VidIQ Review and Tutorial: Is It Worth It?

It feels awfully frustrating when you’re creating great content and people are not even seeing it!

That’s why every kind of online content creator should be learning about SEO. It’s the best way to get eyeballs on your content when you’re a nobody.

I can testify it:

SEO allowed me to grow from being an absolute nobody to having more than 4 million visits to my website.

It also helped me get partnered with YouTube in a month and a half.

Sadly, I found this tool years later.

VidIQ is an SEO tool for YouTubers with quite a few interesting features.

As an SEO expert, I’ll admit it has some features that are especially good for new YouTubers.

It will help you understand SEO better, and it will give you a lot of clues that you can use to determine the best kind of video you should be making.

Here’s a video tutorial where I teach you to use its best free features, and then I’ll list you everything that you can do with the paid plans.

This VidIQ review will help you find out if it’s worth it.

VidIQ Review and Video Tutorial

VidIQ Free Features

VidIQ is a powerful YouTube video marketing tool that offers many features to help you get more views and higher rankings for your videos. You can sign up for VidIQ for free. 

When you register and confirm your YouTube account, VidIQ asks you questions about your channel to customize your account. You’ll then have access to a number of features:

• 1 user and channel. With the free version, you’re limited to a single YouTube channel. You can, of course, upload as many videos as you want to a single channel. 
• Audience demographics. Learn about your subscribers: their age, gender, location, and other data.
• Track 3 competitors. Tracking competition is a critical aspect of YouTube marketing. VidIQ provides many tools to make you aware of what others in your niche or industry are up to. 
• Basic video analytics (for Web Suite). You have access to the Real Time Stats Bar, which gives you the latest views, minutes watched, subscribers, and other vital stats. 
• Video Scorecard for Chrome extension. See your VidIQ Score to instantly see how your videos are performing.
• 1 trend alerts with limited options. Trend alerts provide you with valuable insights on what topics to cover in your videos. 

While you have limited options with the free version, You can derive some real benefits by having easy access to analytics and the Video Scorecard. This also gives you a good introduction to the platform and can help you decide if you want to upgrade.  

VidIQ Pro Plan: Is It Worth It?

There are actually several paid plans for VidIQ. You have certain choices within each plan which determine the price. For example, with the Boost plan, you can opt for more channels and videos for the Keyword Engine. The Pro Plan, which starts at $7.50/month includes:

• 1 user and channel.
• Track 6 competitors.
• 1 trend alert.
• Top trending videos. Find out which videos in your niche are trending so you can cover the most popular topics. 
• Top Tweets for videos. Videos that get tweeted can get wide exposure. 
• Historical analysis. Learn how videos (your or competitors’) have performed over time. 

The VidIQ Pro Plan is a good value for small to midsized businesses, including agencies that market on behalf of clients, who want to get better returns for their video marketing efforts. Many features also save time by automating important tasks. Being able to track multiple competitors

VidIQ Boost Review: Is It Worth It?

The average user gets twice as many views within 7 days of signing up for Boost. The Boost plan, which starts at $39/month, includes all of the features of the Pro plan as well as:

• 1 user; 1, 3, or 5 channels.
• VidIQ Keyword Engine: 40, 100, or 200 videos per month. Get detailed insights into keywords for multiple videos. 
• 5, 10, or 15 trend alerts.
• Track 20 competitors.
• Recommendations for inline tags, titles, & descriptions.
• Video archival.
• Facebook syndication.
• Bulk SEO optimizations. 
• Channel wide tags. Apply tags across channels. 
• Dedicated SEO analytics. Get customized analytics for your videos and channels. 

VidIQ Boost provides solid value for larger companies that want to get even more leverage from their videos. 

VidIQ Enterprise

For larger organizations or anyone who wants to scale up their video marketing. Ask for a demo and consult with VidIQ for pricing.

• Unlimited users, channels, competitor tracking, and VidIQ Keyword Engine videos.
• 100 trend alerts.

Is VidIQ Accurate?

Tools are just tools, and none of them is perfect at measuring something. 

