Monitor Your YouTube Video Mentions

Your model is being talked about on YouTube proper now—and also you in all probability don’t know what’s being mentioned.

YouTube is the second-largest search engine, the place customers spend roughly 50 minutes day by day (and rising).

It’s additionally the 2nd most cited supply by LLMs, that means video mentions don’t simply attain human audiences—they educate AI tips on how to suggest your model.

YouTube creators are shaping model narratives in entrance of thousands and thousands of viewers.

Take Canva: it picked up round 460 YouTube mentions this month (in line with the YouTube report in Ahrefs Model Radar).

That may not sound like a lot, till you understand these 460 mentions translate to three.4 million views.

When you’re not monitoring your YouTube mentions, you’re leaving your status in another person’s palms.

YouTube mentions are any occasion the place your model identify seems in a channel identify, title, description, transcript, or hyperlink.

There are two distinct sorts:

Tagged mentions

Tagged mentions work like social media tags (e.g. @channelname). They hyperlink to your channel, and set off notifications in YouTube everytime you’re talked about in titles, descriptions, or feedback.

One factor to recollect about tagged mentions is that the creator has to deliberately tag you—they aren’t simply informal passing mentions.

Untagged mentions

Untagged mentions, then again, are natural mentions. They don’t hyperlink again to your channel and also you gained’t get notified whenever you land one. Untagged mentions can seem wherever: in channel names, thumbnails, titles, descriptions, transcripts, and hyperlinks.

YouTube mentions can take the shape of:

• References to your product/service even with out utilizing the precise model identify
• Comparisons or critiques that characteristic your model alongside others
• Informal name-drops in tutorials, vlogs, or commentary content material

You may monitor mentions in tagged posts natively inside YouTube Studio.

Simply head to “Group” within the menu on the left, and search for the “Mentions” tab on the dashboard.

However for untagged mentions, you’ll want a social media monitoring device.

Model Radar’s YouTube monitoring device does precisely this—monitoring your model throughout ~15M movies (and rising) by scanning titles, descriptions, and transcripts.

On this information, I’ll stroll you thru monitoring YouTube mentions with this device, utilizing actual examples from Ahrefs.

YouTube mentions are a number one indicator of brand name well being.

When extra creators speak about you organically, it indicators consciousness is rising round your model.

Typically that interprets as elevated search quantity, AI citations and, in the end, enterprise progress.

When you monitor your mentions each month, you possibly can see if consciousness is rising or declining, discover out what’s driving spikes in dialog, and show the ROI of your brand-building with concrete knowledge.

And there are tons extra use instances and advantages…

• Measure model buzz: Observe point out quantity month-over-month to see if consciousness is accelerating or stalling. For instance, if mentions doubled after your rebrand, it’s working
• Assess marketing campaign influence: Examine point out spikes to marketing campaign launch dates to show which initiatives truly moved the needle—if mentions jumped 3x throughout your product launch week, that’s your proof of influence
• Benchmark towards targets: Set quarterly point out targets (e.g. 500 mentions in Q1) to carry your group accountable and information price range selections
• Justify funding: Present stakeholders concrete proof of rising model presence (e.g. 150% YoY progress in impressions), to safe subsequent 12 months’s price range
• Determine breakout moments: Pinpoint what brought about sudden point out spikes (e.g. product launches, viral movies, PR hits) to duplicate that success once more and once more
• Forecast future visibility: Look ahead to sustained YouTube point out progress as an early indicator of rising search rankings and AI citations

monitor your YouTube mentions persistently

Add your model identify and variants to Model Radar’s YouTube monitoring device, then use the report view to trace your complete YouTube mentions month-over-month.

Begin off by dropping your model identify—plus any pronunciation variations—into the “Your model” subject.

Observe model identify variations

Examine transcripts to search out spelling variations based mostly on how your model identify is pronounced. Fortunately for us, we’ve a video on “tips on how to pronounce Ahrefs”, the place our international group of customers have shared how they are saying our model identify. I mined the transcript, and located a number of “Ahrefs” variations (like “Arafs” and “Ah rifs”), to assist me observe down extra YouTube mentions of our model.

In case your model identify can be tough to pronounce, take into consideration monitoring for mentions of your model’s options, merchandise, or companies.

For instance, “Key phrase issue” and “Area score” are each uniquely developed Ahrefs scores, so we would need to take into consideration monitoring these to get a greater sense of the place our model is referenced.

It can save you these variations by hitting the “Save report” button on the primary Model Radar dashboard:

In return, you’ll get a month-to-month view of your YouTube model mentions, which you’ll observe periodically to evaluate progress or decline.

Beneath that, you’ll see an inventory of movies organically mentioning your model, ordered by “relevance”.

Outcomes which are thought-about “related” are ranked based mostly on a mix of point out frequency and view rely.

