Maximizing Short Retention: A Comprehensive Guide

Consistently achieving high retention on YouTube shorts involves creating engaging hooks, using tension in storytelling, and maximizing editing techniques for fast-paced, entertaining content.

### The Ultimate Guide to High Retention YouTube Shorts
* 📊 Retention rates are crucial for YouTube shorts success, with **91%, 93%, and 97% rates** being cited as examples of **high performance**.
* 🎥 The "composing" of a short, from hook to payoff, is compared to a car engine, with the **hook being the introduction**, the **storytelling being the engine**, and the **payoff being the destination**.
* 🎣 Hooks should be **concise, easy to understand**, and set up a **payoff**, like in the examples of a **gaming short** and a **lifestyle short** given.
* 📖 Storytelling should include **conflict, suspenseful language**, and most importantly, **tension** to keep viewers engaged.
* 🏁 Payoffs must meet the expectations set up in the hook to **satisfy viewers and encourage returning subscribers**.
* 🎞 Editing is compared to the physical parts of a car, with **pacing, style, and music** all playing important roles in **maintaining viewer engagement**.
* 🎣 Leverage tips include **engagement baiting**, **leaving comments on your own shorts**, and **linking related videos to keep viewers watching**.
* 🔗 Additional leverage tips are available in the video description for those interested in **further boosting retention rates**.

91% retention, 93% retention, 97% retention, one after another, again and again and again. Through my personal experience in making engaging shorts and my research into the strategies of top creators, I've created an in-depth process for consistently getting high retention. By following the methods in this process, you'll be able to keep attention so well that you can't stop going viral. So without further ado, let's begin. The shorts algorithm uses thousands of methods to decide if your content is worthy of getting views. However, there is one single element that is undoubtedly the biggest factor in this. Every creator acknowledges it as the single most important metric in terms of going viral, and I'm sure you've heard of it as well. Just this simple line on the graph will decide if your short gets 10 views or 10 million views. So let's make it as flat as possible. Now, this upcoming advice can be used across all niches, but for each person, it might apply differently. So in these next few minutes

consider how you can tailor this information to fit your videos. If you were to imagine your content as a car, then the composing of your shorts would be the engine. Without a good engine, it doesn't matter if you have a super nice car, a Lamborghini, because you won't be going anywhere. So, to explain the concept of composing, we can start by drawing a simple line. On one end, we have the hook, and on the other end, we have the payoff. The line connecting the two is our storytelling. I'll go through each point in this drawing and show you how to maximize retention in all of them. Let's begin with the hook, and I'll get to the others later. Your hook is basically the intro of your short. It should be as concise and easy to understand as possible, since we don't want to end up confusing the viewers or giving them too much information. The hook should also explain the general idea of the video and mention a payoff. Now, it might seem difficult to fit all this in less than 5 seconds, but it doesn't have to be.

complicated. Find for yourself how this Creator communicated a simple but effective hook to his viewers. [Music] Yes, even without a voice, this simple use of text is still a very strong hook. His viewers want to see what he's referring to in the caption, which is a good reason for them to keep watching. We also immediately understand the concept of the video because the visuals convey what game he's playing and the situation he's in, which shows that you don't always have to physically explain the idea. For further reference, here's another very good hook, but this time it's a completely different niche. My grandma thinks Christmas is expensive, so I'm going to prove her wrong by giving her the best Christmas present with $5. Let's get started. So your hook can look differently depending on your niche and video type, but as long as you can set up a payoff and convey an interesting idea, you'll be able to make your viewers stick around, but only initially. We still have to keep these people engaged until the end of the short, or else they'll

just scroll away before reaching that point. That's where storytelling comes in, and we can start progressing down the line. Now, this part is interesting because how you use storytelling will be very dependent on your niche and video type. If you make voiceover or original content, then there's a lot more room with what you can do. For that group, I recommend you integrate conflict into your script. Have things go wrong and then resolve the problem with the solution. Also, use a lot of suspenseful words like but and however because it keeps people on edge, waiting for what you say next. Now, in a more general sense, there is something that's important to focus on in storytelling for every niche, faceless or not. And before I reveal it, try to catch it for yourself in this short. This is a Starbucks, and down the street is another Starbucks. And today, I'mma start some beef. Howdy, can you give me just like a really fun drink? Yeah, we can definitely do that. Oh my gosh, that's so fun.

Starbucks went off. This is the most fun drink I've ever seen. I pulled up to Starbucks and did what I had to do. And then they said, You guys make super boring drinks. Okay, so I was just going to see if you guys can make a more fun one than them. Yeah, definitely. This is what the Starbucks down the street made. The genuine shock on Tor's face, right? So, in the hook, Ryan sets up the plot behind the video. And now we want to see who will make the better Starbucks drink. Then, you might have noticed, he used a hidden storytelling tool in order to keep us engaged throughout the short. Let's see. Even though the concept itself wasn't very tense, there was a lot of anticipation. He framed things in a way that made it impossible to scroll because of the building up towards the payoff. The hidden tool that Ryan used here was tension. And obviously, it worked because this short has nearly 100 million views. So, tension is the most important instrument of storytelling.

it can be applied in very broad circumstances, as long as you're building suspense in your viewers. Now that we've resolved the storytelling and the hook, let's move on to the payoff, another integral part of your content. So remember how I said earlier in the hook that you had to mention a payoff? Well, now that we're actually here, it's very important that you meet the expectations you set. Ryan set up that there would be a competition between the two Starbucks, but what if he reached the end of the short after all of that tension and buildup and said, well, it's a tie? That would be lame, wouldn't it? You want to satisfy your audience because the real trick to getting a ton of retention is returning viewers. If you disappoint someone with your payoff, then you'll have lost a potential loyal subscriber who would have given you a lot of engagement in the long run. So make sure to fulfill the payoff. And look at that, we've successfully completed the composing [Music] pathway. Remember what I said earlier.

