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Youtube Rl Tracker

  • 11 installs
  • 247 repo stars
  • Updated April 3, 2026
  • different-ai/agent-bank

Tracks YouTube video performance in Notion to learn which thumbnails, titles, and hooks drive views over time.

About

Sets up a Notion tracker logging views, CTR, retention, and input features like thumbnail style and title hook to find winning patterns. A creator uses it to run manual reinforcement learning on their YouTube content.

  • Schema tracks thumbnail style, text, product, and title hook
  • Baseline data shows Face+UI+Text thumbnails outperforming talking heads

Youtube Rl Tracker by the numbers

  • 11 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • Ranked #680 of 853 Sales & Marketing skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Data as of Aug 3, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/different-ai/agent-bank --skill youtube-rl-tracker

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Listed on Skillselion
Installs11
repo stars247
Last updatedApril 3, 2026
Repositorydifferent-ai/agent-bank

What it does

Tracks YouTube video performance in Notion to learn which thumbnails, titles, and hooks drive views over time.

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

What I Do

Track YouTube video performance to discover patterns in what works. This is "poor man's reinforcement learning" - manually logging outcomes to improve over time.

The RL Loop

1. PUBLISH  -> Upload video with hypothesis (thumbnail style, title hook, topic)
2. WAIT     -> Let it run for 48-72 hours
3. LOG      -> Record in Notion with views, CTR, retention
4. ANALYZE  -> Compare winners vs losers
5. REPEAT   -> Apply learnings to next video

Key Insight from First Data Point

Video 1: "Using AI agents to pay bills and send invoices"

  • 8 views in 1 day
  • Plain talking head thumbnail
  • Generic title

Video 2: "Paying My Contractor Through Claude | AI-Powered Finance"

  • 133 views in 5 days (16x better!)
  • Thumbnail shows: Face + Product UI overlay + Text "I Let AI Pay My Bills"
  • Title has: Specific action + Brand name (Claude) + Category tag

What Made Video 2 Win:

1. Thumbnail has TEXT overlay - "I Let AI Pay My Bills" creates curiosity 2. Shows the PRODUCT - UI screenshot proves it's real, not just talk 3. Face + Context - Person looking at the UI, not just talking 4. Specific title - "Paying My Contractor" > "pay bills" (concrete vs abstract) 5. Brand name in title - "Claude" attracts AI-interested audience 6. Category tag - "AI-Powered Finance" helps discoverability

Hypothesis to Test:

Thumbnails with TEXT + PRODUCT UI + FACE outperform plain talking head thumbnails by 10x+

Database Schema

Core Fields (Outcomes)

PropertyTypePurpose
TitletitleVideo title
ViewsnumberTotal views
CTRnumberClick-through rate (%)
RetentionnumberAverage view duration (%)
Days LivenumberDays since publish
Views/DayformulaViews / Days Live
Worked?checkboxBinary gut-check - was this a win?

Input Features (What You Controlled)

PropertyTypeOptions
Thumbnail StyleselectTalking Head, Face+UI, Face+Text, UI Only, Meme
Has TextcheckboxDoes thumbnail have text overlay?
Has ProductcheckboxDoes thumbnail show the product/UI?
Title HookselectHow-To, Story, Listicle, Question, Bold Claim
Has BrandcheckboxDoes title mention a brand (Claude, ChatGPT)?
TopicselectAI Finance, Automation, Product Demo, Tutorial
DurationnumberVideo length in minutes
PosteddateWhen published

Reference Fields

PropertyTypePurpose
URLurlLink to video
ThumbnailfilesScreenshot of thumbnail
Notesrich_textWhy did it work/fail?

First Entry: The Baseline

Video 1 (LOSER):
- Title: "Using AI agents to pay bills and send invoices"
- Views: 8
- Days Live: 1
- Thumbnail Style: Talking Head
- Has Text: No
- Has Product: No
- Title Hook: How-To
- Has Brand: No
- Notes: Plain talking head, generic title, no visual hook

Video 2 (WINNER):
- Title: "Paying My Contractor Through Claude | AI-Powered Finance"
- Views: 133
- Days Live: 5
- Views/Day: 26.6
- Thumbnail Style: Face+UI
- Has Text: Yes ("I Let AI Pay My Bills")
- Has Product: Yes (shows invoice payment UI)
- Title Hook: Story
- Has Brand: Yes (Claude)
- Notes: Text overlay creates curiosity, UI proves it's real, specific action in title

Thumbnail Patterns to Test

Based on initial data:

PatternExampleHypothesis
Face + UI + TextVideo 2Best performer - proves reality + creates curiosity
Face + Bold Text-May work for controversial takes
UI Only-Good for tutorials, may lack personality
Talking HeadVideo 1Worst - no visual hook
Before/After-Good for transformation content

Title Patterns to Test

PatternExampleHypothesis
Specific Action + Brand"Paying My Contractor Through Claude"Winner - concrete + searchable
Generic Action"Using AI to pay bills"Loser - too vague
Question"Can AI Really Pay Your Bills?"Untested - may drive curiosity
Number + Outcome"I Automated 5 Hours of Finance Work"Untested - quantified value

Weekly Review Process

1. Sort by Views/Day - normalize for time live 2. Filter by Worked? = true - what patterns emerge? 3. Group by Thumbnail Style - which visuals win? 4. Group by Title Hook - which hooks work? 5. Compare Has Text vs No Text - does text help? 6. Compare Has Brand vs No Brand - do brand names help?

Integration with YouTube Studio Skill

Use skill("youtube-studio") to:

  • Upload new videos with test hypotheses
  • Update thumbnails based on learnings
  • Track which changes improve performance

Reference Image

The winning thumbnail (133 views) vs losing thumbnail (8 views):

YouTube Comparison
YouTube Comparison

Key visual differences:

  • Winner: Face looking at UI, text overlay "I Let AI Pay My Bills", product screenshot visible
  • Loser: Plain talking head against brick wall, no text, no product context

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