YouTube Trend & Creator Scout — Trend Score, Shorts Deep Data

Find viral content and hidden micro-influencers before they blow up — with mathematical scoring, not guesswork.

Search YouTube by keyword, region, and sort order. Extracts deep metadata from both Videos and Shorts (including the data YouTube hides on the Shorts UI), then scores every result with a proprietary Trend Rating and Creator Utility Flag so you know instantly which content is outperforming and which creators are worth partnering with.

---

Why This Scraper Is Different

Most YouTube scrapers dump raw numbers and leave the analysis to you.

This actor does the math for you.

Every result comes pre-scored using the Views-to-Subscriber Ratio — the same signal talent agencies and growth consultants use to identify breakout content before it saturates the market. No extra tools, no manual spreadsheet formulas. You get actionable intelligence directly in the output.

It also solves a well-known scraping pain point: YouTube hides descriptions, upload dates, and subscriber counts on the Shorts feed. This actor silently converts every Short into its standard video page during extraction to capture the deep metadata — then returns the correct /shorts/ URL to you. You get the full picture with none of the missing fields.

---

The Trend Rating System (1–10)

The Trend Rating is a mathematical score calculated from the Views-to-Subscriber Ratio of the video's channel.

Trend Ratio = Total Views ÷ Channel Subscriber Count

Trend Rating	Ratio Threshold	What It Means
🔥 10	Ratio ≥ 10×	Massively viral — views dwarf the audience size
⚡ 9	Ratio ≥ 5×	Exceptional outperformer
8	Ratio ≥ 2×	Strong viral signal
7	Ratio ≥ 1×	Solid outperformer
6	Ratio ≥ 0.5×	Above average
5	Ratio ≥ 0.2×	Standard performance
4	Ratio ≥ 0.1×	Below average reach
2–3	Ratio < 0.1×	Underperforming content

Why This Metric Matters

A video with 5 million views on a channel with 200K subscribers is fundamentally different from the same video on a channel with 10 million subscribers. The first is a viral breakout. The second is expected performance.

Raw view counts tell you what happened. The Trend Rating tells you how surprising it was — which is the signal that predicts future growth.

---

The Creator Utility Flag

Every result is tagged with one of two values:

Flag	Criteria	What It Signals
🟢 High Potential	Trend Rating ≥ 7	Content is outperforming the channel's baseline — creator is in a growth phase
⚪ Standard	Trend Rating < 7	Content performing at or below expected levels for channel size

The Micro-Influencer Use Case

High Potential on a small channel is the most valuable signal in the dataset.

It means: a creator with a modest audience is producing content that spreads far beyond their follower base. These are the creators that influencer marketing agencies pay full-time scouts to find. This actor flags them automatically.

A creator with 180K subscribers and 5.2M views on a single Short is a High Potential flag. That same creator is currently affordable to sponsor. In 6 months, they may not be.

---

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchKeyword	string	"gym workout"	Topic, niche, product, or creator category to search
maxResults	integer	50	Number of videos to extract (min: 5, max: 200)
countryCode	string	"US"	2-letter ISO code to localise results (US, GB, IN, AU…)
sortBy	string	"relevance"	relevance · date · viewCount
minTrendRating	integer	1	Filter output to only return results at or above this score (1–10)

---

Output Schema

{
  "videoId": "f5BFCmQZdhg",
  "platform": "YouTube Shorts",
  "title": "The Best Diet For Lean Muscle Mass",
  "description": "Quick breakdown of the optimal macros for lean muscle...",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f5BFCmQZdhg/hq720.jpg",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f5BFCmQZdhg",
  "publishedAt": "2022-03-14",
  "playCount": 5700000,
  "likeCount": 142000,
  "commentCount": 890,
  "authorMeta": {
    "name": "Sadik Hadzovic",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@SadikHadzovic1",
    "followers": 431000
  },
  "trendRating": 10,
  "creatorUtilityFlag": "High Potential"
}