There are many ways of doing this and VidIQ has its own way of calculating keyword competitiveness when compared to its rival, TubeBuddy.

For some queries, VidIQ will “feel” more accurate.

For some others, TubeBuddy will seem better.

As someone that has done SEO for my own websites and YT channel for the last 5 years with success, I can tell you that it is a nice guide to have if you’re just starting.

We usually simply look at how many views the top resulting videos have compared to the amount of searches the related keyword gets per month.

VidIQ does exactly this, and it gives it its own score.

It might not be perfect (nobody can tell if it is), but it provides a good estimate that will be helpful if you’re just starting.

How VidIQ Helps You Get More Views

Do you ever watch videos with millions of views and wonder how they got so popular? There are a few possibilities:

Paid ads

If you spend enough money, you can always get traffic. You can promote videos using YouTube ads (part of Google AdWords) or other advertising platforms. However, this is not a viable option for 99% of people due to the high costs.

Sending your existing audience to your channel

A public figure with a large following (whether from a TV show, movies, sports, or business) can start a YouTube channel tomorrow and start getting lots of views immediately by simply mentioning it on whatever platforms he or she already has. A major brand is also in this position. Most people don’t have this luxury. 

Where VidIQ helps: SEO Optimization

You can optimize videos so they can get discovered by people that are using search engines. This involves choosing popular topics and keywords, tags, and many other factors.

This is the main way you will get eyeballs on your content when you’re just starting. It’s the starting point for every new channel. And that, my friend, is why VidIQ is so popular and useful.

Building up a following over time

Some YouTubers have worked hard for many years to create a successful channel. They may have used a combination of tactics such as advertising, email marketing, or video SEO.

If you’re a “normal” (i.e. not a celebrity or influencer already) person or small/midsized business with a limited budget, SEO is your best strategy. The problem is that this can take lots of time and effort if you try to do it manually.

There’s also a rather steep learning curve and the need to keep up with Google/YouTube’s latest algorithms. VidIQ is a shortcut, a way to quickly optimize your videos for greater organic reach in less time and without the need for SEO or technical expertise. 

How VidIQ Boosts Your Video Marketing

YouTube is not only the biggest video sharing platform, but it’s also part of the gigantic Google empire, a search engine in itself, and a place many customers go to research products.

YouTube has also become extremely competitive in recent years. If you want your videos and channel to get views, you need a clear strategy. It also helps to have the right tools.

VidIQ is a service that helps you maximize your video marketing efforts. Offering several plans, including a free one, you can choose the features that match your needs.

Although VidIQ offers several plans with many features, the main objective is quite simple: to help you get more views on YouTube. Views are to YouTube what traffic is to a blog. It’s the foundation of any successful video marketing strategy. No matter what you’re promoting, you need to get eyes in front of your offers.

With VidIQ you can:

• Get more YouTube views and channel subscribers.
• Identify the most popular and profitable keywords.
• Crack the SEO code and get more visibility for your videos and channels.
• Track your competition.
• See key analytics for your videos without having to dig for them.

Exploring the Top Features of VidIQ 

VidIQ offers four plans, each with its own set of features. Let’s start by exploring the features and how they can help with your video marketing. Then we’ll identify the plans and what you get with each one.

Web Suite + Chrome Extension 

You have access to both the VidIQ web suite and a Chrome extension so you can study and optimize your videos from different devices. While the web suite provides access to more features, the browser extension lets you see lots of useful data at a glance. For example, VidIQ Score tells you the probability of videos being recommended or listed under related videos.  

Study the Competition

No matter what your video is about, it will be competing against many others on the same topic or similar ones. Identifying and understanding your competition helps you form a better strategy for your own videos. VidIQ lets you track your competitors, including the top influencers in your niche or industry. You’ll be able to see what is and isn’t working for your competition.

• Get stats of competitors’ videos. Bring up data such as highest viewed, views by the hour, and subscriber growth. 
• Track competitors’ channels. Compare your channel with those of your competitors. Add any channel you want to see relevant stats. Sort data by dates or views per hour. 
• Export top keywords. Find out which keywords your competitors are using.

