🚀 YouTube Niche Channel Finder — Accurate, API-Powered Channel Insights

Find the best YouTube channels in any niche using the official YouTube Data API v3. Enter a keyword, provide your API key, and instantly get structured channel insights — fully accurate and compliant.

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⭐ What This Actor Does

This Actor searches YouTube for channels related to a niche keyword (e.g., Facebook Marketing, Dropshipping, Keto Diet) and returns a clean, enriched dataset containing:

Channel name

@handle

Description

High-resolution thumbnail

Subscriber count

Total views

Total videos

Country

Joined date

Custom URL

The keyword used

Timestamp of scrape

Results are sorted by subscriber count (highest → lowest).

The actor may return slightly more channels than requested, ensuring you don’t miss any top performers in your niche.

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🔑 API Key Requirement (Mandatory)

This actor requires a YouTube Data API v3 key.

How to get your API key

Open Google Cloud Console

Enable YouTube Data API v3

Create an API key

Paste your key into the input:

{
"youtubeApiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY",
"keyword": "dropshipping",
"maxResults": 10
}

If no API key is provided, the Actor will stop with an error.

📝 Input Schema

Here is the exact input structure supported by this Actor:

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "title": "Youtube Niche Channel Finder 100% Results",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "keyword": {
      "title": "Niche keyword",
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Example: dropshipping, shopify, keto diet",
      "editor": "textfield",
      "default": "dropshipping"
    },
    "youtubeApiKey": {
      "title": "YouTube API Key (required)",
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Paste your API key – it will be hidden",
      "editor": "textfield",
      "isSecret": true
    },
    "maxResults": {
      "title": "Max results (1-50)",
      "type": "integer",
      "description": "Number of channels to fetch per search (max 50)",
      "default": 10,
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 50
    }
  },
  "required": ["youtubeApiKey"]
}

📝 Output Schema

{
  "title": "YouTube Niche Channel Finder Output",
  "description": "Schema defining the output structure of the YouTube Niche Channel Finder actor.",
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "channelName": { "type": "string", "description": "The channel's display name" },
    "handle": { "type": ["string", "null"], "description": "The channel's @handle if available" },
    "description": { "type": ["string", "null"], "description": "Channel description text" },
    "thumbnail": { "type": "string", "description": "URL to the channel's high-resolution thumbnail" },
    "subscriberCount": { "type": "string", "description": "Formatted subscriber count or 'Hidden'" },
    "videoCount": { "type": "number", "description": "Total number of uploaded videos" },
    "totalViews": { "type": "string", "description": "Formatted total view count" },
    "joinedDate": { "type": ["string", "null"], "description": "Channel creation date" },
    "country": { "type": ["string", "null"], "description": "Channel country if available" },
    "customUrl": { "type": "string", "description": "Direct link to the channel page" },
    "searchedKeyword": { "type": "string", "description": "The keyword used for searching" },
    "scrapedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "description": "ISO timestamp when data was scraped" }
  },
  "required": [
    "channelName",
    "thumbnail",
    "subscriberCount",
    "videoCount",
    "totalViews",
    "customUrl",
    "searchedKeyword",
    "scrapedAt"
  ]
}

📤 Dataset Schema

Each dataset item follows this structure:

{
  "channelName": "string",
  "handle": "string|null",
  "description": "string|null",
  "thumbnail": "string",
  "subscriberCount": "string",
  "videoCount": "number",
  "totalViews": "string",
  "joinedDate": "string|null",
  "country": "string|null",
  "customUrl": "string",
  "searchedKeyword": "string",
  "scrapedAt": "string"
}

📤 Output Example

A typical dataset entry looks like this:

{
  "channelName": "Ben Heath",
  "handle": "@benheath",
  "description": "Making Facebook Ads & Instagram Ads easier...",
  "thumbnail": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/.../photo.jpg",
  "subscriberCount": "407,000",
  "videoCount": 1041,
  "totalViews": "27,032,078",
  "joinedDate": "1/28/2016",
  "country": "GB",
  "customUrl": "https://youtube.com/@benheath",
  "searchedKeyword": "Facebook Marketing",
  "scrapedAt": "2025-12-07T23:06:23.346Z"
}

⚙️ How It Works Under the Hood

1. Search YouTube for niche channels Uses the official endpoint:

https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search

2. Extract channel IDs
3. Fetch full channel insights Via:

https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels

Fetches:

● snippet ● statistics ● brandingSettings

4. Enhance & format data
5. Sort by subscriber count
6. Save final dataset to Apify

✔️ Use Cases

🏷 Influencer Outreach

Find creators in any micro-niche instantly.

🏆 Competitor Research

See who dominates YouTube in your industry.

🎯 Niche Product Launch

Identify channels talking about a specific topic.

🧠 Market Research

Discover communities & gaps inside your niche.

⚠️ Limitations & Notes

● Max 50 results per search (YouTube API limit) ● Some channels hide subscriber count (“Hidden”) ● Invalid or restricted API keys will make requests fail ● Fully compliant with Google API policies — no scraping

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📦 Exporting Your Data

Your results are saved in an Apify Dataset and can be exported as:

JSON

CSV

Excel (.xlsx)

JSONL

XML

RSS

HTML Table

API endpoint

Exports can be used in:

Google Sheets

Excel / Numbers

BI dashboards

Make / Zapier / n8n automations

Custom apps & databases

▶️ Run via API Example

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/USERNAME~youtube-niche-channel-finder/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
  "youtubeApiKey": "YOUR_KEY",
  "keyword": "Fitness",
  "maxResults": 20
}'