📋 Available on: All plans (Startup, Growth, Enterprise, Agency, and Custom)
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 come in two types, and they work together: one triggers the YouTube search, the other filters the results.
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.
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.
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) or keyword (filter)
The exact terms you want added
The exact terms you want removed
Allow 24–48 hours for changes to take effect after confirmation.
📋 Tip: For best results, combine bare brand terms (your brand name, product names) with discovery-style phrases like {your brand} review, {your brand} haul, or {your brand} unboxing. Discovery-style phrases typically surface higher-quality UGC than bare brand names alone.
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 creators:
Go to the Creators section
Click Add Creator
Paste the YouTube channel URL or handle
Confirm
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
Term-based detection is not 100%. YouTube's search coverage has gaps — some matching videos may be missed. 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?
Term-based detection is not exhaustive — YouTube's search coverage has gaps. If the creator is someone you know, add them as a channel source for reliable capture.
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.