Platform mechanics
Retention (video)
The percentage of viewers who keep watching at each point in a video. Platform algorithms use the retention curve — especially the first-3-second drop-off — as one of the strongest signals for amplifying or suppressing a post.
Retention is the percentage of viewers still watching at each point in a video. Most platforms expose the retention curve to creators in their analytics dashboard. The most-amplified posts share a common shape: minimal first-3-second drop-off (a strong hook), sustained 70%+ retention through the middle, and a shallow tail. Posts with a steep early drop are heavily suppressed because the algorithm reads them as low-quality. Retention curve weight is one of the few pieces of public knowledge about platform ranking — and consequently, optimising the hook for retention is the highest-ROI lever in short-form content.
Related terms
Hook (short-form video)
The opening 1–3 seconds (audio + on-screen text) of a short-form video, which determines whether feed viewers swipe past…
A/B hook testing
Generating multiple opener variants for the same short-form clip, publishing them as separate posts, and feeding the win…
Short-form video
Vertical or square video typically 15–90 seconds long, optimised for mobile feed consumption — TikTok, Instagram Reels, …