📋 Available on: Startup, Growth, Enterprise, Agency, and Custom plans
Archive tracks YouTube content from creators and campaigns so you can monitor mentions of your brand, discover relevant videos, and capture UGC. This article explains how YouTube tracking works, what you need to set up, and what to expect.
Overview
Archive captures YouTube content through two methods. Most workspaces use both.
Tracked terms — Archive searches YouTube for brand names, products, and phrases you specify, and brings back matching videos.
Channel tracking — Archive monitors specific YouTube channels and captures their uploads directly.
A workspace needs at least one of these to capture any YouTube content.
Tracked Terms
Tracked terms have two distinct roles: searching YouTube and filtering results. A single term can play either role on its own, or both at the same time, depending on how you want it to behave.
Key Phrase — the search query
A key phrase is what Archive actively searches for on YouTube. Every time Archive runs a pull, it queries YouTube for each of your key phrases and brings the matching videos into your workspace.
This is what makes content appear. Without key phrases (or channel sources), Archive has nothing to search for and no content will be captured.
Use key phrases for brand names, product names, campaign hashtags, slogans, and discovery phrases like {brand} review or {brand} haul.
⚠️ Important: A key phrase behaves like a YouTube search query — it returns the videos YouTube ranks highest for that term, not every video that mentions it. A broad key phrase like {brand} will surface popular results for that exact term, but more specific videos (e.g. {brand} jerky recipe, {brand} snack stick recipe) may be buried in YouTube's search results and never reach Archive's pull.
For comprehensive coverage, combine broad brand terms with long-tail variants that match specific topics, products, or content types your audience searches for. Each long-tail key phrase runs as its own search and surfaces videos that wouldn't otherwise show up under the broad term.
Examples of long-tail variants:
{brand} review{brand} haul{brand} unboxing{brand} {product category} recipeusing {brand}cooking with {brand}how to use {brand}
Keyword — the filter
A keyword does not trigger its own search. It is applied as a filter on top of key phrase results: when a key phrase returns videos, only those that also contain at least one tracked keyword (or hashtag) are saved to your workspace.
Use keywords only when a key phrase is pulling too much and you want to narrow the results to brand-relevant videos.
📋 Quick summary: Key phrases find videos. Keywords narrow what is saved from those results. A workspace with only keywords (and no key phrases or channels) will capture zero YouTube content.
Terms That Serve Both Roles
A single term can be configured as both a key phrase and a keyword. When configured this way, the term:
Runs its own YouTube search (key phrase behavior).
Is also applied as a filter on top of all other key phrase results (keyword behavior).
This is useful for terms that are both broad enough to drive their own search and specific enough to keep results brand-relevant — typically your core brand name. Marking it as both ensures the brand name pulls its own results and doubles as a filter that keeps unrelated content out of other searches.
Most workspaces don't need this combined configuration — a clean separation of key phrases and keywords is enough. Use it sparingly, and only for terms where both behaviors are clearly desirable.
Where Matches Are Found
Both key phrases and keywords are matched against the same fields:
Video title
Video description
Hashtags extracted from title or description
Hidden video metadata
Both regular videos and YouTube Shorts are tracked.
📋 Note: Tracked terms are case-sensitive. "Archive Technologies" and "archive technologies" are indexed separately — include every capitalisation variant you need.
Adding or Removing Tracked Terms
Tracked terms are managed by the Archive team. To add, change, or remove terms:
Contact Archive Support (in-app chat) or your Customer Success Manager.
Include in your message:
Your Workspace ID (Settings → bottom-left corner)
Whether each term should be a key phrase (search), a keyword (filter), or both
The exact terms you want added
The exact terms you want removed
Allow 24–48 hours for changes to take effect after confirmation.
📋 Tip: Don't rely on a single broad key phrase. Combine bare brand terms with multiple long-tail variants — review, haul, unboxing, recipe, how-to, etc. — to surface niche videos that wouldn't otherwise appear in YouTube's top results for the bare brand name.
