Most videos lose people before anything has happened. What we cut, move and keep in the opening, and why the title decides it.
What we do
We watch the first minute of the channel's last ten videos with the retention graph open beside them, and mark every place the line drops by more than a few points. The pattern is nearly always the same: a greeting, a plan, a promise of what is coming. None of it is the video.
So we start where the title starts. If the title is a number, the number comes first. If it is a question, the answer starts on screen before anyone says it out loud.
What it changes
Across our channels the share of viewers still watching at thirty seconds went from 58% to 81% on average. Nobody filmed anything new to get there.
Turn on notifications
One email when a note goes up, about once a fortnight. Nothing else, and one tap to stop.