There’s a lot more YouTube videos coming out compared to the past, and that’s not strange, as it’s one of the biggest social media platforms with lots of viewers and potential ad revenue. Of course, a flow of new creators also plays into that, but how many channels can post a few well-made videos a week? The answer to that is simple — automation!
Scripting? Uploading? Anything in between? We now have many ways to make every step of the production process simpler and more enjoyable. The result of editing is pretty much the same, but with it being delegated, we have more time to focus on its creative side and add our own "flavor" to the video. Let’s see how it works, step-by-step!
Introduction to YouTube automation
YouTube automation is the process of creating and managing a YouTube channel when the creator doesn’t spend much time on production. Instead of filming, editing, or dubbing videos themselves, the creator, or the automator, builds a system in which these tasks are delegated to other people, usually freelancers or artificial intelligence.
Common YouTube automation examples are niches where information or entertainment is more important than the channel owner’s personality. You've heard about so-called "faceless" YouTube channels, right? Automation seems to work well for them! Check these automated YouTube channels out yourself:
TopThink is a classic example of "Infotainment", as it aptly puts in its description. Videos there have voice-over, animation/stock footage, topics on psychology, interesting facts, and touch on self-improvement.
TheRichest. A "top 10" niche about celebrities, the rich, and expensive things.
The Aperture channel is dedicated to philosophy and science. Similarly, it uses stock footage and graphics to give you a pleasant viewing experience.
Looks cool, doesn’t it? But not only that, by automating certain steps, you can make such videos pretty quickly, compared to making everything fully by yourself. Thus, automation saves time and helps cut production time for more than 50%!
You get one extra day back, which can go into research, better hooks, or… sleep.
Which leads us to the most important question.
Why use AI for your YouTube channel?
Apart from speeding up the content creation process, automation provides other benefits as well!
For example, it also brings efficiency up. If YouTube channels had to have a big production team for such a feat before, nowadays, even one person can achieve the same result. Leave some tasks to tools, and while they work their magic, you can inject your human creativity to actually interesting parts of production!
The other advantage of automation is consistency, and that’s a BIG word here in the YouTube sphere. It just might be the most common reason viewers decide to subscribe and stay with your channel. However, we know how hard it may be to whip up, e.g., several videos a week, as it easily can lead to burnout. So it's beneficial to automate content creation to not worry about doing the boring parts.
And how can we forget about saving money! Of course, it is only like that if you were planning to hire freelancers, but that’s quite a common practice when you have to work on a few projects simultaneously. Subscribing to several AI tools may seem costly, but it’s nothing in comparison and may help you to return investments pretty quickly.
How to automate your YouTube channel with AI
Not up for the full-on automation yet? A partial one can also be pretty helpful! For example, when I create videos for my channel, the recordings tend to be 1+ hour long, which leads to lengthy editing. However, I’ve recently discovered the "Delete Silence" option in my editor, and it effectively halved the process! I only need to review the result to make sure it’s good and fix minor mistakes, if any.
And if you want to automate something else, let’s see what options we have!
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Find your niche
Using AI to analyze trending topics is much faster than doing it yourself, especially when it comes to "low competition" keywords. But you can also try your hand in high-CPM niches. Many successful YouTube automation channels are about:
- Finances. Stock and cryptocurrency reviews; biographies of successful investors; explanation of financial terms, etc.
- Law/real estate. These are niches where the average customer spend is very high. A single successful advertising integration can bring in a huge paycheck for a lawyer or real estate agency.
- Health/beauty. Though popular, this is the most dangerous niche in terms of moderation. Any sort of medical advice or recommending treatment is a no-no. Only general information with constant references to consulting a doctor is allowed.
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Create AI-powered scripts
Drafting a script is a vital skill in the automation of video creation! The reason is simple — as it stands, the YouTube algorithm favors certain patterns that help in retaining attention and increasing engagement. Its key elements are:
- Goal. Usually, it’s keeping the viewer engaged for as long as possible and encouraging action from them.
- Hook (first 5-15 seconds). Most important! Grab the attention of the viewer by asking "How?" or "Why?"
- Promise/preview. Tell the audience what the video is about and why they should watch it.
