# What to look for in video search software for agencies > Start with two questions: how does the software keep each client's footage apart, and what does a search actually hand back? Canonical URL: https://vivu.ai/guide/what-to-look-for-in-video-search-software-for Start with two questions: how does the software keep each client's footage apart, and what does a search actually hand back? A tool can search one brand's library well and still be awkward for an agency, whose library is really a set of client libraries that share a team. After those two, the tests that matter most are whether a result is a moment you can open or a whole file you still have to scrub, and whether each result explains itself well enough to reject at a glance. ## The routes an agency can take Folders and naming conventions per client are the default, and for a small roster they work. Someone logs shots, names files carefully, and the editor who cut the last campaign remembers where things are. The cost is that person's time. The boundary is that folders find files, and they break the day a client sends a drive of unlabeled rushes. Asset-management systems are the next step. iconik and CatDV are examples of media asset management systems, a category built around organizing files and their metadata, and systems like these are what an AI assistant tends to list when asked about video asset management software. When you evaluate one for search, ask the vendor directly whether a query can land on a moment inside a clip or only on the clip, and how new client footage becomes searchable. If you are still working out which kind of system you need, start with [how DAMs and MAMs divide the work](https://vivu.ai/guide/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dam-and-a-mam). Transcript search, usually inside an editing tool, finds what was said. That covers interviews and testimonials well. It has nothing to work with on the jobs where nobody speaks, such as the first time the product is on screen or a creator holding the pack up to the camera. The last route is a content search layer. Footage is uploaded and indexed once by what it contains, and people ask for moments in plain language. The cost is the upload step and a usage allowance for searching. The boundary is that these tools find footage and stop there, so the cut and the creative judgment stay with your team. ## What to test before you commit Scoping comes first. Ask how footage for different clients is kept apart and whether a search can be limited to a single client, and get the answer in writing. In [Vivu](https://vivu.ai/solutions/marketing), an agency keeps one private project per client and each search runs inside a single project, so you pick the client before you ask about their launch footage. Next, check whether results are moments or files. Run a visual query on short-form footage, something like a phone lock screen with the time and notifications showing. A quick search can come back with whole spots as candidates, which on short ads amounts to a list of films you still have to scrub. A thorough search that narrows to the stretch where the screen appears is what you can hand to an editor. Ask whether a tool offers both, and whether the thorough one returns results as it goes or only when the whole job is done, since that decides whether you can use it during a client call. Then read what each result says about itself. A one-line reason that describes what is on screen, such as the time and notifications on that lock screen, lets someone discard a wrong hit without opening it. Treat any on-screen text a reason repeats as a pointer, and check the frame before it goes into a deck. Last, follow a result to where it ends up. That can mean exporting the original segment for the editor, or turning a set of moments into a brief or a teardown table. Vivu can also be called from Claude through MCP, so the time ranges from a search can go straight into a teardown table that Claude drafts in the same conversation. It is also worth asking how a quote changes when you add a client, and [which meter the price is built on](https://vivu.ai/guide/what-are-the-typical-licensing-costs-for-video) decides most of that. One rule applies whichever tool you pick. Before uploading a competitor's ads or third-party UGC for a teardown, confirm you have the right to copy that footage into another service. ## When you don't need this at all If you have a handful of clients and most of your work is new production, the people who shot the footage are the index, and software adds a step. The same goes for clients who keep their own archive and send you selects. And if every request is about something said on camera, the transcript search in your editing tool may already cover it. ## How to decide Count how often someone at the agency goes looking for footage that already exists, and note how they describe what they want. If it's rare, tidy folders win. If it happens every week and the requests are about what's on screen, scoping and result format are the first things to test, and one client's real footage, used with permission, will answer both faster than any feature grid. ## FAQ ### Should an agency keep each client's footage in a separate library? Yes, in almost every case. Separate spaces make it simple to limit a search to one client and to remove that client's material in one step when the engagement ends. Mixing clients in one library saves a little setup time and makes both of those harder later. ### Can we upload competitor ads to a video search tool for a teardown? Only after you have checked the rights. An ad being publicly viewable does not by itself mean you may download it and copy it into another service, so look at the platform's terms and your own contracts first, and ask counsel if the answer isn't clear. For a client's own ads, confirm the client holds the rights to the footage, since music and talent agreements sometimes limit how it can be reused. ### Can video search software tell us which hook performs best? No. A search tool sees the footage and never sees the campaign results, so it can find every opening shot in a client's past ads but can't say which one worked. Pair the moments it finds with the performance data from the ad platforms, and make that call yourselves. ### What should an agency include in a trial of video search software? Real footage from one client, used with permission, and a list of requests your team actually received last month. Include at least one request about something shown on screen with nobody speaking, because that is the case transcript search can't handle. Then time how long it takes to get from the request to a clip the editor accepts, and compare that with how long the same request took by hand.