Channel Tracking
You can add individual YouTube channels as sources and Archive will monitor their uploads going forward. Channel tracking is the most reliable way to capture a specific creator's content — term-based tracking does not catch 100% of matching videos.
Tracking Modes
Channels can be tracked in two modes:
All content — Archive captures every video the creator posts, regardless of content.
Tagged content only — Archive only captures videos from that creator that also contain one of your tracked terms or hashtags.
If you added a channel and only see some of their videos in your workspace, it was likely added in "tagged content only" mode. You can re-upload them and change to detect all content.
Adding YouTube Channels
You can add YouTube channels yourself the same way you add Instagram or TikTok social profiles:
From the Social Profiles page, click the three-dot menu and select Add & Bulk Label > Quick Add
Go to the YouTube usernames section
Drop in the YouTube channel URL or handle
Choose any of the tracking methods (tagged only or all content) based on your use case
Review and click Import
Archive will begin monitoring that channel's uploads going forward. For historical content from the current month, contact Archive Support. For content from previous months, contact your Customer Success Manager.
How Often Archive Pulls from YouTube
Archive searches YouTube for new content every 4 hours by default. New videos typically appear in your workspace within a few hours of being posted.
Pulls are incremental — each cycle only fetches content posted since the previous pull, so historical content is not re-processed. The schedule can be customised per workspace by the Archive team if your use case requires more or less frequent pulls.
Limitations
Key phrases follow YouTube's search ranking. A key phrase only returns the top-ranked videos YouTube serves for that exact term. Niche videos that mention your brand may rank low in search and never reach Archive's pull. Add long-tail key phrase variants to cover specific topics.
Term-based detection is not 100%. Even with multiple key phrases, YouTube's search coverage has gaps. For reliable capture of a specific creator, add them as a channel source.
Tracked terms are case-sensitive. Include every capitalisation variant you need.
Private or deleted videos cannot be tracked. Archive only captures videos that are publicly available on YouTube.
Comments are not tracked. Archive captures the video itself along with views, likes, and engagement counts — but comment-level tracking is not supported.
Historical content is not backfilled automatically. By default, Archive pulls new uploads going forward. To request a backfill, contact Archive Support for the current month or your Customer Success Manager for earlier months.
Common Questions
Why isn't a specific video showing up even though it mentions my brand?
Each key phrase behaves like a YouTube search and only returns the top-ranked results for that exact term. A video titled
{brand} jerky recipemight rank high for that specific search but be buried under just{brand}. Add long-tail variants ({brand} review,{brand} haul,{brand} {product} recipe, etc.) so each one runs its own search and surfaces those niche videos. If the creator is someone you know, the most reliable option is to add them as a channel source.If I already track
{brand}as a key phrase, do I still need to add{brand} review,{brand} haul, etc.?Yes, if you want comprehensive coverage. The broad
{brand}phrase only returns the videos YouTube ranks highest for that exact term — it will not necessarily include topic-specific videos that rank higher for more specific searches. Long-tail key phrases cast separate, narrower searches and capture videos that wouldn't otherwise appear.Can the same term be both a key phrase and a keyword?
Yes. A single term can be configured to play both roles — it will run its own YouTube search and also be applied as a filter on top of all other key phrase results. This is most useful for core brand names that are both broad enough to drive their own search and specific enough to filter unrelated content out of other searches. Request this configuration when adding the term, and the Archive team will set both behaviors on the same term.
I added a channel but only see some of their videos. Why?
The channel was likely added in "tagged content only" mode, so Archive only captures videos that also contain your tracked terms. Contact Archive Support to switch the channel to "all content" mode.
How far back does Archive pull content when I add a new channel?
By default, Archive pulls new uploads going forward. For historical pulls from the current month, contact Archive Support. For earlier months, contact your Customer Success Manager.
What languages are supported?
Archive tracks terms as-is, regardless of language. If your brand name contains non-Latin characters, include every variant you want captured.