🚀 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. --- ## ⭐ 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. --- ## 🔑 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: json { "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 json { "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: json { "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: json { "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 --- # 📦 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 }'