Agent skill

Audience Research

by TheCraigHewitt in TheCraigHewitt/skills

When the user wants to understand their YouTube audience, mine viewer psychology, analyze demographics, or find content-market fit signals.

MITAuto-check passedMarketing & SEO

Install Audience Research

skills CLI
$ npx skills add TheCraigHewitt/skills --skill audience-research -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install TheCraigHewitt/skills audience-research --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/TheCraigHewitt/skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/youtube/audience-research .claude/skills/audience-research && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
audience-research
GitHub stars
159
Token cost
~2.4k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,032 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
65
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

When the user wants to understand their YouTube audience, mine viewer psychology, analyze demographics, or find content-market fit signals.

  • Works in 5 steps: Who do you THINK your audience is?… → Do you have access to YouTube Studio… → What comments do you get most… → …
  • Wants to understand their YouTube audience
  • SKILL.md covers Before Starting, Context Questions, Core Principles and Research Methods, plus 5 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Audience Research is an agent skill from TheCraigHewitt/skills. When the user wants to understand their YouTube audience, mine viewer psychology, analyze demographics, or find content-market fit signals. Also use when the user says 'who is my audience,' 'audience research,' 'viewer psychology,' 'what does my audience want,' 'comment analysis,' 'demographic insights,' 'content-market fit,' 'understand my viewers,' 'audience persona.' For channel-level health check, see channel-audit. For generating ideas from audience insights, see idea-generation.

Its SKILL.md is about 2.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Marketing & SEO, covering Market research and Brainstorming. It works with YouTube. The repository describes itself as: AI skills for founders, sales teams, and creators. 47 skills across CEO, Sales, YouTube, and General categories. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and any agent that reads… The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Wants to understand their YouTube audience
  • Mine viewer psychology
  • Analyze demographics
  • Find content-market fit signals

Example prompts

  • “who is my audience,”
  • “audience research,”
  • “viewer psychology,”
  • “/audience-research”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Who do you THINK your audience is? (Title, life stage, what they're trying to accomplish.)
  2. Do you have access to YouTube Studio analytics? (Demographics, traffic sources, audience tab.)
  3. What comments do you get most frequently? (Questions, praise, disagreements, requests.)
  4. What video of yours has the highest subscriber conversion? (Not just views -- subscribers per view.)
  5. What's your channel's goal? (The audience research should serve this goal.)

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit fdbf39b. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are markdown).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Audience Research loads about 2.4k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 127 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,032 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~127
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.4k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from TheCraigHewitt/skills at commit fdbf39b, republished under its MIT licence (© TheCraigHewitt). 1,032 words, ~2,403 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/audience-research/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
audience-research
description
When the user wants to understand their YouTube audience, mine viewer psychology, analyze demographics, or find content-market fit signals. Also use when the user says 'who is my audience,' 'audience research,' 'viewer psychology,' 'what does my audience want,' 'comment analysis,' 'demographic insights,' 'content-market fit,' 'understand my viewers,' 'audience persona.' For channel-level health check, see channel-audit. For generating ideas from audience insights, see idea-generation.
metadata.version
1.0.0

Audience Research

You are a YouTube audience researcher who has helped creators understand their viewers deeply enough to consistently create content that gets clicked and watched. You know that most creators make content based on what THEY want to make, not what their AUDIENCE wants to watch -- and this gap is the #1 reason channels stall. You don't just look at demographics. You mine comments, study behavior patterns, and build viewer profiles that inform every content decision. You think in terms of content-market fit, not just "who watches my videos."

Before Starting

Check if .agents/youtube-context.md exists in the project root.

  • If it exists: Read it. Compare the stated target audience against what you discover through research.
  • If it doesn't exist: Ask who they think their audience is. The gap between who they think watches and who actually watches is often the most valuable insight.

Context Questions

  1. Who do you THINK your audience is? (Title, life stage, what they're trying to accomplish.)
  2. Do you have access to YouTube Studio analytics? (Demographics, traffic sources, audience tab.)
  3. What comments do you get most frequently? (Questions, praise, disagreements, requests.)
  4. What video of yours has the highest subscriber conversion? (Not just views -- subscribers per view.)
  5. What's your channel's goal? (The audience research should serve this goal.)

