How we know what we know.
Every analysis is reproducible. Here are the data sources, the 17 structured fields per creator, and how the Imprint Score is calculated.
Three pages go deeper.
Three inputs. One scored report.
YouTube Data API
Channel metrics (subscribers, views, upload dates). Video statistics (views, likes, comments per video). Comment threads for audience sentiment and geographic inference. Topic categories for niche classification. Channel keywords and video tags for SEO positioning. Cost: free (within YouTube API quota).
DataForSEO
Keyword search volumes for niche market sizing. Turns a vague sense of niche size into a verifiable monthly-search number. Pay-per-query, approximately $0.001 per keyword.
Anthropic Claude
Structured analysis across 17 fields. Every claim must be grounded in evidence from the data. The prompt includes explicit instructions to cite sources, flag uncertainty, and never fabricate. Retry logic handles truncation and malformed responses.
17 structured fields. Every report.
- 01
Subscriber Count
Channel size, trajectory, and recent growth rate.
- 02
Engagement Rate
View-to-subscriber ratio, like-to-view, comment-to-view.
- 03
Upload Cadence
Frequency, consistency, and trend direction.
- 04
Purchase Context
When, where, and why the audience buys in this niche.
- 05
Willingness to Pay
Signal strength around premium products and long-use tools.
- 06
Audience Demographics
Age, interests, lifestyle, spending power inferred from comments.
- 07
Geographic Inference
Audience location derived from comment language analysis.
- 08
Product Readiness Level
Open, early, established, or saturated creator product ecosystem.
- 09
Competitive Products
Real products in the niche with actual prices and weaknesses.
- 10
Market Gaps
Categories the audience asks for that no brand currently owns.
- 11
Partnership Readiness
Sponsorship history, openness to brand deals, response posture.
- 12
Brand Mentions
Sponsored and organic brand references across recent content.
- 13
Estimated Rates
Sponsorship cost estimates from comparable creator benchmarks.
- 14
Comment Quality
Technique-specificity and community interaction signals.
- 15
Content Library Depth
Archive size and topic coverage across the channel.
- 16
Platform Concentration Risk
Owned media presence (email, site) vs YouTube-only exposure.
- 17
Risk Factors
Named structural risks with category, likelihood, and impact.
How the Imprint Score is calculated.
The Imprint Score is a single composite metric on a 0 to 10 scale. It is built from six categories, each measuring a question a brand buyer is already asking when they evaluate a niche.
- Current Health. How healthy is this niche right now?
- Niche Trajectory. Where is this niche heading?
- Engagement Depth. How actively does the audience engage with content?
- Purchase Intent. Will this audience actually spend?
- Audience Receptivity. How welcoming is this audience to brand partnerships?
- Partnership Readiness. Are creators ready to do brand deals?
Each category is scored 0 to 10 from the 17 raw data points above. The final Imprint Score is the average of the six category scores. Every report is an evidence-based defense of that one number.
Hard disqualifiers (automatic cap at 3/10)
- Last upload more than 90 days ago
- View-to-subscriber ratio below 2%
- Channel is primarily shorts (over 60%)
- Non-English primary audience
Strong positives (push score up)
- Subscriber count 30K-300K with healthy engagement
- View-to-sub ratio above 10%
- Deep technique-focused content
- Niche involves expensive tools or materials
- Evidence of audience willingness to pay
- High content coverage (70%+)
Negatives (push score down)
- Fully built course platform already exists
- Subscriber count under 10K or over 500K with weak engagement
- Entertainment-focused rather than skill-focused
- Seasonal niche with narrow active window
What we don’t do.
We don’t fabricate data. Every claim in a report cites its source.
We don’t use stock datasets. Every analysis runs live against current channel data.
We don’t recommend specific creators. We score the niche and describe the shape of the opportunity. Specific creator pairings live in the Brand-Creator Match report.
We don’t take commissions. We have no financial relationships with the creators or niches we analyze. We sell intelligence only.
We don’t sell access to creators. We analyze them. We don’t broker introductions. Brands partner with creators directly using our reports as input.
Questions about methodology?
We are happy to walk through our process. Every score, every source, every assumption is documented.