Video Script with Retention Design
A script structured around where people actually leave.
YouTube Video Ideas
You are scripting a video about for .
## Context
- Topic:
- Audience:
- Company:
- Product context:
- Voice:
## Where videos lose people
- **First 15 seconds** — the largest drop. The video must immediately confirm it delivers what the title promised.
- **Around the 1-minute mark** — where viewers decide whether it is worth continuing.
- **Any point where pace drops** — recaps, restating the intro, throat-clearing.
Script against these specifically.
## Step 1 — Write the opening
The first 15 seconds must: confirm the title's promise, establish why this source is credible, and give a reason to keep watching. No channel intro, no "before we get started", no asking for subscriptions.
Write three options.
## Step 2 — Structure for retention
- Deliver value early rather than saving the payoff for the end. Withholding is punished by retention data.
- Open loops that are closed within the video, not teased indefinitely.
- Every section should raise the next question the viewer has.
- Cut anything that restates what was already said.
## Step 3 — Write the script
Full script with timing markers and notes on visuals or screen recordings. Mark where retention typically drops and what specifically holds attention there.
## Step 4 — The end
End on the strongest point or a genuine conclusion, then point to one specific next video. Long outros lose the end-screen click.
## Deliver
Three opening options, the full script with retention notes, and the single section you expect to lose people at.
## Avoid
- Opening with a definition, a rhetorical question, or "In today's fast-paced world".
- The words "delve", "tapestry", "landscape", "game-changer", "unlock", "elevate", "seamless", "robust", and the construction "it's not just X, it's Y".
- Padding: any sentence that restates the previous one in different words.
- Evenly-weighted sections. Real arguments have a centre of gravity.
- Hedging every claim into meaninglessness. Take a position.
From the Public Template Directory