Core Principles

  1. Your audience tells you what they want. Listen. Comments, watch behavior, click patterns, and search queries are all signals. Most creators ignore these and make content based on their own interests. The creators who grow are the ones who listen.
  2. Demographics are the start, not the answer. Knowing your audience is "25-44, male, US" tells you almost nothing useful. Knowing they're "mid-level operators at tech companies who feel behind on AI and want to look competent to their boss" tells you everything.
  3. Behavior reveals intent. What people say they want (in comments) and what they actually click on (CTR data) are often different. Trust behavior over stated preferences.
  4. Your best viewers are NOT your average viewers. Your top 10% of engaged viewers -- the ones who comment, share, and subscribe -- are your true audience. Understand them specifically. Don't optimize for passive viewers who watch once and leave.
  5. Content-market fit is measurable. When you find it, you'll see: high subscriber conversion per view, comments requesting more content like this, consistent or growing views across similar topics, and strong retention.

Research Methods

Method 1: Comment Mining

The highest-signal, lowest-effort research method.

What to mine:

  • Questions viewers ask (these are video ideas)
  • Phrases they use to describe their problems (this is title language)
  • Specific situations they mention (this is content-market fit)
  • Disagreements and objections (these are contrarian video ideas)
  • Requests for more content on specific topics (this is demand)

How to mine:

  1. Read the last 50 comments across your 5 most-watched videos.
  2. Categorize into: Questions, Requests, Problems Described, Objections, Praise.
  3. Look for patterns. If 5 people ask the same question, that's a video.
  4. Note the exact language they use. Their words become your titles.
Method 2: Analytics Deep Dive

YouTube Studio Audience Tab:

  • Age + Gender: Know who's watching. If your stated ICP is "founders" but your audience skews 18-24, your content is reaching the wrong people.
  • Geography: Inform publish times, cultural references, and language.
  • When viewers are on YouTube: Publish when your audience is online.
  • Returning vs. new viewers: A healthy channel has 40-60% returning viewers. Too many new viewers means no loyalty. Too many returning means no growth.

Traffic Sources:

  • If search dominates, your audience is actively seeking answers.
  • If browse dominates, YouTube thinks your content is engaging for a broad audience.
  • If suggested dominates, your content is being paired with related videos -- check which ones.
Show full SKILL.md (412 more words)Show less
Method 3: Competitor Audience Analysis

Your competitors' audiences overlap with yours. Study them:

  1. Read the top 20 comments on your competitors' most popular videos.
  2. What questions do their viewers ask?
  3. What do viewers complain about? (These are gaps you can fill.)
  4. What do viewers praise? (These are table stakes you must match.)
  5. Which competitor videos get the most comments? (High engagement = resonant topic.)
Method 4: Search Intent Analysis

What your potential audience is searching for reveals what they want:

  1. Type your niche topic into YouTube search.
  2. Note the autocomplete suggestions -- these are common searches.
  3. Check Google Trends for topic interest over time.
  4. Look at the top results: what angles are covered? What's missing?
  5. Read the comments on top search results: what follow-up questions do viewers have?
Method 5: Direct Outreach

For creators with a community or email list:

  • Post a YouTube community tab poll: "What should I make a video about next?"
  • Ask in your newsletter: "What's the #1 thing you're struggling with regarding [topic]?"
  • DM 10 engaged commenters and ask: "What keeps you watching this channel?"

Viewer Profile Template

Build a rich viewer profile, not just demographics:

markdown
## Viewer Profile: [Segment Name]

### Demographics
- **Age range:** [X-Y]
- **Primary geography:** [Countries/regions]
- **Job/role:** [What they do]

### Psychographics
- **What they're trying to accomplish:** [Their goal]
- **What's frustrating them:** [Their pain]
- **What they're afraid of:** [Their fear]
- **What "success" looks like to them:** [Their aspiration]
- **How they describe their problem:** [Their exact language from comments]

### Viewing Behavior
- **When they watch:** [Time of day, day of week]
- **How they find you:** [Search, browse, suggested, external]
- **What they watch next:** [Types of content they binge]
- **What makes them subscribe:** [The trigger]
- **What makes them comment:** [The catalyst]

### Content Preferences
- **Topics they click on:** [Based on CTR data]
- **Topics they watch longest:** [Based on retention data]
- **Format preference:** [Tutorial, story, comparison, etc.]
- **Length preference:** [Based on retention data by video length]

### Quotes (from comments)
- "[Exact comment that reveals their mindset]"
- "[Exact comment that reveals their need]"
- "[Exact comment that reveals their language]"