Field Reference

Field	Type	Notes
videoId	string	Unique YouTube video ID — use for deduplication across runs
platform	string	YouTube Video or YouTube Shorts
title	string	Full video title
description	string	Truncated description (first 300 chars)
thumbnailUrl	string	Direct i.ytimg.com CDN URL — no redirects
url	string	Clean video URL, stripped of tracking parameters
publishedAt	string	ISO date YYYY-MM-DD
playCount	integer	Total views at time of scrape
likeCount	integer	Total likes
commentCount	integer	Total comments
authorMeta.name	string	Channel display name
authorMeta.channelUrl	string	Direct channel URL
authorMeta.followers	integer	Subscriber count at time of scrape
trendRating	integer	Viral score 1–10 (Views ÷ Subscribers)
creatorUtilityFlag	string	High Potential or Standard

---

Sample Output

Keyword: "gym diet plan" · Country: US · Sort: relevance

[
  {
    "videoId": "_IaUcV6v5q4",
    "trendRating": 10,
    "creatorUtilityFlag": "High Potential",
    "platform": "YouTube Shorts",
    "title": "High Protein Breakfast Options for Weight Loss & Muscle Gain",
    "playCount": 5200000,
    "likeCount": 18484,
    "commentCount": 99,
    "authorMeta": {
      "name": "Fit Food Doctor",
      "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@doctor0food",
      "followers": 183000
    },
    "publishedAt": "2024-10-14",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_IaUcV6v5q4/hq720.jpg",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_IaUcV6v5q4"
  },
  {
    "videoId": "q7AFlWkncmg",
    "trendRating": 8,
    "creatorUtilityFlag": "High Potential",
    "platform": "YouTube Shorts",
    "title": "WHAT I EAT IN A DAY (Ep. 1) High Performance Diet",
    "playCount": 4800000,
    "likeCount": 132779,
    "commentCount": 1207,
    "authorMeta": {
      "name": "Adam Frater",
      "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@adam_frater",
      "followers": 1090000
    },
    "publishedAt": "2023-01-22",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/q7AFlWkncmg/hq720.jpg",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/q7AFlWkncmg"
  }
]

---

Who Is This For?

Content Creators & YouTubers Search your niche keyword and sort by Trend Rating. You now have a ranked list of the exact content formats, thumbnail styles, and titles that are proven to outperform — not just popular, but disproportionately viral relative to channel size.

Influencer Marketing Agencies Filter for creatorUtilityFlag: "High Potential" on channels under 500K subscribers. These are your micro-influencers mid-breakout. Budget: still affordable. Reach: growing fast.

Social Media Strategists Compare Trend Ratings between YouTube Video and YouTube Shorts for the same keyword. Instantly know whether your target audience is consuming long-form or short-form content right now, in any region.

SEO & Market Researchers Run the same keyword across multiple countryCode values. The Trend Score distribution tells you where a niche is saturated (scores clustering at 5–6) vs. where it's still wide open (scores polarised at 2 and 10).

---

The Shorts Deep Data Fix

YouTube's Shorts feed omits key fields — no description, no exact date, no subscriber count. Most scrapers return these as empty or zero.

This actor detects every Short, silently fetches the full video page in the background, extracts the hidden metadata, then returns the clean /shorts/ URL to you. You get the complete dataset on every result, regardless of format.

---

Pricing

This actor uses Pay Per Result pricing.

Event	Price
Per result extracted	$0.008
Actor start	$0.05

50 results (default run) = ~$0.45

---

Input Schema Example

{
  "searchKeyword": "gym diet plan",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "countryCode": "US",
  "sortBy": "relevance",
  "minTrendRating": 7
}

Setting minTrendRating: 7 returns only High Potential and above — useful for focused influencer scouting runs where you only want the signal, not the noise.

---

Limitations

• Results reflect YouTube's public search index at time of scrape. Subscriber counts and view counts are live at scrape time.
• Comment count extraction depends on page render state. Occasionally returns 0 on videos with comments disabled or heavy anti-scrape protection.
• YouTube's search index is personalised. Using countryCode input localises results but cannot fully replicate a signed-in user's feed.

---

Support

Issues, feature requests, or custom data requirements — use the Apify actor issue tracker or contact via the store profile.

If this actor saves you time, a review on the store goes a long way. 🙏