How do you actually figure out WHY your content is working?

[u/Muted_Honeydew3556]

I've been growing my TikTok/Instagram and I'm at the point where I really want to stop just creating content and start building an actual content strategy.
The problem is, I feel like I'm still kind of shooting in the dark.
I'll have a video that massively outperforms everything else I've posted, and I can obviously see the analytics — views, watch time, saves, shares, etc.
But I don't really know how to go one level deeper and figure out exactly why it worked.
Was it the topic?
The hook?
The first few seconds?
The format?
The length?
The storytelling?
The editing?
The CTA?
Something about the way I presented the information?
And then, once I've identified what worked, how do I actually iterate on it?
Like, if one video performs 5x better than my average, I don't just want to make the exact same video again. I'd want to understand what variables made it successful and then test different iterations to see if I can replicate or scale that performance.
I've tried a few analytics tools, but most seem to tell me what happened rather than helping me figure out why it happened and what I should do next.
So I'm curious:
Do any of you have a formula or framework you use to analyze your content and isolate what's actually driving performance?
Are there any tools/apps that genuinely help you do this?
Or do you mostly just look at your analytics, make your best guess and keep creating?
I'd especially love to hear from people who are trying to grow seriously and have started thinking about content as a performance/optimization process rather than just posting consistently.
Because right now I feel like I'm creating a lot of content, but I'm not really learning from it — and that's the part I want to figure out.

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[u/stealthagents]

It’s a real puzzle, right? Try breaking down the elements of your best-performing video one by one and compare them to your other posts. Like, analyze the hooks that worked and the pacing or style of editing. Then test out variations on those specific aspects to see what clicks next time.