Scoring Methodology
Overview
The Social Tuner viability score is a composite metric that combines keyword difficulty scores across a channel's keyword landscape.
Keyword difficulty
Each keyword receives a difficulty score based on:
- Search volume — estimated monthly YouTube searches for the term
- Competition density — number of videos targeting or ranking for the term
- Top-result authority — the subscriber counts and engagement rates of channels already ranking
These three signals are combined into a single 0–100 difficulty score per keyword.
Channel viability score
The channel viability score aggregates keyword difficulty scores using a weighted distribution:
- Keywords with higher search volume have more weight
- The score reflects the median difficulty of the channel's addressable keyword set, not just its hardest terms
This means a channel can have a few Very Hard keywords (big brand terms) while still scoring Medium overall — because most of the niche's actual search volume sits in more accessible terms.
Score thresholds
| Range | Label |
|---|---|
| 80–100 | Easy |
| 60–79 | Medium |
| 40–59 | Hard |
| 0–39 | Very Hard |
Limitations
- Scores reflect current competition levels. A niche's difficulty can change over time.
- The model is optimized for YouTube search. It does not factor in social discovery (YouTube Shorts feed, external traffic).
- Scores are estimates, not guarantees. Use them directionally.