How To Have 99.71% Retention In Your Videos

It’s not the likes, comments that bring more views — it’s how long people stay. YouTube pushes videos that keep viewers hooked, and kills the ones they scroll past. If you can't hold attention, you're not going to get your video viral.

how do you actually get high retention..?
Here are X ways I personally use to keep high retention

1. Reviewing your analytics like a Hawk

Every niche behaves differently — that’s why it’s crucial to understand your own channel’s analytics.
Go to YouTube Studio > Analytics > Engagement, and check out your Audience Retention graph.

Your goal? A flat line with 85%+ retention for 60-second Shorts.
If your video is shorter — say, 20 seconds — then your retention should ideally be over 100% (meaning people are rewatching).

If you notice any dips in the graph, click on that moment, see what went wrong, and fix it in your next edit.
Doing just this one thing helped me massively improve my average retention.

2. Trigger Curiosity or FOMO Fast

It’s crucial to create a question in the viewer’s mind — or at least make them feel like they’re about to miss out on something big if they scroll away.

This sounds complex, but it’s actually simple: your first 2–3 seconds should look polished and clean, with high-quality clips (no blurry starts), and if possible, raise a question that makes the viewer want to stick around.

Questions like “How?”, “Why?”, or “Where?” work great — they create curiosity loops that keep people watching till the end.

Like in one of my top-performing Shorts — you can see that the video starts with an F-bomb drop and with SFX. That helped grab attention instantly, and this one hit 90% retention.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Bo9kT24FtZU?si=PyDu5tnbfjTOj_PX

3. Editing for Retention

I’ll do my best to explain how to edit for high retention — but remember: this isn’t the main factor that drives results. It’s a supporting tool, and it can vary a lot depending on your niche.

That said, a few universal principles help:

• Use SFX wisely — Don’t flood your video with them, but wherever a sound effect adds impact or emphasis, use it.

• Always have something happening on screen — It could be dynamic text, visual transitions, motion, or quick scene changes. Keep the energy alive.

• Experiment and test — Try different editing styles and see what boosts retention. Personally, I’ve found that smart use of SFX noticeably improves how long people stick around.

Next week, I’ll share the 3 remaining strategies I’ve tested across millions of views.

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