The Terrible Truth About Retention Editing 

I love your quote "the creator doesn't trust the audience to keep watching".

Retention Editing is just like mixing a bunch of shorts into one long video, it's really tiring to watch

It is crazy to me that this video didn't get viral. Every second of it was valuable. Thanks.

This was needed to be said. Retention editing is the worst trend to come out of RU-vid, there is no alternative to good storytelling and providing value.

Thanks for this video. I think every creator has thought about this subject, but it's difficult to put into words. You did it masterfully. Much love from Brazil.

THANK YOU for saying all of this 👏🏼 retention editing drives me NUTS. I immediately click away now when the editing is ridiculous and everyone is screaming in the video. I prefer unedited/low-edit chill videos from smaller channels these days tbh, hyper glossy edited videos are not the move rn

its basically reality TV editing, that 15 second airport bit reminds me of the Gift Shop Sketch, where a mundane interaction is ratcheted 😆

This is so relevant. I don't like this overuse of retention editing and since I'm just starting out in this RU-vid journey, I often feel like I HAVE to incorperate some of it just to trickle in some views on my videos. But I refuse to, because it's not who I am as a person, it's not the kind of content I want to make or story I want to tell. This trend (and trends like short form content) has such an impact on so many things in society nowadays and how we consume, I sincerely hope it will turn back around and give way for more thought-provoking styles of content.

Absolute love this analysis. I feel constant pressure to stimulate my viewers constantly, even though my value is in inspiring and helping people become their best selves. The best way to do that is through storytelling and connecting. Thanks for this!

Thank You, Finally someone pointed it out well. I find it disgusting how people who hyper stimulate and fry the neurological receptors of viewers instead of giving them a fun time/emotional ride/true value, are bowed down to (metaphorically) and respected as if they are gods of video making. To be honest they don't even deserve to be called artists/creatives.

I'd love to see the retention rating on this video

THANK YOU!! You’ve clearly laid out what I’ve felt for the longest time. I’m glad the ADHD style of editing is going out!

Professional video editor here. Clients always want "retention editing" but have absolutely zero clue about how much time and effort go into it and like to pay as such. Good to know the tides are turning!

You kept my attention. I watched 100% of the video. And I agree completely. A year later, I am seeing this trend of storytelling type videos growing, while retention editing is becoming less popular. It's tiring to watch, and a lot of people have told me that they're far more interested in watching something that's relaxing and has good story. I, too, welcome this change.

This is a breath of fresh air. It's interesting how it contrast with the "everyone is quitting youtube" thing. It shows that there needs to be a change. People need to feel more fulfilled with the content they are making and consumers also need more quality content. I believe this will only benefit us all. Hopefully that will also translate in the economic sense so that the content can keep flowing.

YES thank you for explaining this so well! It's become so unsatisfying to watch RU-vid lately yet I find myself on here for hours each day. It does truly feel like a lot of creators are hacking my brain.

It all starts with the thumbnails. I avoid any video I suspect has loud retention editing I'm glad other people are aware of how annoying this trend is

As a newbie in video editing, I'm really tired of seeing the same types of videos on TikTok. Everyone's edits look the same with all the sound effects and movements. I hope more people find your video. Thanks for this!

One more thing... you embodied so many of us with your reaction to the "delayed flight" segment and the cut afterwards. So funny. The micro-dramas some creators want us to care about is insulting. Watching that segment made me start breathing out of my mouth. I'm convinced there's some sort of not-so-subtle hypnotizing effect with that type of editing.

Have you noticed that there is a change on RU-vid in 2023 and 2024? The era of flashy and obnoxious retention editing with videos seems to be wearing off with audiences. Now, creators like Sam Sulek in fitness or Jordan Howlett in the fast food niche are building huge audiences with videos that have a common theme: little to no editing at all. Of course, each creator is different but those two examples do little to no editing on their videos, do varying forms of content, and it also feels like you're having a conversation with them. Authenticity will build audiences, hoping to build that with my channel in 2024.

Your channel is everything I didn't know I needed right now... binge watched all your videos in one sitting. Can't wait for more content from you!

Finally some truth on this matter of retention. it only leads to crappy content if you ask me 🌺 I think it is soo strange that youtube rewards this kind of “noise”

I'm glad this popped up. I have felt the pull to capitalise on these techniques. It was refreshing to hear someone talk about it without glorifying it.

I love this. It's so discouraging to make a video that gets received well by those who stick through it, but still feel like you have to cut out really good stuff because of a lower retention rate. Hopefully we see this shift soon. Thanks for the video!