Unprompted model mentions let you know what’s working, how folks naturally describe your model, and which use instances resonate a lot that creators can’t assist however share them.

And, better of all, none of it prices you a cent.

While you monitor natural model mentions, you can:

• Get unfiltered notion: Learn natural mentions to catch trustworthy opinions (e.g. “clunky UI” or “superb assist”), then handle recurring criticisms in product updates (e.g. repair UI points) and fold reward into your advertising (e.g. homepage copy)
• Market the proper use instances: Uncover new and novel methods audiences use your product, then construct campaigns round them. For instance, if creators use your undertaking administration device for podcast manufacturing, create a touchdown web page concentrating on that area of interest
• Form messaging: Observe the phrases audiences use, then undertake them in your internet or advert copy. As an illustration, if reviewers name you “silly easy,” swap out generic strains like “intuitive platform” for his or her precise language
• Spot content material gaps: See which subjects seem alongside your mentions, then create content material for them. For instance, if “Search engine optimisation audits” comes up continuously, publish a how-to information on that subject

do discover natural video mentions

Discovering natural mentions isn’t just a case of looking for your model identify. It’s worthwhile to filter out companions and opponents, if you wish to see mentions which are really natural.

Begin by including a “does not comprise” filter, to rule out:

• Your owned channels (e.g. Ahrefs)
• Sponsored key phrases in descriptions (e.g. #spon, #advert)
• Accomplice URL fragments (e.g. /accomplice/)

For instance, beneath I’ve excluded our owned YouTube channels with a channel identify > doesn’t comprise> Ahrefs filter.

Then I’ve dominated out sure components our companions sometimes embrace of their video descriptions, like accomplice hyperlinks containing yt., or particular merchandise that we’ve been working with them to advertise like awt (i.e. Ahrefs Webmaster Instruments).

That filter takes us from 1,482 outcomes to 229 phrase of mouth mentions. However we’re not performed but.

A few of these mentions are showcasing options to Ahrefs, or pitting us towards our opponents.

For now, we need to concentrate on UGC that’s centered round our model—not our opponents.

So, we have to add a Title > doesn’t comprise > partial match > [competitor name]. This leaves us with 201 mentions.

When you’ve adopted alongside to this point, you possibly can proceed filtering even additional to see which movies your model is the main focus of (e.g. Title > comprises > partial match > [brand name])

Versus the movies that point out it in passing (e.g. Title > Doesn’t comprise > partial match > [brand name])

This sort of evaluation can present you the way prospects truly use your services.

For instance, the video beneath reveals that individuals significantly use our device Model Radar for AI competitor hole evaluation…

Whereas the following video reveals that some customers wish to see extra actionable suggestions throughout the platform…

You need to use these sorts of insights to form your content material, and move them over to the product group to tell your roadmap.

As a substitute of cold-pitching influencers, begin with creators which are already discussing your model or subjects in your house.

It will provide help to observe down high-potential companions whose audiences and area of interest naturally align along with your personal.

There are a ton of advantages to monitoring influencer mentions:

• Discover creator followers: Observe down influencers already mentioning your model organically, then ship them early entry to options or paid partnership provides they’re prone to settle for
• Assess viewers match: Earlier than reaching out, see if their viewers match your goal market, so that you solely pitch to channels the place your product truly resonates
• Prioritize high-impact creators: Type by view counts and engagement, then allocate your sponsorship price range to the highest performers
• Tailor your pitch: Pull particular quotes like “I like how [Brand] handles X,” then open your electronic mail with “Noticed you praised our X characteristic in your latest video—focused on test-driving the improve?”
• Save time and price range: Construct a shortlist of pre-vetted creators who truly align along with your model, as an alternative of cold-pitching dozens and hoping one thing sticks

discover related influencers to sponsor

Discover creators value partnering with by sorting natural mentions based mostly in your targets, then zero in on movies and audiences that really align along with your model.

Begin with the report you’ve already configured to search out natural word-of-mouth mentions (i.e. the one which filters out your model channels and the companions you already sponsor).

The purpose is to find the most seen creators, with audiences which are related to your model.

As I mentioned earlier, your YouTube mentions are sorted by “relevance”—which is a mix of point out frequency and view rely by default. 

Which means it is best to have the ability to discover high quality influencer mentions proper off the bat.

However some nice alternatives could also be trickier to trace down.

As an illustration, you may land simply one point out in a extremely seen video that finally ends up being hyper-relevant.

That’s why it’s necessary to check out completely different sorting choices—e.g. order “By views” vs. “By relevance”.

Then, whenever you come throughout a creator that appears fascinating, you possibly can learn the transcript and watch the video to higher perceive the context of your model point out.

Right here’s an instance of what I imply.

I set the chart in Model Radar’s YouTube report back to Impressions, and located one point out that bumped up our model consciousness by 115% in a single day.

