Social Content Whitespace For the Biking Audience on YouTube from 2012-2022

Key Takeaways

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Top content opportunities from 2012-2022 for the Biking audience include:

• Cycling Mistakes: Sharing the most common mistakes made by cyclists and how they can be avoided. 

• Bike Cleaning: Showing viewers how to properly wash their bicycles and addressing the importance of keeping your bike and its components clean. 

• Installing Bike Parts: These videos focus on a single bike part and provide guidance on its assembly and installation.

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How the Social Content Opportunity Analysis™ Methodology Works

1. Measure & Categorize Posts: Sample a large number of social posts to find ones that are significantly outperforming the average.
2. ‍Identify Top Themes: Identify the themes that are resonating most with the audience by sorting the themes by their aggregated performance metrics.
3. ‍Measure The Benchmark: Identify content themes that are performing above and under an average benchmark for the industry based on views & engagements.
4. ‍Identify & Rank Opportunities: Look at the data and find the content themes that are resonating with the audience based on a set of top creators.
5. ‍Repeat For Each Platform: Repeat the analysis for every platform that matters to your brand and audience to find platform-specific opportunities.

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YouTube Content Bucket Definitions

• Cycling Mistakes: Sharing the most common mistakes made by cyclists and how they can be avoided. 
• Bike Cleaning: Showing viewers how to properly wash their bicycles and addressing the importance of keeping your bike and its components clean. 
• Installing Bike Parts: These videos focus on a single bike part and provide guidance on its assembly and installation.
• Maintenance & Repairs: Maintenance tutorials that cover topics ranging from general tune-ups to repairs and part replacements for optimal bike performance. This category excludes tire and tube repairs.
• Tire & Tube Fixes: Everything a rider needs to know about fixing a flat tire. 
• Urban Riding: Brands and creators discuss bike-friendly cities and the best bikes, components and gear for commuting and riding in urban environments.
• Installing & Removing Wheels: Teaching viewers how to use quick releases and thru-axles to remove and install the wheels on their bikes.
• Rider Highlight: Brands highlight a rider and their bike using a combination of action shots and interview clips.  
• Cycling Destinations: Videos spotlighting the best locations and trails for various types of riding.
• Cycling Enthusiast Opinions: Creators share their personal opinions on bikes, set-ups, and components. 
• Bike Buying Guides: Videos that help viewers make informed decisions about purchasing a bike. 
• Biking 101: Tips for beginner bikers. These videos cover basic bike setup, safety, techniques and using your brakes and gears. 
• Bike Shop Vlog: Bike mechanics share their projects from start to finish, showing viewers how they upgrade, customize, and test bikes using candid POV and talking-head filming styles.
• Intermediate Skills: Expert-level riders provide tutorials for those looking to build their skills on their bikes.
• Bike Part Breakdown: Detail-oriented videos that hone in on one bike part, how it works, and how to choose the right one for your bike and riding style. 

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Cycling Mistakes and Bike Cleaning are extreme performing content opportunities, averaging 3X the views & engagement rate on YouTube.

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Excellent performing content categories for the Biking audience on YouTube include:

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Good performing content categories for the Biking audience on YouTube include:

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Substandard performing content categories for the Biking audience on YouTube include:

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Low performing content categories for the Biking audience on YouTube include:

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Content Opportunities:

1. Cycling Mistakes

Sharing the most common mistakes made by cyclists and how they can be avoided. 

Tactics to Implement:

• List Format: The top videos in this category share cycling mistakes in a list format and title videos accordingly. Examples include Top 10 Common Cycling Mistakes and 4 Bad Cycling Habits | How To Look More Pro On A Bike.
• Time Stamps: Videos are segmented into time-stamped chapters for easy navigation. 
• Narration & Voiceover: Both top videos from Global Cycling Network use a combination of voiceover and talking-head style filming to narrate the content.
• Solution Focused: In both videos, after naming and describing the mistake or problem, the narrator focuses on solutions and recommended resources to remedy them. 

Top Format:

• Duration: 5:36 & 11:23

3.5M Views

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3.4M Views

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2. Bike Cleaning

Showing viewers how to properly wash their bicycles and addressing the importance of keeping your bike and its components clean. 

Tactics to Implement:

• Multi-Angle: These videos use a variety of angles and close-up shots to provide a detailed look at the cleaning process.
• Introductions: Top videos in this category follow the same introduction structure starting with an overview of the subject topic followed by a branded intro with logo animation before diving into the subject topic discussion.
• Soundtrack: Both videos play a signature instrumental audio track throughout the introduction that fades out a few seconds after the logo animation. 
• Benefits: In this video, in addition to explaining the importance of a clean chain, the creator highlights the added benefits of saving money and extending the life of your drive train.

