have a conversation about any channel in Intel. Ask questions like:

• "What are the top 5 topics this channel covers?"
• "What patterns do you see in their most successful videos?"
• "What makes their hooks effective?"
• "What gaps in their content could I fill?"

Bookmarking Channels and Videos

Save channels and videos for later reference. Bookmarks are shared across your team, making it easy to build a research library together. Access your saved bookmarks from the Intel bookmarks page.

You can organize bookmarks with tags and notes to create specialized collections for competitor tracking, thumbnail inspiration, format ideas, and more.

Learn more about using bookmarks

Next Steps

Now that you know how to use Intel, learn how to turn that research into video ideas:

• Finding Your Next Video Ideas
• Using Bookmarks