Formula AI Lab
Test 015 · The Spy Test

Study a competitor's reels with one prompt.

We had Claude read a 50K-follower account's last 26 reels: plays, captions, comments. Here's exactly how, so you can run it on any account tonight.

26reels read
14.6 srun time
≈ $0.06scraper cost

How to run it

  1. Add the Apify connector to Claude.

    In Claude: Settings → Connectors → search “Apify”. If it isn't listed, add https://mcp.apify.com as a custom connector, then sign in to Apify.

  2. Copy this prompt and swap in the account. 
    Use Apify's Instagram Scraper (apify/instagram-scraper) to pull the last 30 posts from instagram.com/ACCOUNT, with plays, likes, comments, caption and date. Then:
1. Rank the posts by plays.
2. Group the top 10 by the type of hook in the first line.
3. List the call to action at the end of each caption and how often each one is used.
4. Compare sponsored or paid posts with the rest, using medians, not averages.
5. Give me 5 hook ideas for my own account based on what won.
Only use numbers from the data. If something isn't in the data, say so.
  3. Paste it in Claude and read the table.

    Ask follow-ups like “show me the 3 best hooks word for word” or “what do the flops have in common?”

What we found (our run, Nov 1 2026)
  • 1.45MTop reel: a money / legal-fear hook (“your app can get sued for $100K…”).
  • 588K“Don't start until these 4…” lists passed half a million, twice.
  • 24/26Captions that end with “comment a keyword”.
  • < ⅕Paid posts got under a fifth of the views of their own reels (median ~17K vs ~94K).

KEEP IT

What it costs

Apify charges per post scraped: $0.0023 on our plan, $0.0027 on the free plan. So 26–30 posts is about 6–8 cents. New Apify accounts get a free monthly credit, so your first runs likely cost nothing. Prices change: check apify.com/pricing.

New test every week

One AI tool, one real job, real numbers, a straight verdict.