VideoHerd
All About using Artificial Intelligence and Automation on your YouTube Channel
Category: YouTube Content Strategy
With the recent advances and easy public access to LLMs, automation, and API tools, you may ask yourself if you can use these to automate parts of your YouTube channel’s production process. You’re not alone in your quest to vanquish those pesky YouTube side tasks while scaling your channel.
We’ve officially entered the era of Automated YouTube channels - and with any new innovations, the rules are always evolving. Google and YouTube are still feeling out their approach to automation and AI usage on their platforms. And, due to this, If you’re not careful with your YouTube Automation Process, you could get suspended, striked, or banned altogether.
Not to worry, because in this guide we’ve done the research for you to give you ideas on how you can automate your YouTube channel while staying in Google’s good-books.
Staying Within YouTube & Googles ‘Good-Books’ With Automated and AI Generated Videos and Content
Chances are you’ve probably watched a few videos from AI generated and automated YouTube channels already. As mentioned before, the jury is still out on YouTube’s official stance on content made with generative artificial intelligence.
But don’t worry because when we look at YouTube’s current monetization policies, we get a better understanding of their position. In summary, if you're using AI and automation to create YouTube videos, you should always aim to add meaningful differences to the content. This includes adding your own spin on things and/or a unique & educational commentary in addition to what anything the AI has generated for you.
Here’s a snippet from YouTube’s monetization policy which goes into the details on how they decide what ‘generated’ content for creators can be monetized. This is great advice to follow on YouTube in general as well.
But that’s not all the evidence. If we look at Google Developers’ blog from February of 2023, a post titled ‘Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content’ explains their approach to ranking online content generated by AI. It is summed up nicely in their second paragraph which essentially says, they’re prioritizing quality content, no matter how it is produced:
By looking at YouTube’s monetization policy and Google’s Search Developer’s blog policies on AI content, we can safely say that as long as your content contains value of some sort, you’re automated and AI-generated video content and channel will be okay, monetizable, and cleared for take off. Now let’s look at some types of automated and AI-generated channel strategies you can use.
The Three Different Types of Automated YouTube Channels
Now that we have a brief idea of what you should be doing with your generative content to keep YouTube and Google happy, let’s look at the three most common YouTube Automation strategies which you can pick and choose from.
Due to the aforementioned YouTube guidelines, you should always have a human revision process in your content creation journey to make sure your videos have the best chance of staying up and growing on the platform.
Automated Scraper YouTube Channels
A ‘Scraper Channel’ are channels that search the internet and download and compile different video clips on a certain topic. These can be funny video compilations, fail videos, or even funny clips of animals.
These are built off of a scripting language (usually Python or Javascript), and a few other specific coding libraries that aid in seeking out and downloading video files over the internet.
After they stitch and compile the video it outputs it to a folder on your computer. The script then talks to the Google API in order to upload the created video to your YouTube channel.
You can also tap into generative AI to whip up your YouTube title, description, and tags alongside your program. The only downside to this type of automated channel, would be the difficulty of creating the video’s thumbnail. You may be required to outsource that process or do it yourself manually.
Creating automated Scraper Channels can be a long process for beginners, especially if they’re new to scripting languages and API’s. However, if you have the budget, or background skills, this can be a worthwhile investment. Scraper channels have a large up-front investment but come with the reduction of large amounts of tedious work.
Outsourced YouTube Channels
This sort of automated YouTube channel strategy uses a combination of outsourcing and automation to create a more customized youtube channel experience at scale. Its name is deceiving because at some point you will have to take the reins and manually steer your content ship or outsource a lot of it to freelancers. However, the amount of manual work is much lower than what would be involved when creating a vanilla organic channel. This strategy also empowers people to create massive amounts of YouTube-approved content. A great combination for those who are looking to become a thought-leader in their niche fast.
Here are the steps involved in pulling this off:
Find a passionate niche with significant or rising search interest. Google Trends works great for this.
Find written articles related to your niche.
Run these articles through a Large Language Model or paraphrasing software Ex. ChatGPT, quillbot to create a video script from the article.
Use outsourcing marketplaces to hire a voice actor to record your new generated script (Alternatively, you can record your script yourself to save money).
Run your voiceover file and script through a picture matching AI tool. This step will sync your script and voiceover to relevant pictures and produce an accurate video. A great tool you can use it Pictory or VEED.IO.
Use your LLM to develop YouTube SEO approved description and title
Use ChatGPT plugins such as Mixerbox or CreativeMind for parts of your thumbnail design or even use Canva manually for more technical thumbnail generation.
Post, repeat, and refine your YouTube Automation process!
Automated Faceless YouTube Channels
When you don’t have access to actors or do not want to show your face on camera, using an automated faceless YouTube channel is a great option to create passive income, or even just expand your brand. It’s easy to automate, can cover a wide array of profitable niches, and can create a unique experience for viewers if done right.
The perfect Faceless YouTube channel uses AI to generate all content and automation tools to post it online. However, we must inform you the perfect Faceless YouTube channel process doesn’t exist yet. Luckily we can get it pretty close.
Faceless YouTube channels are channels where no one has to go in front of the camera. Instead, you create a character or compelling storyline that steals the show for you.
Check out The Improvement Pill as it’s a great example:
To get close to having everything automated you’ll want to follow this list:
Pick your target niche.
Use Chat GPT’s analytics plugins to identify trending video topics. Plugins for this include: What’s Trending by surge.ai and VideoInsights
Use Chat GPT to write a YouTube script or generate video ideas on said topics
Outsource to a human for checking the script over for consistency and to avoid AI hallucinations. Make sure also add creation of the YouTube title, tags, and description text in this step as well.
Use AI Text to Speech software to read out the edited script for you https://wellsaidlabs.com/
Compile it with an audio/text to image AI generator such as www.synthesia.io, https://fliki.ai/, or https://runwayml.com/ if you’re looking to experiment heavily with generative AI.
Upload your finished video file to YouTube and repeat.
A Final Note on YouTube AI and Automation
Okay, so I guess the purely automated YouTube channel is not exactly 100% feasible. There will almost always be some form of human interaction whether it’s you clicking publish to post your video online or you hiring a freelancer to check over your scripts. Regardless, automating parts of your YouTube channel is a great way to reduce creator burn out and to pour gas on your brand’s growth. If you’re looking for help or support in automating parts of your YouTube production process our team is here to help. Click the link below to reach out to us today!
