YouTube — Channel Overview

Researched: May 2026

Why This Channel

YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine and the dominant long-form video platform. Most Leadmetrics clients already have a YouTube channel — they just don’t have a system to manage it alongside their other content. Connecting YouTube creates two distinct value streams:

1. Analytics — pull views, watch time, subscriber growth, and top-performing videos into the platform so agents can use real performance data to inform content strategy
2. Content assist — the Content Repurposer agent can auto-generate YouTube video descriptions, chapter timestamps, and end-screen scripts from existing blog posts; the Blog Writer can surface video topics based on what’s performing on the channel

YouTube also uses Google OAuth — the same infrastructure already used for GSC, GA4, Google Ads, and GBP. Adding YouTube is a one-scope extension of what already exists.

Auth Mechanism

Google OAuth 2.0 — reuse the existing Google provider infrastructure.

• Auth URL: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/v2/auth
• Token URL: https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token
• Scopes: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.upload
• Token refresh: same as existing Google channels (access token 1 hour; refresh token long-lived)

Sub-channel selection: after OAuth, the user selects which YouTube Channel to connect (some accounts manage multiple channels). Stored as subChannelInfo.id = channelId.

What It Enables

Workers Needed

Content Repurposer Integration

When a blog post is approved and the tenant has a connected YouTube channel, the Content Repurposer can generate:

- YouTube video script (intro hook + body + CTA, based on blog content)
- Video description (SEO-optimised, 5000 chars max, with timestamps)
- Tags (30 tags, mix of broad + specific)
- Chapter markers (00:00 Intro, 01:30 Main Point, etc.)
- Thumbnail concept brief (headline + visual direction for designer)
- End screen script (subscribe CTA + next video suggestion)

This turns every approved blog post into a YouTube content package — one of the highest-leverage content-multiplication features in the platform.

Insight Worker Output (ChannelInsight)

• Total views and watch time over 30 days
• Subscriber net change (gained vs. lost)
• Top 5 videos by views + watch time percentage
• Best performing video lengths (< 5 min vs 5–15 min vs 15+ min)
• Top traffic sources (YouTube Search vs. Suggested vs. External)
• Suggested: next video topic based on top-search-traffic videos

Channel Detail Page — YouTubeChannelDetail.tsx

Tabs:

1. Overview — subscriber count, total views, watch time (last 30 days)
2. Top Videos — sorted by views or watch time; thumbnail + metrics table
3. Traffic Sources — pie chart of where views come from
4. Insights — AI-generated performance summary
5. Suggestions — action items from insight worker

Implementation Plan

Phase 1 — Connect + Analytics

1. Create packages/providers/youtube/src/index.ts:

   • getAuthUrl(callbackUrl, channelId) — extend Google auth with YouTube scopes
   • exchangeCode(code, callbackUrl) — returns tokens (reuse Google OAuth pattern)
   • refreshAccessToken(refreshToken) — same as other Google channels
   • getChannels(accessToken) — GET /youtube/v3/channels?mine=true — list user’s channels
   • getChannelStats(accessToken, channelId) — subscribers, total views, videoCount
   • getTopVideos(accessToken, channelId, maxResults) — GET /youtube/v3/videos
   • getVideoAnalytics(accessToken, channelId, startDate, endDate) — YouTube Analytics API

2. Add OAuth routes to apps/api/src/routers/channel-connect.ts:

   • GET /youtube/connect → return auth URL (YouTube-scoped)
   • GET /youtube/callback → exchange code, redirect to channel select
   • GET /youtube/page/select → list channels
   • POST /youtube/page/select → save selected channel as subChannelInfo

3. Add seed entry to packages/db/prisma/seed.ts

4. Create youtube-insights.worker.ts

5. Create YouTubeChannelDetail.tsx

Phase 2 — Video Publishing

6. Add uploadVideo(accessToken, videoFile, metadata) to provider:

   • Resumable upload: POST /upload/youtube/v3/videos with uploadType=resumable
   • Metadata: title, description, tags, categoryId, privacyStatus

7. Add case "youtube" to social-publisher.worker.ts (or a new youtube-publisher.worker.ts)

8. SocialPost enum: add YouTube as a platform

Phase 3 — Content Repurposer

9. Add YouTube output case to content-repurposer.worker.ts — triggered when blog post is approved + YouTube channel is connected

Seed Entry

// packages/db/prisma/seed.ts — CHANNEL_CATALOGUE
{
  type: "YouTube",
  name: "YouTube",
  iconKey: "youtube",
  description: "Track YouTube analytics and generate video content from blog posts.",
  authenticationType: "oauth2",
  requiresUrl: false,
  isActive: true,
  categories: ["social_media", "seo"],
},