 SEO and Keyword Tools

SEO and keywords are crucial to videos. Your titles and descriptions go a long way in making your videos rank better on both the Google and YouTube search engines -the world’s largest and second-largest search engines!

• YouTube Keyword Tool – search for keywords in any niche and find out the number of views and subscribers as well as competition. VidIQ issues a Keyword Score that gives you an idea of a keyword’s value. 
• Keyword Inspector – Provides you with even more keyword information such as related videos and interest over time. 
• Inline Keywords – Reveals the tags used by your competitors. 
• Keyword Translator – Translates your titles, descriptions, and tags into multiple languages to reach a global audience. 
• Keyword Templates – Create tag templates that you can easily insert into any future videos. 

 YouTube Trends

Tracking trends on YouTube is important to inform your own content strategy. 

• Trend Alerts – You can find out how a particular keyword is performing, how competitors’ videos are doing on a certain topic. Set up Trend Alerts so you get email notifications when certain topics are trending. You can use this feature to identify microtrends within a certain niche. For example, if your main topic is celebrities, you can track how particular celebrities such as Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber are trending this week. If your niche is sports, find out which teams, athletes, or events are trending.
• Most Viewed – While YouTube has its own trending section, this isn’t always accurate or comprehensive. The Most Viewed feature on VidIQ lets you track top-trending videos based on keywords, categories, views per hour, and other criteria. The real value of this tool is that you can use any type of filter to identify videos that are relevant to you. For example, if your niche is exercise, videos about the stock market or pop music won’t have any relevance to you. You can find what videos are trending in your area of interest. 

Track Analytics With the VidIQ Scorecard

One of the first rules of any type of marketing is to always track your results. While you can do this on your own on YouTube, it can be complicated and time-consuming…unless you have VidIQ, which makes it easy to see and understand your analytics. Scorecard provides you with instant access to key data. 

• Overview of key data points. See views, views-per-hour, average view time, as well as the top countries and devices from where your videos are viewed. This and other data are used to compile an overall VidIQ score.
• Video Optimization Checklist. At a glance, see a green check or red cross for factors such as title, tags, description, thumbnail, social media shares, and more. 
• Channel analytics. Measure video performance in the context of your channel. Stats include total channel views and average daily views and subscribes. 
• Historical data. Chart the performance of any video from the time it was uploaded to the present. 
• Related videos. See related videos that are trending. 
• Best time of day. Identify the optimal times for uploading your videos.

Other Analytics Features 

• Productivity tools. ​Comment templates and bulk editing for cards and End Screens.​​
• Learn about subscribers. Find out which videos and channels your audience is watching in addition to yours. 
• Real Time Stats Bar.  Things move lightning fast on YouTube. You need the very latest statistics. The Real Time Stats Bar lets you see the most up-to-date numbers on views and subscribers. You’ll see a graph as well as metrics broken down by the hour and day. You can track how a video is trending over any time period, right up to the present moment. 

Facebook Syndication

With Facebook Syndication (only available with Boost and Enterprise plans), you can instantly share any YouTube video on Facebook. All you have to do is connect your Facebook page to your VidIQ account. You have the option of editing information such as title, description, and category for Facebook. 

Thumbnail Generator

Creating a captivating custom thumbnail is an important yet often overlooked aspect of YouTube SEO. The thumbnail is the first thing potential viewers see before they decide to click on your video or not.

YouTube creates a default thumbnail, which is basically a random shot taken from your video. You can get more views by creating your own custom thumbnail. VidIQ lets you add or edit text, fonts, borders, and images to optimize your thumbnails for more views. 

Is VidIQ a Good Value?

As with any marketing tools, the true value depends on your needs, preferences, and budget.

For anyone who is serious about getting more out of their video marketing, VidIQ offers some powerful and effective features.

The free plan is good for trying out the service.

The Pro and Boost plans provide more comprehensive tools for tracking more trends and competitors, getting more keyword recommendations, and more.

If you want a better idea of how the features work, download VidIQ for free and try it out yourself.

And if you want to know the main differences with its main competitor, Tubebuddy, check out our comparison here.