I tracked it down within the listing view (by sorting “By views”), then clicked the transcript timecode to observe the video and perceive the point out context.

In the end, the creator briefly really useful Ahrefs as a long-tail key phrase device for solopreneurs seeking to begin Search engine optimisation-monetized blogs.

Understanding the context helps you get a greater concept of whether or not an influencer is value sponsoring. You may rapidly assess:

• Is that this an viewers you need to attain?
• Is the really useful product/service helpful to your enterprise?
• Does the channel or video subject align along with your advertising targets?

On this instance, the viewers in all probability isn’t proper for Ahrefs. The video primarily targets inexperienced persons who usually tend to be focused on our free key phrase instruments.

Our precedence, then again, is selling our extra superior instruments to mature SEOs and entrepreneurs in medium-sized to enterprise companies.

Which brings me on to the following video…

Whereas it has fewer views, it options Ahrefs in workflows that enchantment to our precise audience: mature entrepreneurs in company manufacturers.

It additionally covers a subject that may be a massive product focus for us proper now: AI.

Plus the creator reveals off a use case that may very well be even higher dealt with by our new ChatGPT Search engine optimisation device: Ahrefs MCP.

Diving even deeper, I can see the creator has ~98K subscribers, and that her channel aligns with our subject focus: Digital advertising, AI technique, skilled progress, tech & enterprise.

In order that’s an:

• Viewers match
• Product match
• Advertising/subject match

To me, this seems like a significantly better partnership alternative.

If you wish to forged an excellent wider internet, you possibly can repeat this entire course of, however take away your personal model mentions from the equation, and as an alternative filter by the market/business you’re aiming to get talked about in.

For instance, right here’s an in depth filter I constructed to search out related creators within the “AI advertising house”.

Use the filters to type by means of your mentions till you discover creators value partnering with.

Earlier than folks open their wallets, they’re on YouTube watching critiques and checking in case your services or products truly solves their downside.¹

These mentions reveal what attracts patrons to your model, or sends them to a competitor.

Monitoring bottom-of-funnel YouTube mentions helps you:

• Tackle widespread objections: Spot recurring considerations in critiques, then publish weblog posts, replace your FAQ web page, or ship product fixes that immediately counter them
• Double down on differentiators: When creators say one among your options beats your opponents, highlight it in your homepage, product pages, paid adverts, and gross sales decks
• Prepare your gross sales group: Give gross sales reps responses to the precise objections, questions, and issues showing in these movies
• Mine testimonials: Discover genuine buyer tales in video mentions, then screenshot quotes in your web site, repurpose clips for social proof adverts, or construct case research round them
• Sponsor strategic comparisons: Discover creators who place you favorably towards opponents, then attain out with sponsorship provides or new speaking factors to bolster
• Right misinformation: Catch inaccurate comparisons in movies, electronic mail the creator with correct data, or provide to collaborate on an up to date video
• Enhance characteristic priorities: See which competitor options persistently win over patrons, then bump comparable capabilities up your product roadmap or sundown options no person mentions
• Optimize comparability pages: Observe what patrons truly care about in video comparisons, then rewrite your “Model vs Competitor” touchdown pages to steer with these precise ache factors and options

discover excessive buy intent mentions on YouTube

The best option to discover mentions of your model in buyer-focused content material is to seek for comparability movies that includes your model and opponents.

Maintain your earlier “doesn’t comprise” filters energetic (i.e. those excluding your personal model channel and companions), then reintroduce the opponents that you simply filtered out.

On this instance, I’ve merely eliminated the Title > doesn’t comprise > partial match > [competitor name] filter.

I’ve additionally excluded mentions of the phrase “free” within the video title, simply so I can concentrate on creators reviewing our paid instruments.

Now all of our opponents are again within the sport.

You probably have a bigger model with extra mentions, you possibly can add additional key phrase modifiers to zero in on comparability content material—e.g.

• versus/vs
• different
• compares/in contrast/comparability
• evaluation
• execs and cons
• value it
• greatest
• high

This wasn’t vital for us, as our hottest mentions have a tendency to come back from head-to-head critiques, so that they’re fairly simple to discover.

Analyze your video mentions in NotebookLM

Take your YouTube video mentions over to NotebookLM should you don’t have time to observe each evaluation. You will get an excellent fast abstract, gauge the sentiment of your point out, and resolve whether or not you might want to truly do one thing about it.

After establishing my filters, I instantly discovered two critiques pitting Ahrefs towards Semrush.

The primary got here from “Advertising Island”, printed again in Might 2024. To this point, it’s been considered 10.2K instances.

The second was from “Jaume Ros”, printed again in August 2024 and considered 3.4K instances.

While you run them by means of NotebookLM, it turns into clear one recommends Semrush, and the opposite Ahrefs.

