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What is YouTube automation, and how does it work in 2025?

Learn what YouTube automation is, and if it’s right for your project.

Alec Chillingworth

• 6 min read
Man skateboarding from a phone on a tidal wave

YouTube automation is a hotly debated topic, and it’s becoming more commonplace. Let’s cover the essentials today. 

We’ll discuss:

What is YouTube automation?

YouTube automation is a channel management model through which a channel’s daily tasks and processes are outsourced, rather than completed in-house.

Think of everything from voiceovers to thumbnails, images to music, scriptwriting to video editing. With YouTube automation, most or all of these tasks are completed by someone other than the channel owner, often relying on stock footage and images to plug the gaps. 

This gives the channel owner time to concentrate on broader concepts like strategy, SEO, and monetization. They’ll either hire freelancers to complete the tasks mentioned above, or have a permanent team ready to produce the goods.

Hand holding a burger

As generative AI tools become more commonplace, channel owners have added artificial intelligence to their YouTube automation workflows. Done well, automation can push a YouTube channel to deliver high-engagement, high-traffic content at scale.

Are there any downsides to YouTube automation?

While it sounds pretty efficient, YouTube automation has come under criticism. Heavy reliance on third parties can lead to a lack of quality control and copyright compliance, which may land channel owners in trouble.

The practice is traditionally associated with the faceless, “get-rich-quick” courses and schemes that’ve been around since the early days of mainstream internet. You know the ones — hours of paywalled spreadsheets and top-secret formulae, promising to turn viewers into millionaires overnight. They’re not all untrustworthy, but that’s the association most people will likely make.

Chameleon

For this reason, it’s worth channel owners reviewing and checking the sources for any content they plan to publish. Otherwise, low-quality efforts could slip through the cracks, and videos featuring unlicensed material might end up being published. This can lead to legal action, or serious downvoting from the YouTube algorithm.

What is a faceless YouTube channel?

Faceless YouTube channels focus on content with no “face” presenting the content — it’s usually just done with a voiceover, and the content creator never appears on screen. This is the perfect format for YouTube automation, as there doesn’t need to be a regular host or presenter.

Is YouTube automation free?

Beginners will often start YouTube automation with free tools and help from friends and colleagues. Similar to other ventures, scaling requires investment — as the business grows, faceless and automated YouTube channels will need more money to keep things running smoothly. 

Coffee and donut on a table

YouTube automation is legal as long as all of the components within your videos are legally obtained, created, and distributed. If you’re considering YouTube automation, stick to the platform’s Terms of Service, avoid clickbaiting viewers, and don’t abuse copyright or licensing agreements. 

There are some video components you just can’t afford to automate, though. One of them’s music — after all, the soundtrack can make or break your content. Why risk scuppering your entire video’s vibe over one misplaced beat or low-quality track? Discover Epidemic Sound’s catalog of more than 50,000 tracks and 200,000 unique sound effects and variations, and find the perfect match today. 

If you like the idea of outsourcing but don’t want to compromise on quality, we’ve got you covered there, too. Epidemic Sound’s Voices is an AI-powered voiceover tool that enables creators to craft instant voiceovers in a way that puts humans front and center.

Choose from 20 world-class voice artists. Fine-tune aspects like language, speed, and breaks. Create voiceovers directly in your editing software with our Adobe and DaVinci Studio Resolve plugins, just like Epidemic Sound’s music and sound effects.

Soundtrack your content, your way.

→ Try Voices today

How to make money with YouTube automation

Content created for automated or faceless YouTube channels is eligible for monetization like any other YouTube video. As long as your channel and the videos in question meet the YouTube Partner Program requirements, you should be good to go. 

Aside from monetizing directly through YouTube, you can also try your hand at third-party monetization methods like affiliate marketing.

Spiky balls on a yoga mat

Do businesses use YouTube automation?

YouTube automation isn’t just for casual or solo creators. Some businesses wrap their whole offering around automated video content. Think of faceless travel guides, ASMR content, documentaries, and even top-ten and listicle videos — it’s all monetizable. 

Take a look at the video below from Top 5 Unknowns. The channel does as the name suggests, pumping out lists of interesting, often strange things. The majority of the channel’s videos comprise just stock footage, B-roll, music, and a voiceover. 

How do you find YouTube automation niches?

Finding YouTube automation niches can be tough, but it plays out in a similar fashion to finding content ideas for “regular” YouTube channels. If the goal of YouTube automation is to gain traffic and earn money, it’s worth looking at topics and audiences with a higher RPM. 

This means revenue per mille, which calculates how much a YouTuber makes per 1,000 ad-supported video views. High-RPM topics are everywhere, from finance to celebrities, sport to true crime. Audiences play a part, too. Content aimed at US viewers may boast a higher RPM, as US advertisers may pay more money for ads compared to other countries. 

From there, search for competitor content on YouTube. Start with broader, short-tail keywords like “dogs,” then hunker down into the specific thing you’re going for — perhaps “dogs playing 2 hours compilation.” If you want to implement a little YouTube SEO, consider using something like Keyword Tool or Ahrefs to help map your keywords. 

Can you find any high-traffic videos with relatively few followers tied to the account? If you can, you’ve probably discovered a fellow automated YouTube account. The high-to-low divide shows that it’s a high-interest topic, but the niche is still relatively small.

Make a list of these competitor accounts and dig into how they work. What do their most successful videos look like, and have they tried anything that’s not quite worked? Assessing others’ hits and misses will help you make better-informed decisions when creating your own niche content. 

Is YouTube automation worth it in 2025?

YouTube automation can work, no doubt — the sheer amount of successful faceless YouTube channels is proof. If your content is data- or fact-driven, doesn’t require a “real” figurehead, and you have a scalable audience, automation could work. 

But if you look at the most-subscribed and -viewed YouTube channels, you’ll not see much automated about them. People love watching MrBeast for the in-person reactions, the larger-than-life challenges dreamed up through wild ideas and teamwork. They binge-watch hours of the carefully edited, lovingly made music videos published by Indian mega-labels. It’s high-quality output that you can’t fully automate — people love relatable content.

Snowdrops growing from a banana

YouTube automation is a business decision, and requires huge chunks of time, research, and iteration. There’s no harm in researching how it works, but it shouldn’t be used as a substitute for human creativity or quality content. 

Whether you automate part, all, or none of your content, you’ll likely need music. Don’t settle for second-best. Try Epidemic Sound. 

Our catalog is high-quality, affordable, and safe. An Epidemic Sound subscription goes beyond royalty-free music, removing the headache of licensing and freeing you up to do what you do best. 

You can enjoy the safety of our license hand-in-hand with our catalog of 50,000 tracks, covering just about every genre you can think of. You’ll also gain unlimited access to our advanced search functions — finding the right sound’s never been easier. 

It’s better than royalty-free. It’s worry-free. Get started with Epidemic Sound below.

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