What are Outliers?
Have you ever wondered which video formats and topics are doing well on YouTube? An outlier is a video that has surpassed a channel’s usual performance—it’s receiving more views than usual!
The Outlier tool is your secret weapon for uncovering these high-performing gems. This powerful feature allows you to scan video content, spotlighting the exceptionally successful ones. With the Outlier tool, you can quickly identify what’s working best, learn winning strategies, and supercharge your own channel’s growth.
Dive into the data, discover the outliers, and take your YouTube game to the next level!
How to Get Started with Outliers
If you're using a computer: First, log in to your vidIQ account. Once you're in, you'll see an "Outliers" section on the left of the navigation bar.
If you're using the vidIQ extension for YouTube or YouTube Studio on your browser, you will see the Outlier Score next or below a video publish date and views:
Selecting a topic or Keyword
Similar to keyword research, it's essential to have a precise topic or idea for your YouTube video so that you can focus on and narrow down your keyword research. Exploring and researching one topic in depth allows you to target the right audience and find the specific words they will use to discover your video.
When creating a video, it's essential to clarify its purpose. Are you making a drone review, a vlog at the vidIQ headquarters, or a storytelling video of your last trip to Antarctica? Once you've established the purpose of your video, conducting your research becomes much easier because you'll know where to start and what keyword(s) to input.
Filters
The Outlier tool provides several filters to help you refine your search and identify the top-performing videos in your niche. Here’s a breakdown of each filter and how to use them:
1. Outlier Score (Range: 0-100+):
• Description: This filter allows you to set the range for the Outlier Score, which measures the video's exceptional performance. The higher the score, the more significant the outlier.
• Example: Set the range to focus on videos with an Outlier Score of 50+ to find those performing exceptionally well.
2. Views (Range: 0-10M+):
• Description: Filter videos based on the number of views. This helps you identify popular videos within a specific view range.
• Example: Adjust the slider to focus on videos with more than 1 million views to see highly viewed content.
3. Subscribers (Range: 0-10M+):
• Description: Filter channels based on their subscriber count. This is useful for identifying successful channels with a specific audience size.
• Example: Set the range to target channels with at least 100,000 subscribers to find influential creators in your niche.
4. Views Per Hour (Range: 0-1K+):
• Description: This filter allows you to find videos based on their views per hour, indicating the current popularity and engagement rate.
• Example: Focus on videos with a views per hour rate of 500+ to see trending content.
5. Video Length (Range: 0-60+ mins):
• Description: Filter videos by their length to find content that matches the desired duration.
• Example: Set the filter to show videos between 10 and 20 minutes long to find content with substantial engagement.
6. Publishing Date (This Week- All Time):
• Description: Filter videos based on their publishing date. This helps you focus on recent or older content. The option to choose
• Example: Select from “This week, This month, Last 3 Months, Last 6 Months, Last Year, and All Time” to find the latest or oldest high-performing videos in your niche.
Using these filters, you can tailor your search to uncover the most relevant and high-performing videos, helping you gain insights and strategies to enhance your content.
Please note, that the Advanced Filters are only available in the vidIQ paid plans. On the free/basic plan, you will be prompted to upgrade to use them.
Video Details:
The Outlier tool provides valuable information about the outlier video, which includes:
Embed video, the view count, and the publish date.
Outlier Score.
Views.
Views Per hour.
Engagement.
Amount of subscribers
Average views.
Additionally, you can perform quick actions that will redirect you to vidIQ tools or YouTube:
Give me ideas: Redirects you to the Create tool, where you can create a new Blueprint based on the video's title.
Find similar videos: This quick action automatically performs a new search using the video's title as input.
Open in YouTube: Redirects you to the video inside YouTube.
Add as competitor: Adds the channel owner of the outlier video as a new competitor on vidIQ Competitors tool.
FAQ of the Outliers tool
Why do I see irrelevant videos?
Frequently, irrelevant videos may appear when using the Outlier tool because the set filters are too specific or narrow. The tool aims to match the input closely, but if the criteria are too restrictive, it may struggle to find perfect matches and instead show less relevant videos.
Expanding your filters will help the Outlier tool capture more relevant videos. This approach increases the chance of finding high-performing content that meets your criteria, providing valuable insights and strategies for your channel.
Why did I receive NSFW or surprising results?
While we have our own robust filtering system, we also rely on YouTube's moderation, so anything you see on our site is on YouTube.
What are the color brackets for the Outliers?
Three colors represent the significance and brackets of the Outliers feature: Black, Blue, Purple, and Red. Here are the ranges according to the score and the color:
Under 2x: - ⚫️ (Black)From 2 - 5x: - 🔵 (Blue)
From 5 - 10x: 🟣 (Purple)
Above 10x: 🔴 (Red)
How can a video with fewer views have a higher outlier score than one with more views?
The outlier score measures a video’s performance relative to the average performance of other videos on the same channel. It compares the video's view count to the channel’s average views within a similar timeframe.
Relative Performance: A video with 1 million views on a channel with an average view count of 500,000 will have a higher outlier score than a video with 2 million views on a channel with an average of 5 million.
Example:
• Channel A: Typically gets 1,000 views per video. A new video with 10,000 views will have a 10x outlier score.
• Channel B: Typically gets 10 million views per video. A new video with 10 million views will have a 1x outlier score.
Takeaway: The outlier score helps identify videos that perform exceptionally well relative to the channel’s usual performance.