However in each instances, the creators evaluation Ahrefs negatively because of our previous “credit” based mostly fee system, and the truth that we lack a broader vary of selling instruments.

Our platform and pricing has modified quite a bit since these movies have been created.

We’ve performed away with credit, and added rather more versatile advertising options like Model Radar for AI monitoring, Social Media Supervisor for scheduling social posts, and Internet Analytics—our GA4 different for analyzing all-site visitors.

One motion we would take right here is to succeed in out to those creators, replace them on Ahrefs’ product developments, and ask in the event that they’d be focused on filming new critiques.

This fashion we are able to enhance the accuracy of the data surrounding our model, and hopefully encourage extra conversions.

Sponsored content material usually represents a giant chunk of selling funding.

Monitoring your sponsored mentions helps you verify whether or not content material went reside and measure which partnerships drove the perfect engagement.

Particularly, you can:

• Examine deliverables: Affirm creators truly printed the content material they have been paid for, and comply with up on any lacking or delayed content material
• Assess the standard of the point out: Consider how authentically and prominently they featured your model—did they point out you within the title and thumbnail or simply as soon as on the 8-minute mark in a 20-minute video?
• Observe longevity: See if sponsored movies proceed driving mentions over time or fade rapidly. For instance, if a video nonetheless generates mentions six months down the road, that creator delivered lasting worth and is value working with once more
• Aggressive intelligence: Observe which creators your opponents are sponsoring, then be taught from their technique. Does it appear to be working? Might you go after comparable influencers? Or differentiate your model with distinct area of interest influencers?

analyze the YouTube mentions you sponsor

When you’ve secured sponsorships, use Model Radar to watch them and ensure your price range goes to good use.

Keep in mind the entire “doesn't comprise” parameters you arrange earlier (to filter out sponsored mentions)?

Change them over to “comprises”.

Ensure you’ve accounted for all of the phrases or hyperlinks you’ve requested your sponsors to incorporate of their descriptions.

It will provide help to maintain observe on output, assess the relevance of your sponsored mentions, and evaluate the engagement generated by completely different companions.

You may also examine how the companions of your opponents spotlight their sponsor relationships (e.g. semrush encourages creators to advertise their free trial).

Then use these findings to construct out a question, so you possibly can observe rival sponsorships.

This sort of setup will provide help to discover your opponents’ high creators and swoop in with higher provides, or spot niches they’re ignoring, then personal these areas earlier than they catch on.

YouTube is the 2nd most-cited supply by LLMs—so video mentions immediately affect how AI assistants place your model.

Right here’s what you acquire from monitoring AI-cited content material:

• Spot AI-driving mentions: See which video mentions result in AI citations. For instance, if a tutorial from “MarketingPro” generated 180 ChatGPT citations whereas your different sponsored video landed <20, prioritize “MarketingPro” in your subsequent marketing campaign—or replicate their tutorial format in your owned content material
• Perceive AI preferences: Be taught which subjects, codecs, or creators AI favors most. Say AI cites 10-minute tutorial movies 5x greater than 2-minute product demos, then you might want to shift your video technique to prioritize longer, academic codecs
• Discover the perfect AI companions: Goal creators whose content material is continuously cited in AI. As an illustration, if “TechReviewer101” seems in 70% of related AI responses, add them to your top-tier sponsorship listing and think about allocating extra price range to that partnership
• Create AI-led video content material: Produce extra of the video sorts AI references. For instance, if AI persistently cites “ do X with [Your Tool]” movies, script and produce 5 tutorial movies with that precise title format
• Measure twin influence: Observe how YouTube presence boosts AI visibility. You are able to do this by monitoring your complete AI citations post-sponsorship. If visibility jumps from 200 to 500 mentions, for instance, then your accomplice is value working with once more

see whether or not your YouTube mentions drive up AI mentions

Everytime you discover a point out of your model in YouTube, drop the video URL into Model Radar.

It will present you which of them of your YouTube mentions are additionally accountable for AI visibility throughout seven completely different AI assistants.

As an illustration, whereas analyzing how Ahrefs seems in latest “greatest device” movies, I noticed this LearnWire point out:

I took the URL over to the Model Radar dashboard, and dropped it into the “URL > comprises” filter:

Because it occurs, that one video triggered 254 mentions of Ahrefs in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

You may scale this evaluation to search out out which subjects, codecs, and creators AI cites most frequently—then run the identical test on competitor mentions.

Then it’s only a case of manufacturing and sponsoring extra of that content material.

Wrapping up

Your model is being mentioned on YouTube whether or not you’re watching or not.

Monitoring your video mentions will provide help to work out how creators place you, spot partnership alternatives, and join your YouTube presence to AI visibility.

Begin with month-to-month model monitoring in Ahrefs Model Radar to see the place you stand.