When you’re looking for YouTube content ideas, there are tons of tools on the internet, promising to deliver amazing suggestions.Â
Some of them give you insights into frequent user searches. Others help you identify the strategies of competing channels. And some specialize in providing keyword suggestions together with the metrics to assess them.Â
To help you decide which of them are worth your time, here are the 10 best tools for generating and evaluating YouTube content ideas.Â
Key Takeaways
- YouTube content research tools will give you ideas and keywords to use.
- Video ideation tools save you time and can improve your targeting
- Popular tools are AnswerThePublic, tools like vidIQ and TubeBuddy, as well as YouTube Studio analytics and the platform's native AI features.
- Evaluate ideas carefully - you'll get solid ideas to work with, but tools are bad at putting an unique spin on topics.
Keep reading for the full scoop!
AnswerThePublic
First up, AnswerThePublic is a great idea to get an overview of searches commonly associated with a topic. That’s on Google and YouTube, but also for ChatGPT and the like and Amazon searches. You can enter a broad search term, and this platform will provide you with a mind map view of just what people commonly want to know about it.Â
As you see on the image below, one feature splits up the queries by question type. Going for “how“, especially, is a great way to collect ideas for how-tos and tutorial videos, which are often audience magnets. CPC – that is, cost-per-click – data also gives you a rough idea of what topics advertisers might be interested in.
Plus, you can actually download your results super easily as a CSV file, so you can stick it into your spreadsheet app.
AnswerThePublic allows one freebie, and three free searches per day if you register. For a monthly $13.33 (paid annually, $20 otherwise), you get 100. For more searches, more users, as well as additional features like comparing terms, higher-tier subscriptions start at $66/month. There are also AI content generation features, but they’re more geared towards articles.
SEMrush
Next, SEMrush provides solid all-round SEO functionalities and can give you in-depth insights into competitors’ strategies.Â
Most usefully, this platform comes with a powerful Keyword Magic tool. This allows you to deep-dive into keywords and their metrics. It shows exact matches, broad matches, related questions, alongside keyword difficulty, search volume, and performance trends.
SEMrush gives you 5Â free searches per day. To unlock more functionalities, you have to subscribe. Subscriptions start at approximately $115 per month – but then, SEMrush is more of a comprehensive marketing tool rather than specifically focused on video ideas.Â
A rather more YouTube-specific alternative to this is YTCockpit. This Swiss-made content research tool offers more limited search functionalities, but it’s also far cheaper, starting at only $19 per month (or $199 for a whole year).
Keyword Tool
This tool is an excellent resource for finding long-tail keywords and content ideas. An extra bonus: You can specify the platform that you want to focus on. Like SEMrush, it gives you a keyword’s search volume and difficulty, alongside a trend analysis.
It chiefly harvests autocomplete data from the different platforms. Among the usual suspects – Google, YouTube, and Amazon – you’ll also find interesting options like the Apple and Google Stores, Etsy, or AI engines like Perplexity.
On the free plan, you will only be able to see the metrics for the top few keywords. To get further insights, you’ll need a subscription, which start at $68 per month (paid annually, otherwise $88). For that, though, you can run dozens of queries and get results for tens of thousands of keywords every day.Â
The Pro plans also allow you connect your AI agent of choice to Keyword Tool’s MCP server.
Rival IQ
Do you want to know how your competitors perform on YouTube and other social networks? Which of their strategies work best? What keywords they target? Who their audience is?Â
That’s exactly the kind of information Rival IQ can give you!
This platform allows you to enter your own profiles, along with those of competitors. Then, you can deep-dive into comparisons that ought to leave you with new inspiration.Â
A downside of this tool is that it’s definitely the priciest on this list. It offers a 14-day free trial. After that, though, monthly subscriptions start at $199.
If you want to look into specific competitors by handle, you’ll need the mid-tier “Engage” plan rather than the basic ones.
Google Trends
Next up is a totally free tool: Google Trends. It’s great for evaluating keyword ideas you’ve come up with or collected with other tools.
The default search is for web, but there’s a dropdown that lets you switch to a YouTube specific video search. One highlight of this tool is that it lets you easily compare several different search terms against each other.
Plus, it’s possible to check where searches come from geographically – and what popular related terms are. Some of these features are powered by Google’s Gemini AI engine, making Trends even simpler to use than before.