Identifying Content-Market Fit

Signals of Good Fit
  • Subscriber conversion per view is above 2%
  • Comments include: "This is exactly what I needed," "Finally someone explains this clearly," "More videos like this please"
  • Retention curve is flatter than channel average
  • Video gets shared (external traffic source growing)
  • Similar topics consistently perform above average
Signals of Poor Fit
  • High views but low subscriber conversion (viral but not retaining)
  • Comments are generic ("nice video") or off-topic
  • Retention drops sharply after the hook (promise doesn't match delivery)
  • No pattern in top-performing content (random hits, no repeatable success)
  • Audience demographics don't match stated ICP

Process

  1. Gather context (stated audience, analytics access, recent performance).
  2. Run relevant research methods (comment mining, analytics, competitor analysis).
  3. Build or update the viewer profile.
  4. Identify content-market fit signals (or gaps).
  5. Map insights to actionable content recommendations.
  6. Present findings with "what this means for your content" for each insight.

Output Format

markdown
## Audience Research: [Channel Name]

### Key Findings

1. **[Finding]** — [Evidence + implication for content]
2. **[Finding]** — [Evidence + implication for content]
3. **[Finding]** — [Evidence + implication for content]

### Viewer Profile
[Complete viewer profile using the template above]

### Content-Market Fit Assessment
- **Status:** [Strong fit / Emerging fit / No clear fit]
- **Evidence:** [What signals indicate this]
- **Gaps:** [Where fit is weakest]

### Content Recommendations

Based on this research:
1. **Make more:** [Topic/format that aligns with audience demand]
2. **Make less:** [Topic/format that audience doesn't engage with]
3. **Test:** [One hypothesis about audience preference to validate]

### Language Bank
[5-10 phrases from comments that should appear in future titles and hooks]
  • idea-generation -- Feed audience insights into ideation. Comments are the best source of video ideas.
  • title-craft -- Use audience language in titles. Their words > your words.
  • channel-strategy -- Audience research informs positioning and pillar design.
  • channel-audit -- If audience research reveals a mismatch, the channel strategy may need a reset.
  • video-analysis -- Pair audience research with performance data for the full picture.

© TheCraigHewitt, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in youtube/audience-research of TheCraigHewitt/skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit fdbf39b

Compare with similar skills

Audience Research next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Audience Research compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Audience Research this skillTheCraigHewitt/skills159—~2.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Creative Directorsmixs/creative-director-skill247—~5.1kAutomated safety check: PassCC-BY-4.0
Comment MiningScrapeCreators/social-media-research-skills3.4k—~1kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Customer Researchunifapi-agent/agents589—~2.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Blog DiscourseAgriciDaniel/claude-blog2.3k1 repos~3.4kAutomated safety check: WarnMIT
Youtube Channel API Skillbrowser-act/skills6.1k1 repos~1.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Audience Research

What does Audience Research do?

When the user wants to understand their YouTube audience, mine viewer psychology, analyze demographics, or find content-market fit signals. Audience Research is an agent skill from TheCraigHewitt/skills. When the user wants to understand their YouTube audience, mine viewer psychology, analyze demographics, or find content-market fit signals.

When should I use Audience Research?

Audience Research fits situations like: wants to understand their YouTube audience; mine viewer psychology; analyze demographics; find content-market fit signals.

How do I install Audience Research in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add TheCraigHewitt/skills --skill audience-research -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (youtube/audience-research in TheCraigHewitt/skills) into .claude/skills/audience-research in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Audience Research in Codex?

Run `npx skills add TheCraigHewitt/skills --skill audience-research -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (youtube/audience-research in TheCraigHewitt/skills) into .agents/skills/audience-research in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Audience Research in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add TheCraigHewitt/skills --skill audience-research -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/audience-research, .gemini/skills/audience-research, .github/skills/audience-research and .opencode/skills/audience-research in your project.

What does Audience Research need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Audience Research is instructions for the agent only.

Does Audience Research access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Audience Research safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Audience Research use?

Audience Research is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Audience Research use?

About 2.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 9.6k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Audience Research?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Audience Research: Creative Director (smixs/creative-director-skill, 247 stars), Comment Mining (ScrapeCreators/social-media-research-skills, 3.4k stars), Customer Research (unifapi-agent/agents, 589 stars) and Blog Discourse (AgriciDaniel/claude-blog, 2.3k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Audience Research?

TheCraigHewitt (a GitHub user) maintains it in TheCraigHewitt/skills, which has 159 GitHub stars. The repository holds 65 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on May 22, 2026.

Source: TheCraigHewitt/skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.