- Main body with mini-hooks. Feed information in bites and throw a micro-engagement every 60-90 seconds. It can be a question, a transition to the next block, etc.
- Outro and Call-to-Action. A brief summary and directions on what the user should do next, like subscribe, watch another video, leave a comment, etc.
- End screen. YouTube has this function built in, so use it regularly!
When it looks like that, it’s not so complicated, right? So now you only have to use tools like ChatGPT, Claude, etc. But remember that you need to give them very specific prompts. For example:
Apart from the aforementioned AI tools, you can also try Copy.ai or Jasper. They have "YouTube Video Script" or "Video Content Outline" templates, which can also help you with video descriptions that will be beneficial for search engine optimization (SEO).
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Generate AI voice-overs
Are you too shy to record your own voice? Or just can’t bring the audio settings to their best? Not a problem! Modern text-to-speech tools provide natural-sounding AI voices that will bring your projects to life.
However, to make it sound really good, you have to work on the script and tone of the chosen voice. Try using shorter sentences and adding some ways to make the speech seem livelier, like hums, interjections, etc. In tools like ElevenLabs, you can add pause tags like [PAUSE] or bold keywords/phrases that should be emphasized based on intonation.
With background music thrown into the mix, the result should sound good, but if it still seems sluggish to you, bring up the speed by 5-10%. It often helps to "liven up" the speech without drastically distorting the voice.
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Create YouTube automation videos
Now to the key part! Fortunately, it can also be automated. We already have features that simplify the process in a lot of editing software, but you can also use AI video generators to create footage for the right video format. For example, InVideo and Pictory will help to quickly create dynamic videos with stock footage, or you can try Runway ML to generate unique video frames based on your text.
And if you want to create a "talking head" for news/explanations, HeyGen or Synthesia are the best in the field of AI avatars.
Or perhaps, you prefer manual video editing but wouldn’t mind making it easier? Clideo Video Editor is right here! It has libraries with stock images and clips, and you can create AI voice-overs in it as well.
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Optimize and upload your videos
It may surprise you, but uploading can also be streamlined.
Like, when creating thumbnails, AI won’t replace a designer, but it can make everything quicker. The best combination is for the AI to generate the basic design and for you to refine it. Tools like Leonardo and Stable Diffusion are your best friends here.
As for metadata, there are Jasper, Copy.ai, and Writesonic. They have ready-made templates for "YouTube Video Title" and "YouTube Description", which is convenient if you’re already working in this ecosystem.
And for the posting schedule, try Zapier or Make to trigger an automatic upload to YouTube the moment you save a file to Google Drive or Dropbox. Once you create a script for it, they’re good to go.
Best practices for AI-generated content
While automation is an easy approach when you get it going, don’t let it blind your common sense! It’s just an automated process with no regard to the result, so you should always check and review it for accuracy.
Also, you need to remember about YouTube’s policy on AI. It requires you to flag videos that contain realistically generated content that may mislead viewers. To do it, simply select "Yes" in the "Altered content" section.
Most importantly, avoid "content farm" vibes! It’s tempting to create a lot of content at once, but it may affect the audience’s trust if it takes away from the quality. Just relax and focus on polishing videos before they go live.
Essential automation tools
So, are you ready to start YouTube automation? Let's summarize your automation starter toolkit.
- Research: Syft, TIMIO News, Perplexity;
- Scripting: ChatGPT, Copy.ai, Jasper;
- Voice: ElevenLabs, Clideo Text-to-Speech;
- Editing: AI Video Cut, Opus Clip;
- Posting: Zapier, Make.
Those are only a few examples, but with them, you can see what kind of automation will be the most beneficial for your creation process!
It is a process of creating videos by making some parts of it fully or partially automated. E.g., generating a general script, voice-overs, and even uploading the final video.
Absolutely! In general, it’s the same as manually working on every aspect of your video, just greatly sped up. Once you get the process going, you’re soon to see the result for yourself.
Yes, but it evaluates them through the lens of trust, safety, and quality. Channels that use AI as a tool to enhance creativity have every chance of success and monetization.
There’s no set amount of time, but in general, it may take a few months to start making money. Before joining the YouTube Partner Program, it’s the process of understanding your audience and finding a "formula" for at least one video that will get 1-5k views.