Hubspot Blog Ideas Generator
HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator is a versatile tool that extends beyond traditional blogging, offering valuable insights for generating YouTube content ideas, too.
The Blog Ideas Generator not only suggests blog topics but also provides YouTube content ideas by analyzing keywords and trends, facilitating diverse content creation.
You don’t just get a selection of headline topics to choose from, but also paragraph suggestions. If they fit well enough, you can take these as guidelines for chaptering your video script.
While the tool offers limited functionality for free users, subscribers gain access to advanced features such as unlimited topic suggestions, keyword analysis, and content calendar integration. Ultimately, creators and their teams benefit from more robust content planning and optimization.
Hubspot also offers a neat Persona generator tool you can use to sharpen your idea of your target audience.
TubeBuddy
TubeBuddy is a very popular browser extension and mobile app for channel management and general YouTube optimization. For content research, it also offers keyword research and analytics features.
Many of its features are free. To access these features, though, you have to give the tool access to your YouTube account – it hooks deeply into the platform. Many of its capabilities are tied into YouTube Studio, too.Â
If you want to unlock more of TubeBuddy’s full range of features, you have to opt for one of its subscriptions. It’s one of the cheaper options on this list, starting at $12/month (if you pay up for the full year).
Formerly, if your channel had under 1,000 subs, you’d get 50% off the Pro plan, but this now looks to be an occasional offer. There is a discount for non-profits.
vidIQ
VidIQ, another browser extension and app, is a great tool for video SEO and content idea generation. It shares many of its features with TubeBuddy, but its analytics features are a bit more in-depth. The company has also started branching out towards TikTok and Instagram creators. Lastly, it’s learning rather more heavily into AI features.
The channel audit tool will give you a few tips on how to rank more highly. It also has a few fun features to mix up channel management routine – such as unlockable achievements.
VidIQ has a few free features, such as bulk video description edits, but keyword research isn’t among them. Subscriptions for the “Boost” plan start at a fairly affordable $16.58/month, though.Â
YouTube Studio Analytics & Ask Studio
Do you want to learn more about your own particular audience to narrow down your content ideas? Do you want to make use of YouTube’s native data exploration and AI features?
If so, YouTube Studio analytics is a great place to get some free, but pretty detailed insights. It will show you which keywords your videos already rank for, along with detailed demographics of your audience.
For more about its (increasingly!) powerful features, check out our YouTube Channel Analytics article!
Internet Event Calendars
Finally, if you’re looking for inspiration for topical content, check out online event calendars such as Forekast, International Days and Weeks, Days Of The Year, and OnThisDay.
Why not do a fashion haul for National Sunglasses Day (June 27) – or hit the stove on World Tuna Day (May 2) and Chocolate Day (July 7)? Or do vlogmas, by now a YouTube tradition for the weeks before Christmas?
Many of these tools are free (like OnThisDay, where you’ll find tons of historical information), others charge for advanced features (Forekast is $9.99 a month).
The Bottom Line
All the tools on this list offer great ways to source YouTube content ideas. Which ones you end up using, though, depends on your own personal needs and your budget.
If your channel is just starting out, you might want to stick to free tools – Google Trends, YouTube Analytics, Ask Studio. If you’re looking to take it to the next level, investing in a subscription might make sense. At some point, you’ll save more time and energy outsourcing some of the research.Â
In any case, it’s worth taking the time to carefully compare tools to find the best fit for your needs. Once you’ve made your choice, you’ll have a solid basis for researching content that will wow your viewers.
FAQs
What are the best video idea tools for YouTube?
You can get video ideas from viewer questions with tools like AnswerThePublic or Keyword Tool. For ongoing trends, try Google Trends and YouTube Ask Studio. For seasonal content, try internet content calendars.
Why should you use a YouTube video idea generator?
They let you iterate through topics very quickly, especially when you pair them with good keyword research. Don’t accept any output uncritically – all these tools guess at what will be popular, not exactly what will work for your specific channel.
What's the alternative to a YouTube video topic finding tool?
You can outsource topic research and YouTube content strategy to specialized companies. With a channel management service like Tasty Edits, you get human-vetted ideas, personalized to your channel, based on hard performance data.Â