I love that- we aspire to make content that aspires to more than just killing boredom

Great video. I’m not a fan of the people who rely on the ‘retention editing style’ it’s just lifeless. I may sound old when I say this but when I was a kid the big draw to RU-vid was the creators personality and the story they would build with their videos and would rely on their personality. That’s why RU-vidrs like Wendigoon are so entertaining to me they don’t have crazy editing it’s just them talking about something that’s interesting.

I have lots of shorts with 70% retention, but it is more or less only a good indicator for me, if my music sucks or not. It is getting cut from the feed anyways, because RU-vid forces me to use a mobile device to get an actual half useful thumbnail.

my videos improved when I realized its just good story telling that will keep people wanting more. This also allows you to get out of the creative way and just make the video you want in writing before you press record. If you know what you need to shoot you'll have a better understanding of location scouting, thumbnail ideas, titles, all things that most put last and hope for the best.

You are completely right. The attention span of 3 seconds in combination with the time the brain needs to process what it's actually seeing. We are all getting disillusioned by seeing frames switching all the time.

As someone who works hard to craft my skill to product content on things I'm passionate about (travel) the way Garbage content always seem to grown in a viral manner is so disheartening. Thank you for giving me a small piece of my confidence back in how I try to structure & improve my videos. Its all too easy to see this garbage being pushed and think that what I'm making must then just be rubbish because its not growing like theirs.

Excellent insights. Another gigantic problem with retention editing is you get caught up into the game of have to constantly upload because the moment you stop no one cares about you, and they don't care about you because you've edited out your personality. I was thinking about this the other day.... I barely know anything about MrBeast and who he is. Contrast that with MKBD where he's sharing his life and personality and struggles with us all the time.

I pay for a youtube service that continually promotes retention. I learned more from this video than I ever retained from all of the information that I payed for. Thank you. This video is truly a gem. I have watched it several times and learn more everytime I watch it. Thank you. Story Story Story. Tell a story with audio and video.

I really need to keep hearing this. I know in my bones that retention editing sucks, but RU-vid so clearly incentivises me to do it that I forget sometimes. Thanks for an awesome video.

Awesome video. I completely agree. I've always hated the loud and obnoxious videos that offer terrible entertainment value but are for some reason extremely popular. I love creators like Melodysheep who tell stories through strikingly beautiful editing technqiues that clearly have an enormous about of thought and effort put into them.

Great points all around. Hopefully, the trend to storytelling over flash/bang editing will take a hold soon. The problem with flashy, fast paced editing is that you're less likely to retain the information shown in the video. It would require multiple views to absorb it all. Which, of course, benefits the marketing side of RU-vid. Anyway, thanks for this video.

Yes - there are so many aspects of social media algorithms that purport to be in the service of viewers but are really in the service of advertisers. Many aspects that focus on benefits to one stakeholder (in this case advertisers) while reducing benefits to the majority (in this case, the viewers). The mechanisms of systems like these often lead to a ‘race to the bottom’, and when you see what many people are watching on RU-vid, when you see what’s popular, it is clear that RU-vid is racing to the bottom at top speed.

Great video. I'm hoping people moving away from Retention editing and also going back to appreciating PERSONALITY in videos makes a comeback.

bro your editing style is amazing, this channel will hit 50k next year.

I'm so happy you have articulated this point in such a perfect way. It's crazy to me how people are using this retention metric as a badge of honour for great storytelling. I heard Seth Godin say recently 'trust is even more scarce than attention'. You may be able to keep peoples attention for 8 minutes, but the question is what are you doing with that opportunity. As you say, if there is zero substance and they feel nothing at the end of it, then all that attention is pointless. Thank you, great video.

I feel this 100% as a creator but I’m trying to keep my content away from that type and stick to telling a story, stick to creating what I ENJOY and not what I think other people want to see

You articulated this issue in such a great way. I've been having trouble with the idea that holding ones attention is evidence that people enjoy it... But it's more psychological than it is entertaining. This is such a helpful perspective. And it presents an opportunity for other types of creators. Appreciate you putting this together. 100% value.

I feel compelled to commenr. You are definitely right. Story telling is king 👑

Most lifestyle bloggers have understood this. Storytelling and emotions are the key to why they have such dedicated audiences with long watch time that they genuinely enjoy!

This video was posted a year ago and it’s the first time it came up on my feed. Good stuff!!!

Absolutely delightful. I have been jaded by content that seeks my retention rather than delivering quality. It is my goal to make philosophical music videos, but I am faced with the reality that my approach is too boring. I hung upside down and lit my beard on fire, but who cares if it didn't happen in 5 seconds?

