How to Build a YouTube Scraper to Discover Viral Video Ideas Using Airtable and Automation

Overview

Coming up with viral YouTube video ideas often feels like a game of trial and error. But what if there was a system that could automatically research your competitors’ top-performing content? In this guide, you’ll learn how to create a powerful YouTube video scraper using Airtable and automation tools like n8n. This process pulls in key data from high-performing videos to help you analyze what works—so you never have to start from scratch again.

Getting Started: Set Up Your Tools

Before diving in, make sure you have accounts set up with Airtable—a versatile spreadsheet database—and n8n, a popular automation platform that helps you chain together powerful workflows using APIs and integrations.

Step 1: Creating Your Airtable Bases

Start by creating an Airtable base named YouTube Channel Scraper Demo. You’ll need two tables:

• Table 1 – To store YouTube channel metadata
  • Columns: Channel Name, Channel ID, Video Count, Subscribers, Total Views, Link
• Table 2 – To list top-performing videos from each channel
  • Columns: Title, Views, Likes, Comments, Channel Name

Step 2: Configure Airtable API Access

Create an Airtable API token by navigating to the Builder Hub. Assign the necessary scopes:

• data.records:read
• data.records:write
• schema.bases:read

Make sure the token has access to your new base. Copy the token and store it securely.

Building the Scraper Workflow in n8n

Step 3: Set Up the Trigger Node

Create a new workflow named YouTube Scraper Demo and begin with a manual trigger. This allows you to run the workflow on demand.

Step 4: Connect to Airtable

Search for the Airtable integration in n8n and select the operation Search Records, targeting Table 1 in your base. Use your API token as the credential to enable connection. This will fetch all channel IDs listed in your Airtable table.

Step 5: Fetch YouTube Channel Statistics

Create an HTTP Request node set to the GET method, targeting the YouTube Data API v3. Use the channels endpoint to gather data like video count, subscribers, and total views for each channel. You’ll need to feed in parameters like:

• part=snippet,statistics,contentDetails
• id={channelId} (dynamically linked)
• key={YourAPIKey}

Step 6: Update Channel Stats Back to Airtable

Create a node to update records in Table 1, mapping the fetched statistics to the respective columns. At this point, your base will be enriched with real-time metrics from each YouTube channel.

Step 7: Retrieve Top Performing Videos

Add another HTTP Request node to hit the search endpoint:

• part=snippet
• order=viewCount
• maxResults=5
• channelId={channelId}
• key={YourAPIKey}

This step pulls the top five most-viewed videos for each channel.

Step 8: Fetch Video-Specific Statistics

Use the videos endpoint to retrieve deeper statistics like views, likes, and comment counts. Loop through each video ID gathered previously and request:

• part=snippet,statistics
• id={videoId1, videoId2, ..., videoId5}
• key={YourAPIKey}

Step 9: Organize and Upload Video Data to Airtable

Now, split each video object for individual processing. Map these objects to fields in Table 2 within your Airtable. This will store each channel’s high-performing video data for easy reference and analysis.

Putting It All Together

Once the full workflow is executed, your Airtable base will consist of two core datasets—YouTube channel metrics and their most successful videos. Armed with this data, you can:

• Spot trends across your niche
• Understand video titles that perform well
• Track key engagement metrics like comments and likes

This pipeline removes the guesswork from content ideation and gives you actionable insights on what resonates with your target audience.

Conclusion

This YouTube scraper built using Airtable and n8n is a powerful way to automate competitive research. Instead of manually analyzing each channel, this setup pulls real-time data on views, engagement, and top-performing content—streamlining your video marketing strategy. Whether you’re a solo creator or part of a content team, this workflow can serve as a foundation to create targeted, data-backed video ideas that resonate and go viral.

If you’re ready to tap into the power of data and automation, start building your scraper today and shift from reactive to strategic content creation.

Note: This blog is written and based on a YouTube video. Orignal creator video below: