Research

Factor Dictionary

Every content choice we track and how it affects organic video reach, across 31,601 videos. Click any factor for the breakdown, real examples, and what to do about it.

Title

How you write and structure your video title — the single most important factor in whether someone clicks.

Percentage in Title

+174%

Whether the title contains a percentage (e.g. '40%', '80 percent'). A data point rendered as a number carries more autho...

Regular Shorts

Ellipsis in Title

+133%

Whether the title contains an ellipsis (...) — three dots suggesting more to come, unfinished thoughts, or dramatic paus...

Shorts

Hyphen Separator

-43%

Whether the title uses a hyphen or en dash (' - ' or ' – ') as a structural separator. Distinct from em dash usage — thi...

Regular

Title Framing Style

12 values

How the video title structures its hook to draw viewers in. This is classified by an LLM from the title text alone and c...

Regular Shorts

Starts With Number

-47%

Whether the title begins with a digit — almost always signaling a listicle or countable claim (e.g. '5 Reasons...', '10 ...

Regular

Curiosity Gap

3 values

Whether the title creates an information gap — a feeling that the viewer is missing something they need to know. Measure...

Regular

Mentions Trump

+32%

Whether the title mentions Trump by name. Trump is the highest-search-volume political figure in the United States, and ...

Regular Shorts

Question Mark

+43%

Whether the title ends with or contains a question mark.

Shorts

Emotional Hook

7 values

The primary emotion the title is designed to trigger in the viewer. Classified by an LLM analyzing the title's word choi...

Regular

Viewer Promise

5 values

What the title implicitly promises the viewer will get from watching. Every click is an exchange — the viewer gives thei...

Solid

Brackets

+71%

Whether the title includes square brackets — usually wrapping a label like [BREAKING], [WATCH], [LIVE], or [UPDATE].

Regular

Media Appearance Framing

+58%

Whether the title frames the video as a clip from a media appearance — mentioning CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, or other outlets...

Shorts

Parentheses

+43%

Whether the title contains parentheses, often wrapping a modifier or qualifier like '(Watch)', '(Update)', or '(Full Spe...

Shorts

Asterisk

-42%

Whether the title contains an asterisk (*), usually flagging a footnote, qualification, or censored word.

Institutional Verbs

-21%

Whether the title uses verbs typical of government communications — 'announces,' 'discusses,' 'delivers,' 'introduces,' ...

Regular

Urgency Emoji

-41%

Whether the title contains an emoji that codes as urgent — rotating-light siren (🚨), alarm clock (⏰), warning sign (⚠️),...

Shorts

Colon Format

+41%

Whether the title uses a colon, usually in a 'Topic: Hook' structure. This format establishes context before delivering ...

Regular

Response Framing

+36%

Whether the title frames the video as a response to something — using phrases like 'responds to,' 'reacts to,' 'fires ba...

Dollar Amount

+28%

Whether the title contains a dollar amount (e.g., $500M, $2 trillion, $14).

Shorts

Platform Nativeness

3 values

Whether the title feels like it was written for YouTube viewers or for a press release. Native titles sound like a creat...

Regular Shorts

Flag Emoji

-25%

Whether the title contains a U.S. flag emoji (🇺🇸). This is a specific patriotic visual signal distinct from other emoji ...

Regular

Superlatives

+24%

Whether the title uses superlative language — 'best,' 'worst,' 'most,' 'biggest,' 'first,' 'largest.' Superlatives frame...

Urgency Words

+24%

Whether the title contains words that create time pressure — 'breaking,' 'just,' 'now,' 'urgent,' 'emergency,' 'just in,...

Exclamation Mark

-23%

Whether the title contains an exclamation mark. Exclamation marks add emphasis and emotional intensity to a title, signa...

Contains a Number

-22%

Whether the title contains any number — a dollar amount, a statistic, a list count, or a year. Numbers add specificity a...

Starts with Formal Title

-20%

Whether the title begins with the politician's formal title — 'Rep.,' 'Sen.,' 'Congressman,' 'Governor.' This is a hallm...

Complete Sentence Title

+19%

Whether the title is a grammatically complete sentence with a subject and verb, rather than a phrase or fragment. Comple...

Ampersand

-18%

Whether the title contains an ampersand (&) instead of writing out 'and'.

Direct Quote in Title

+17%

Whether the title contains a direct quote attributed to a specific person. Different from simply having quotation marks ...

Shorts

Press Release Style

+16%

Whether the title reads like a press release headline — formal, institutional, written for journalists and political ins...

Strong Language

+16%

Whether the title uses forceful, intense language — words that convey conviction, urgency, or power. Not profanity, but ...

Shorts

Second-Person Language

+16%

Whether the title uses second-person pronouns — 'you,' 'your,' 'you're.' Second-person language directly addresses the v...

Confrontation Verbs

-13%

Whether the title uses verbs that signal conflict and confrontation — words like 'demands,' 'fires back,' 'slams,' 'call...

Shorts

Pipe Separator

-13%

Whether the title contains a pipe character (|). Pipes are commonly used to separate the headline from a category or cha...

Slash

-8%

Whether the title contains a forward slash (/), often used to compress two related items (e.g., 'Healthcare/Medicare', '...

Moral Judgment

-7%

Whether the title makes an explicit moral judgment — framing something as right or wrong, just or unjust, using the lang...

First-Person Language

+7%

Whether the title uses first-person pronouns like 'I,' 'we,' 'my,' or 'our.' First-person framing makes the title feel p...

Short and Punchy Title

+7%

Whether the title is very short — under six words. Short titles create impact through brevity and often work as bold dec...

Subject Referenced

4 values

Who or what is the main subject of the title. Titles can center the politician themselves, their opponent, a policy issu...

Implied Narrative

8 values

The underlying story structure the title sets up. Every title implicitly casts the politician in a role — hero, watchdog...

Title Specificity

3 values

How concrete and detailed the title is versus how vague and abstract. A specific title gives the viewer enough detail to...

Question Framing (How/Why/What)

Whether the title uses 'how,' 'why,' or 'what' question words to frame the content. This positions the video as answerin...

Title Word Count

The total number of words in the video title. Common political YouTube titles range from 5 to 15 words; very short title...

All-Caps Words

How many fully-capitalized words appear in the title. Single all-caps words like 'BREAKING' or 'EXPOSED' are common and ...

Emoji

Whether the title contains any emoji character (excluding pure punctuation). Specific emoji types (flag, urgency) are tr...

Em-Dash

Whether the title contains an em-dash (—). Em-dashes typically split a setup from a punchline or quote attribution.

Hashtag

Whether the title contains a hashtag (#). Hashtags are common on social-native creators and rare on traditional politici...

Plus Sign

Whether the title contains a plus sign (+), often signaling addition of related items or a 'BONUS' inclusion.

Thumbnail

The visual that appears alongside your title in search results and recommendations.

Thumbnail Visual Style

6 values

The overall visual composition approach of the thumbnail. Classified by AI analysis of the thumbnail image to identify w...

Custom Thumbnail

-5%

Whether the thumbnail was deliberately designed rather than being an auto-generated frame grab from the video. Custom th...

Thumbnail Clickbait Level

4 values

How aggressively the thumbnail uses clickbait tactics — exaggerated expressions, dramatic arrows, shocking text overlays...

Thumbnail Contrast

3 values

The visual contrast level of the thumbnail — how much the colors, brightness, and elements pop against each other. Measu...

Regular

Thumbnail Emotion

7 values

The dominant emotion displayed in the thumbnail, usually through the facial expression of the person shown. Classified b...

Face in Thumbnail

Whether the thumbnail shows a human face. Our AI analysis detects whether a face is present and visible in the thumbnail...

Text on Thumbnail

Whether the thumbnail has text overlaid on the image. This could be a few bold words reinforcing the hook, a quote, a la...

Delivery

How the speaker comes across — tone, energy, and authenticity.

Speaker Tone

6 values

The overall emotional tone of the speaker throughout the video, analyzed from the transcript text. Captures how the poli...

Regular Shorts

Scripted Delivery

Whether the speaker's delivery is tightly scripted — reading from a teleprompter, prepared remarks, or a written script ...

Production

Technical production choices that affect perceived quality and accessibility.

Burned-In Captions

Whether the video has subtitles or captions burned directly into the video image (hardcoded), as opposed to relying on Y...

Text Overlays

Whether the video uses on-screen text overlays beyond just captions — lower thirds, pull quotes, labels, or graphics wit...

Production Tier

5 values

How polished the video's production looks overall, identified by Gemini's analysis of the actual video frames. Captures ...

Camera Setup

9 values

The camera configuration used to capture the main content — single fixed angle, multi-camera, phone selfie, etc.

Edit Density

4 values

How frequently the video cuts between shots, angles, or visual elements. Captures pacing in cuts-per-minute terms.

Music Presence

4 values

Whether and how prominently music is used in the video — none, subtle background, prominent background, or featured.

B-Roll

Whether the video cuts away from the main speaker to show supplementary footage — locations, events, crowds, documents, ...

Graphics

Whether the video uses motion graphics, animated text, lower thirds, or other deliberate graphic design elements beyond ...

Format

Video format and structure decisions.

YouTube Short

+724%

Whether the video is a YouTube Short — a vertical video under 60 seconds. Shorts are distributed through a completely se...

Solid

Video Duration

+68%

How long the video is. We log-transform this because views don't scale linearly with length — a 10-minute video isn't tw...

Regular