about composing being the engine of your shorts. Well, you can think of editing as the physical part of the car: the wheel, the seats, and the walls. In the same way that a car couldn't function without an engine, it's just as useless without a body. To start, let's talk about your pacing. Attention spans are pretty much fried nowadays, especially when it comes to short-form platforms like YouTube shorts. Therefore, we need to go to great lengths to make sure our content is as fast-paced as possible. I remember on an old channel of mine in the gaming niche, I would spend a whole hour getting footage for a one-minute short. That way, I could condense all of the most action-packed moments to make the pacing quick and entertaining. This is so important because people nowadays value their time much more. Why would they spend 30 seconds watching your short that isn't even entertaining when they can just scroll away and watch Mr. Beast? So, keep your shorts as fast-paced as possible. As for certain tricks like captions, transitions, and zooming, there

isn't one concrete answer that I can give. It's heavily dependent on the style of your content. So I recommend recommend you search for other creators in your Niche and just do what they do. Now there's a whole another side of editing as well. This aspect of it is often overlooked, which is a shame because it plays one of the biggest roles in your engagement. See if you can find what it is in this short. These are the internet's weirdest websites. Spot the drowning child.com is like a lifeguard simulator where you're given a video of real people in a swimming pool, and you click who you think's drowning to see if you're faster than the Lifeguard. What's my star name.com lets you type in your name and will return with how a Starbucks employee will find a way to spell it wrong. Did you catch it as the sections of the video switched? The music he used changed as well. The soundtrack you pick for your shorts can be used to make the audience feel different moods during different parts.

of the short this gets them more invested into the video and enhances your storytelling but be careful because if you pick the wrong soundtrack then it can backfire heavily another huge use of music is for building tension I talked about it earlier so you already know how important tension is if you pick a certain song with a buildup then you can create tension from thin air and manipulate people into staying engaged I can't show an example of this because of copyright but this channel is super good at it so check out his content to see what I'm talking about sound effects again depend on your Niche and type of content if you can use them then add them to certain moments for more engagement but if it doesn't fit your video style then it's not a big deal the definition of Leverage is using something to its maximum Advantage if we go back to that car analogy leverage would be like attaching a jet booster to the back the car does work without it but we can make it go a lot faster and

what I mean by this is there are some clever tricks to maximize retention outside of the traditional composing and editing. Some of these tricks will seem pretty weird, but don't underestimate how effective they are. The first one is called engagement baiting. Do something that urges people to comment, for example, an intentional mistake until this guy slides the watermelon through it, or a really crazy moment people will want to point it out. And you might not know this, but your retention increases as people use the comment section. Try it for yourself, go to a short, and you'll notice that when you leave a comment, the short keeps playing in the background. So get people to leave comments, and you'll see a massive increase in your retention. Another trick related to comments, and this one is kind of underhanded, but it works very well. Here's how you do it: once you post your short, switch YouTube accounts so that people don't know it's you. Then go to the post you just made and leave a comment saying something like that ending was crazy or I didn't

expect the ending most people check the comments before even watching the short so they'll see that and wait until the end because you've made them curious about what happens. The funny thing about this one is a lot of shorts creators use this without you knowing it. Next time you check the comments on a short and see one like that just know it might actually be the Creator in Disguise. The third one is very simple but it's also very effective. Go to one of your shorts and find the related video section. Click it and link one of your other shorts. A lot of people will click this link and since they're already invested in your content they're more likely to watch for longer. Now I have a lot more leverage tips to share so I've linked them in the description for completely free. Check those out if you're interested. Hopefully you got a lot of value from this video. Subscribe if you did and I'll talk to you in the next one.

How to get retention SO HIGH your shorts always go viral

YouTube shorts advice… subscribe to the channel 🤝

For inquiries: ytlogansmith@gmail.com

LOGAN SMITH

Mastering High Retention in Short-Form Content

Consistently high retention in short videos is crucial for going viral, and it all hinges on the composition, especially the hook.

The hook, as the video's introduction, needs to be concise, easy to understand, and provide a glimpse of the video's idea and payoff, using visuals or text.

The composition, including storytelling between the hook and payoff, is vital for keeping the audience engaged until the end of the short, regardless of the niche or video type.

The Power of Storytelling in Video Content

Storytelling in video content is crucial for keeping the audience engaged, regardless of the niche.

Using conflict and suspenseful words creates tension and anticipation, holding the viewers' attention.

The effective use of tension as a storytelling tool is exemplified in a viral Starbucks-themed video, demonstrating its power in captivating audiences.

Mastering the Art of Short-Form Storytelling

Building suspense is crucial for short-form content to engage viewers.

The payoff is essential and failing to meet the expectations set can result in losing potential loyal subscribers.

Fast-paced and entertaining content is vital in capturing and retaining audience attention on short-form platforms like YouTube shorts.

Unusual Websites and the Power of Music in Short Videos

com is a lifeguard simulator using real pool videos.

com humorously predicts how Starbucks baristas will misspell your name.

The choice of music in short videos can significantly impact the audience's engagement and the video's storytelling, creating different moods and building tension.

Maximizing Retention: Clever Tricks for Short Videos

Engagement baiting, such as prompting comments, can significantly increase retention.

Another effective trick is to switch accounts and leave a mysterious comment to pique viewers' curiosity.

Linking related videos can also help retain viewers and increase their watch time.