I watched every viral YouTube video of
2023 to figure out the reason behind
going viral and this is where it gets
interesting it was not through luck I
found a framework that can be applied to
any video to keep your retention high
and it actually worked in fact I got
close to 3,000 subs from posting just
two videos and average 25k views While
others in my Niche who have more subs
struggle to average 10K views and what's
crazy is there only three steps to this
formula but each one is linked to the
the other bro I roast the hell out of
people who like have boring first 5
seconds it's brutal essentially your
title and thumbnail set expectations and
at the very beginning of the video to
minimize drop off you want to assure
them that those expectations are being
met our main objective in the first 5
seconds is to meet the viewers
expectations now a common thing I found
was that they matched the first 5
seconds with the thumbnail and the title
let's take a look at an example check
out the title and thumbnail of this
video in the thumbnail there is a
close-up shot out of Rockefeller with a
dark reddish background and oil pumps
the title of the video is Rockefeller
the world's first billionaire now let's
take a look at the first 5 Seconds of
the video there was a time when anyone
would tremble did you catch it the very
first shot closely resembles the
thumbnail there is a closeup of John D
Rockefeller dark reddish background and
oil pumps and in the next sentence you
can hear the title roeller Not only was
he the world's first billionaire by
using the first 5 Seconds to immediately
match the title and thumbnail he
minimized is drop off from the very
get-go now after applying this two-step
formula in the first 5 Seconds of the
video next comes these three core
elements of the hook which are context
Stakes payoff and curiosity Gap and this
is where it gets interesting because
this formula is used throughout all of
these videos let's hop back to one of
them to see these elements in action we
last left off this video after he showed
John D Rockefeller see if you can follow
along Not only was he the world's first
billionaire he's one of the richest
people in history history his Empire
Standard Oil became the most dominant
Monopoly in the world by brutally
crushing competitors taking control of
multiple Industries bribing the
government into submission and treating
business as if it was war because of his
ruthless business practices and
secretive deals Rockefeller made many
enemies his career is filled with bitter
rivalries like with Andrew carnegi and
even ferocious battles against US
presidents after matching the thumbnail
and the title he outlines the entire
plot and if you've seen the complete
video you would know what I'm talking
about initially he gives visual context
by showcasing the company name and
proceeds to mentioned that he ruthlessly
dominated competitors gained control of
various Industries engaged in government
bribery and executed secretive deals
following this the video delves into the
consequences of such methods and this is
what I call Stakes SL payoff then to
heighten your interest and build up your
curiosity he starts mentioning Andrew
Carnegie and US presidents to entice the
viewer to stick around and watch till
the end to figure out why he went
through such links and he did all of
that in just 20 seconds and his video is
around 49 minutes but it doesn't stop
there in addition to those three core
elements he adds one secret element
which Mr best explains better here so at
the very beginning match the
expectations and then you want to exceed
them so you want to assure people that
what they clicked on is what they're
getting and then blow their mind and be
like but you're also getting even more
now that we have caught the attention of
the viewer we need to keep it until the
end and this is where it gets tricky
because there are different Frameworks
for this but the main rules you want to
focus on are good pacing visual variety
and consistent
contrast you know certain things like if
I just talk to a camera for 10 seconds
without a cut like a lot of people will
just like get bored or the lose interest
and this is what you call Visual variety
what you want to do is cut between shots
at least every 3 to 5 Seconds now you
might think that's impossible if you
have a faceless Channel especially if
you focus heavily on Motion Graphics but
the trick is to add movement zooming in
and out between Clips to keep things
visually Dynamic and one of the best
examples for this is in this
rockerfeller video take a look at the
timing of his movements during this clip
on the Family Farm Bill did just about
anything else he was an athlete
ventriloquist Hunter hypnotist and even
an animal trainer once he won a bear in
a competition kept it as a pet and
taught it to do tricks build did a
little of this a little of that but not
much of anything bill would also
spontaneously skip town in the middle of
the night leaving John and his siblings
to fend for themselves for weeks or even
months only to the concept for this is
very simple you want to feed the brain
new information consistently to make
them forget the time just like Tik Tok
does to you you don't want to be stuck
in a frame for too long unless it has
meaning like building tension SL
suspense but even with these frequent
changes in the screen you still can't
keep the video interesting forever and
because of Tik Tok the attention spans
are shorter than ever and it's a fact
that Mr best states here it's very hard
with a single storyline if you're doing
like a double digit minute video to just
have that one thing grip their entire
attention throughout the whole video and
pay off at the end um and that's where
the second rule comes in consistent
contrast and Mr Beast does this by
introducing Side Stories so typically if
you're doing a longer video you should
introduce like a Side Story and like re
you should have some plan halfway
through like to re-engage them so they
don't just get bored you know what I
mean like but before you say wait I
can't do that in my style of videos
there are different ways of
incorporating this rule which dodford
does best he does this by blending the
footage in audio of interviews you have
such an incredible talent for for
physical comedy where did that come from
desperation desperation I had a sick mom
man I wanted to make her feel
better I just always felt like like that
was my job I had a job at least in my
own mind and that was to make my mother
feel better funny people have uh have
sick moms generally it's born out of
wanting to make somebody feel better
okay but that's too hard to do there is
a simpler version of this that I did in
this video by adding clips from Mr best
interviews or playing different clips
from videos which I hope it worked now
the final rule which is the most
important of them all is good pacing now
you probably seen this in one of these
videos but let's shift it toward YouTube
most creators will focus on the
beginning of the video and sometimes the
end too which is what I used to do but
creators like Mr best create frequent
energy Cycles shifting between high and
lows what I mean by this depends on the
video with dodford each cycle introduces
a new stage of life for Jim Carrey the
cycle starts with a high energy dramatic
quote of him followed by the lower
energy of what led to that quote or a
series of event that proves it now I
used to go up to M Hall and drive every
night sit on the side of the road look
out at the lights and and go I'm a
popular actor every director wants to
work with me I had nothing at that time
so it was like it but it just made me
feel better and I used to like open my
arms and imagine things you know
and this is what keeps the pacing up and
keeps you the viewer wanting to know
more right up until the end of the video
now each of his Cycles tend to be
between 2 to 4 minutes finally we have
arrived at the final seconds which are
more important than what people think
and that's why most people will see a
long drop off at the end of their videos
which hurts the overall retention to
avoid this you need to introduce a big
payoff and end it on a high note good
afternoon good evening and good
night just walk through it
now one final secret to have a high
retention which Mr Beast recommends God
dang it put it all on the checklist so I
can tell you the things to do and then
going forward just check them off before
you upload a video you need to go back
and check every item on your checklist
and cut out every dull moment and have
your friends watch it before you upload
it