# YouTube Shorts Hook Analyzer — On-Screen Text & CTAs (`seemuapps/youtube-shorts-hook-analyzer`) Actor

Reverse-engineer why a YouTube Short works: opening hook and hook type, every on-screen text overlay, CTAs, segment structure, cut pacing and transcript.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/seemuapps/youtube-shorts-hook-analyzer.md
- **Developed by:** [Andrew](https://apify.com/seemuapps) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Social media
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$150.00 / 1,000 video analyzeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## YouTube Shorts Hook Analyzer — On-Screen Text & CTAs

Reverse-engineer why a YouTube Short works: the opening hook and its type, every on-screen text overlay verbatim, CTAs, segment-by-segment structure, cut pacing, and a full transcript.

### What you get

- **Hook breakdown**: the exact opening line (spoken, on-screen, or both), its type (bold claim, curiosity gap, question, etc.), how long it runs, and why it works
- **Every on-screen text overlay**, timestamped and in reading order — including fast burned-in captions
- **CTAs** called out separately with timestamps ("follow for more", "link in bio", etc.)
- **Segment structure**: the video broken into labeled beats (hook, problem, demo, proof, cta...) with a one-line summary of each
- **Pacing metrics**: scene/cut count and cuts-per-minute
- **Full verbatim transcript** of the spoken audio
- Format signals: talking-head vs. not, voiceover, music, burned-in captions
- Content classification: topics and content type (educational, entertainment, product promo, etc.)

### Use cases

- Study top-performing creators or competitors to reverse-engineer their hook formulas
- Build a swipe file of proven hook types and CTA phrasing for your own scripts
- QA your own Shorts before publishing — check hook timing and caption pacing
- Feed structured video content into an LLM pipeline without watching every clip

### How to use

1. Paste YouTube Shorts (or regular video) URLs into **YouTube Shorts URLs**, one per line
2. Optionally set a **Language hint** if auto-detection struggles with your content
3. Run the actor — one row per video appears in the **Dataset** tab

### Output format

Each dataset record includes (abridged):

```json
{
  "videoId": "LiH-P4rSkLI",
  "title": "Can You Pass This Classroom Quiz?",
  "channelName": "MrBeast",
  "durationSeconds": 74,
  "hookText": "I'm about to surprise a class of kids with a ton of money.",
  "hookType": "bold claim",
  "hookAnalysis": "The hook immediately grabs attention by promising a surprise...",
  "onScreenText": [{ "start": "00:12", "text": "+ $3k" }],
  "ctas": [{ "start": "00:58", "text": "go visit your local Old Navy or oldnavy.com..." }],
  "structure": [{ "start": "00:00", "label": "hook", "summary": "The host announces he will surprise a class with money." }],
  "cutsPerMinute": 16.2,
  "contentType": "entertainment",
  "topics": ["surprise", "classroom", "money giveaway"]
}
```

A free-tier run analyzes up to 3 videos; upgrade to a paid plan to remove that limit.

# Actor input Schema

## `videoUrls` (type: `array`):

One YouTube Shorts (or regular video) URL per line.

## `language` (type: `string`):

ISO 639-1 code (e.g. 'en', 'es') to hint the spoken language for transcription. Leave as 'auto' to auto-detect.

## `includeTranscript` (type: `boolean`):

Include the full verbatim spoken transcript in the output. Turn off to keep records smaller if you only need the hook and on-screen text.

## `maxDurationSeconds` (type: `integer`):

Skip videos longer than this. Set 0 for no limit.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "language": "auto",
  "includeTranscript": true,
  "maxDurationSeconds": 180
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One record per video. Fields: videoId, title, channelName, hookText, hookType, hookAnalysis, onScreenText, transcript, ctas, structure, sceneChanges, cutsPerMinute, contentType, topics, and more.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("seemuapps/youtube-shorts-hook-analyzer").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("seemuapps/youtube-shorts-hook-analyzer").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ]
}' |
apify call seemuapps/youtube-shorts-hook-analyzer --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,seemuapps/youtube-shorts-hook-analyzer"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/6EoXSmQNqwuT1ZiFO/builds/hPEs3PPoUiHrNdDdK/openapi.json