Top Format:

• Duration: 4:45 & 16:40 

3M Views

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2.5M Views

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3. Installing Bike Parts

These videos focus on a single bike part and provide guidance on their assembly and installation.

Tactics to Implement:

• Step-By-Step: These videos provide straightforward, step-by-step instructions and make it easy for viewers to navigate between steps using chapters or highlighting key moments in the video description.
• Required Tools: Speakers highlight and display the tools required for the process prior to beginning the demonstration. 
• On-Screen Elements: On-screen text and visual aids are used in both videos to complement the instructions from the speaker.

Content Opportunity:

• Increase Engagement: Create a video series around related topics and direct viewers to additional content using on-screen prompts and links in your video descriptions. Grouping related videos in playlists will help increase your channel’s visibility in suggested videos and search results. 

755K Views

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2M Views

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4. Maintenance & Repairs

Maintenance tutorials that cover topics ranging from general tune-ups to part repairs and replacements for optimal bike performance. This category excludes tire and tube repairs.

Tactics to Implement:

• Titles: Video titles are specific and directly identify the viewer’s objective (i.e How To Replace A Bicycle Chain).
• Additional Guidance: In this video from Park Tool, the speaker highlights which type of bike the video will be relevant for and uses an on-screen prompt to direct viewers to videos that address chain replacement on other types of bikes. 
• Text-Based Instructions: Park Tool directs viewers to their blog by linking to a text-based walk-through of the process in the video’s caption.
• Zooming In: The most replayed moments in both videos (Ex. 1, Ex. 2) are close-up shots that focus on the details of the step being performed. This suggests a preference for visually detailed shots for those using these tutorials. 

Top Format:

• Video Duration: 6:49 & 8:49

3.2M  Views

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1.8M Views

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Outliers: These videos were omitted from their content buckets as ‘viral’ outliers for exceeding 3x the views and engagements of their respective benchmarks.

Bike Comparison

Tactics: Cyclists compare a cheap bike from eBay with a professional road bike by testing their performance in climbing, descending, braking and time trialling. Results are displayed on-screen in between each test.

11M Views

Maintenance & Repairs

Tactics: This bike mechanic teaches viewers how to solve shifting problems by adjusting the bike’s rear derailleur. The video is split into chapters and the speaker starts by explaining the issues that this adjustment can address before jumping into the tutorial.

9.3M Views

Tire & Tube Fixes

Tactics: This video is similar in style and format to the one above but focuses on replacing a tire and tube. The creator uses a split screen to show what the processes will look like on two different types of tires.

5M Views

Installing Bike Parts

Tactics: A how-to guide on removing and installing bike pedals. The speaker outlines how the job can be confusing and uses on-screen visual aids to emphasize his key points. 

3.7M Views

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Tactics: A complete walkthrough of how to wrap road bike handlebars with Park Tool’s Calvin Jones. Jones has become prolific in the bike mechanic space and has guest-starred in the videos of other top bike accounts such as GCN Tech, GMBN Tech and Global Triathlon Network.

3.9M Views

Urban Riding 

Tactics: YouTube Short from vlogger and urban cycling enthusiast, Shifter, who creates content that encourages viewers to use bicycles for commuting. This video highlights his city’s attempts to create a pedestrian and cyclist-friendly overpass on a busy street.

3.3M Views

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Based on total views and engagements, the following were the top content formats on YouTube for the Biking audience.  

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Top YouTube Content Format Definitions

• Tutorials: Step-by-step how-to videos that direct viewers through a process from start to finish.
• Demo: Videos that feature physical demonstrations of a task on a bike when a question or idea is presented (ie. Cheap Bike Vs Superbike: What's The Difference?).
• List Format: Videos that introduce ideas to the viewer through a list of items, such as “Top 10 Common Cycling Mistakes”.
• Explainer: Videos that are educational in nature and feature the creator in a controlled setting speaking to the viewer about a specific concept.
• YouTube Shorts: Videos that are less than 60 seconds and posted in 9:16 dimensions, usually 1920x1080 pixels.
• Vlog: Talking head or “follow me” footage that combines video, images, and text to tell a story or sequence of events, always related to bike riding or bike mechanics.
• Stylized Bike Edits: Short, high-production value films that edit together shots of a bike and rider in action. These videos typically include music and very little narration.
• Review: Videos that focus on breaking down the benefits or drawbacks of a specific product.
• Interview: Interviews with cyclists and bike builders that include a combination of interview audio and video, edited with supporting video clips and images.