Bulk creator: YouTube
Turning YouTube videos into WordPress articles with Aimogen Pro, using captions as source material, plus caption extraction troubleshooting.
AI Content Creators › Bulk Creators › YouTube turns videos into articles. It fetches the captions, gives them to the model as source material, and produces a written piece with the video embedded.
This tutorial was recorded before Aiomatic was renamed to Aimogen Pro. Some labels or interface elements may differ slightly from the current version.
Sources#
A rule can be driven by:
- Specific video URLs
- A channel, so new uploads become posts
- A search term
- A playlist
How it works#
- Videos are discovered from the source.
- Captions are fetched for each video.
- Captions plus video metadata are injected into the prompts.
- An article is generated using the same staged pipeline as Keywords/Titles.
- The video is embedded in the post.
Video placeholders#
These are available in every prompt in a YouTube rule, in addition to the standard ones:
| Placeholder | Contains |
|---|---|
%%video_title%% | The video title |
%%video_captions%% | The full caption text — the main source material |
%%video_caption%% | A caption segment |
%%video_descripton%% | The video description (note the spelling in the code) |
%%video_url%% | The video URL |
%%video_id%% | The video ID |
Caption extraction#
This is where YouTube rules succeed or fail. YouTube actively restricts caption access, so the plugin offers several routes:
| Route | Requirement | Reliability |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in extraction | none | Works, but breaks periodically as YouTube changes |
| TranscriptAPI | TranscriptAPI API Key List on Settings › API Keys | High. The recommended option for unattended rules |
| YouTube cookies | YouTube Cookies on Settings › General Settings | Helps with age-restricted and some region-locked videos |
If your YouTube rules produce empty or generic posts, missing captions is almost always the reason. A TranscriptAPI key is the reliable fix.
Video quality settings#
Settings › General Settings carries options that improve which videos are found and how they render:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
Improve YouTube Keywords plus its prompt and model | Uses AI to build a better search query from your topic |
Player Width and Player Height | Embed dimensions |
Related Search | How related videos are matched |
Version 2.8.3 improved the quality of videos returned for generated articles.
The YouTube API key#
Optional but recommended. YouTube API Key List on Settings › API Keys accepts a comma-separated
list. Without it the plugin scrapes, which works but is less stable and rate-limits sooner.
Copyright#
Captions are the creator copyrighted work.
- Do use captions as source material and write something new from them.
- Do attribute and embed the original video — the rule does this by default.
- Do not publish captions verbatim as your article.
The default prompts summarise and restructure rather than reproduce. If you rewrite them, keep that property. See also Bulk: Amazon for the equivalent discussion around product data.
Common problems#
Posts are generic and do not reflect the video Captions were not retrieved, so the model only had the title. Add a TranscriptAPI key.
No videos found The search term is too narrow, or the API key is missing and scraping is being rate-limited.
The video does not embed Check the player settings, and whether your theme or a caching plugin strips iframes.
Only very old videos are picked Adjust the ordering and recency options on the rule.
Related#
- Bulk: keywords and titles — all shared settings
- Data and utility providers — TranscriptAPI and the YouTube API
Still stuck? Open a support ticket and include the diagnostics from Aimogen Pro › System & Logs › System Info.