ContHunt is the short-form research tool for this split. It keeps a public TikTok’s comments next to the video, so the question viewers actually ask can be told from the joke they leave. A heart, a tag, and a laugh are not a product question.
How to score a TikTok you do not own already has a slot for the comment job. This page is how you fill that slot. You copy the words viewers repeated. You label those words as a product question or a joke. You leave the label blank when you had to go hunting for the line you wanted.
A product question is a top comment that names something a viewer could buy, use, avoid, or time. A joke thread is tags, a punchline, or a face, with no noun a person could buy. ContHunt keeps the public comments next to the video so you label the words viewers repeated, not the mood of the thread. The top is what you can read before a buried reply and before you change the sort. A pinned comment counts. A line you reach by scrolling past a screen of tags does not. One buried “link?” does not flip a joke thread into a product question. If comments are hidden, the slot stays empty. The comment does not put a proof on a frame that never showed it, and a joke does not erase a proof that is already in the first shot. The brief may quote the question only when the top comments asked it.
Which comments count as the top?#
The comments visible before you open a buried reply thread, and before you change the sort to surface the line you hoped to find. A pinned comment is in the top, because the creator put it there. A comment you reach by scrolling past a screen of tags is not the top.
Write the repeated words. A summary of the mood (“people loved it”) is not a comment job. The count of comments is not one either. Forty laughing comments and two product questions can share a number and be different jobs.
If the account hides comments, the slot stays empty. Do not borrow the comment job from a different video of the same creator.
What is a product question?#
A product question names something a viewer could buy, use, avoid, or time.
- Which product, which shade, which size, which bottle.
- Will it sting, and can this skin use it.
- How long did you leave it on, and how many days in is the photo.
- Where did you get it.
The noun has to be the thing you sell, or the result your proof is supposed to show. “What song is this?” is a real question. It is a product question only when you sell that sound. For a serum, it is a question about the audio, and it stays out of the product line.
A creator reply that says “the small blue one” belongs to the question it answers. The reply does not invent a question the thread never asked. If the top comments never name a product and the creator replies to a fan with no question in it, you still do not have a product question.
What is a joke thread?#
Tags, “I’m dead,” a quote of the punchline, a comment that only points at a face. No noun a person could buy, use, or avoid. The video can still teach timing. The comment line cannot enter the brief as something a customer asked.
One product question under a screen of jokes does not flip the thread. The job is the line the top comments repeat. A single “link?” far down the list is a note that someone asked. It is not the comment job. Scrolling until that line appears is how a joke video gets mislabeled as research.
A care inbox can sort the same comments into general engagement, a complaint, and a sales lead. Sprout Social’s comments guide describes that triage for a brand answering its own posts. The sort decides who replies. It does not decide the comment job on a video you do not own. A joke and a product question can both land in engagement and still be different lines on a brief.
What if the thread is both?#
Write two lines, and say which one the top repeats.
| Line | What you copy | When it is the comment job |
|---|---|---|
| Product question | Their words for the thing they could buy, use, or avoid | It is what the top comments repeat |
| Joke | Their words for the punchline or the face | It is what the top comments repeat |
| Mixed | Both, with which one leads | The top is split, and you do not pick the half you prefer |
A mixed thread loses a head-to-head to a thread that asks the product question in the first comments, when the two videos otherwise tie. How to compare two TikToks without analytics uses the comment job as one of the three differences that pick a winner. The difference is the words, not which video collected more replies.
Does the comment repair the frame?#
No. When a public TikTok caption disagrees with the footage already separates the three lines on the video from the comments under it. A top comment that asks “did it sting?” on a routine with no test means viewers heard a skin claim. It does not put a test on camera. The words check still fails.
The other way holds too. A joke thread on a video whose first frame is the patch test does not erase the proof. The proof can remain the standard you film against. The comment line in the brief stays empty, or you write “joke,” so a later draft does not invent a customer question that the top comments never asked.
What does a worked thread look like?#
The comments below are an illustration of the note. They are not copied from a creator’s account.
The product is a serum for reactive skin. The job sentence, written first, is that people with reactive skin should believe it will not sting, because they see a patch test.
Video A opens on the forearm with two squares of product. The top comments are “which one is that,” “the small blue bottle?,” “reactive skin?,” one “lol her face,” and three tags. The repeated line names the bottle and the skin. The face joke is a single comment. The comment job is a product question. The words you keep are “which one” and “reactive skin.”
Video B is a morning routine with more plays. The top comments are “I’m dead,” “send this to her,” tags, and one “what song is this?” The song is not the serum. The comment job is a joke. Leave the comment line off the brief. Do not keep scrolling for a buried “serum?” and then call this a product thread.
On the comparison sheet, A’s comment job beats B’s, and A’s proof is in the first frame. B’s play count does not move either fact. If your product cannot show that patch, A is still the standard, not your script.
What does this do to the stop?#
How many public TikToks to watch before a brief stops when two videos share the job sentence and the next ten do not move it. A joke in the comments does not by itself reset that ten. The ten resets when the sentence required a customer question and the top comments are a joke.
If the sentence is “because they see a patch test,” a joke thread can stay in the ten as long as the frame still shows the patch. The comment line is blank. If the sentence is “because they ask which product,” a joke thread fails the sentence. That video does not enter the ten, and a ten built on the question starts over when the comments stop asking it.
Deep Search can watch a large public pile and return videos with the comments attached. Open the comments on the videos you will cite. A pattern that says “viewers ask about sting” has to be visible in those threads. A pattern you only get by opening the fortieth comment is not the comment job.
Does the same split work on a Reel or a Short?#
Yes. The top of the comment sheet is the sample on Instagram Reels and on YouTube Shorts. A longer Reel caption does not change the test. A Short’s title does not either. Read the comments that are actually under that video.
A public like count still does not pick the label. Reading virality beyond views is where a public ratio belongs, after you know whether the top comments asked a product question. Compare two videos from the platform you will publish on. A TikTok comment job is weak evidence for a Reel whose comments you have not read.
What if the creator replies with a new video?#
A reply posted as its own video is a second public TikTok. It has its own frame, its own caption, and its own comments. Score that video with the one-video rubric. Do not paste its proof back onto the original and say the original’s comment job is now proved.
If the original’s top comments ask “which one is that,” that question stays on the original’s note. If the reply video is the one that shows the patch test, the proof lives on the reply. The brief cites the reply for the proof and the original for the question. Merging them into one row hides which video a creator would actually be copying.
A text reply under the comment is not a second video. “The small blue bottle” stays attached to the question it answers. It still cannot supply a proof the frame never showed.
What do you write down?#
Four lines. Then the brief uses the product question only when the top comments actually asked it.
- The repeated comment, in the viewer’s words, from the top.
- The label: product question, joke, or mixed. Mixed includes which line leads.
- Whether that line matches the claim the frame proves.
- Keep or blank. Keep means the brief may quote the product question. Blank means the comment line stays empty, including when the label is joke.
The joke line stays in the note even when the brief leaves it blank. Deleting it is how a funny thread gets rewritten later as “customers asked about the serum.” How to research TikTok hooks before you brief a creator is where a kept question becomes an opening. It does not turn a joke into one.
Get started by opening one public video, copying the top comments in their words, and labeling the repeated line as a product question or a joke.