I completely agree with everything you said and I as a creator I am trying to shift towards longer videos with less retention editing. Hope it works...

Super interesting ideas and you portrayed them super well! Great criticism of today's RU-vid. This is also why a lot of new RU-vidrs have started making different kinds of videos that are slower, more cinematic, and focusing on good story telling.

This video was actually cathartic to watch. I get hyper-irritated with this type of editing you're talking about. I start anticipating the cut after it becomes too predictable and rhythmic as the editor attempts to refresh the attention of the viewer. I think retention editing is used tastefully sometimes, but not often. It makes me think of when channels like Discovery Channel started using this editing technique. There was a distinct shift in the feel of their shows. They take it a step further and recap so much over and over to cater to people who are not paying attention but are still "watching." That being said, there are creators coming to the forefront who trust their audience wants to watch their content.

A great video. I get tempted to go towards catchy gimmicks, but then feel dirty. 😂 I’ll stick with stories and character and focus on telling better stories

Love the analysis you put out here. Was never much into watching retention edited stuff myself and always gravitate towards slower paced, intentional content. Where retention edits succeeds "beating" the algorithm, it subsequently also loses out on intention, substance and meaningful storytelling to slower paced content.

Great video my guy 😎👍🏻 thanks for being selfless and providing real feedback

I like your approach to how this kind of editing really affects the human brain. I've been trying to do a small amount of retention editing, but not so much that it affects the narrative of the story in my videos. I'm glad people are starting to look back toward story telling these days, it gives small creators like me hope that I can still grow.

i agree with this video completely, retention editing has RUINED my channel , with school work and a child to take care of at only 19 retention editing taking hours upon hours to finish it just isn’t plausible and frankly unfun to make, i’ve noticed that my story telling videos raked in more views im only a small itty bitty channel in a sea of content creators in my niche who have endless time i am glad to see so many people who agree keep up the great work and fighting the good fight

I actually wanted to test this out for my channel to see if I can keep retention high. The truth is I tried retention editing for a video which was about a very niche video game. The retention is extremely good. But I personally never liked that kind of editing, so I changed my style and the retention dropped back as usual. I prefer less retention in my video and make it much more digestible than making a video with high retention in mind, which will become very diabolical.

The most entertaining video I’ve watched in a while

Reminds me of my days in recruiting when you have the young kids in there and all you wanna do is tell them how much money they can make and stuff like that. Nobody wants to hear about the hard work behind it.

Brilliant video. I'm a new channel battling with the morality of making videos that have good retention scores vs making what I think is actually quality content. Unfortunately my success is at the mercy of the RU-vid algorithm, which only seems to care about retention. But you've given me hope that there's still an audience out there that wants something better than brain rot retention videos.

Love this video. I despise the copy and paste nature of RU-vid. It's getting as dull and formulaic as the music charts.

This is a topic i wouldve watched the entire vid, no matter how dull it couldve been.

Retention editing reminds me of when Shows used to always end episodes on Cliffhangers. I found myself always wondering what was next, but once I'm done with the series, it leaves no mark on my life. I wasn't touched by that work at all, just baited into dealing with it. Shows that had slower Narratives with more gradual buildup spread through several episodes...those ones tended to be stories I'd recall even years later in my life.

Fantastic video, and well said! P.S. I'm in the 100% retention club for this video. No tricks necessary 🙌

Working video editor here! I'm glad you said that retention editing should still be utilized but just to a lesser extent. Recently I've been seeing this topic and I was afraid the pendulum would overcorrect and swing fully in the other direction. There's a time and place for flashy editing and there's a time and place to slow down. Know the difference editors and make something entertaining.

Aaaaah, thank you for this! It just popped up on my recommended and I NEEDED to hear this so bad! I completely agree with what you're saying.. Just look at all the AI content and stuff as well. It's insane. Anyway, thank you. I felt fantastic after watching your vid :)

PLEASE MAKE MORE VIDEO LIKE THIS!

Incredible insight mate! Thanks for this you just earned my sub! I now have the words to describe what I hate about so many videos, RETENTION EDITING. I've been watching way more RU-vid than movies recently, but then I watched La La Land last night and wow... polar opposite style and was so beautiful and emotion inducing. Let's trend towards atmospheric and inspirational please

As a small youtuber this was an interesting video to watch. Especially as I delve more into retention and furthering my editing skills. You're editing and delivery in this video especially was brilliant. Thanks !

How am I only getting this recommendation now? This video is great!

Very well spoken and concise. Nice job with this. Excellent stuff 👏🏻

I've tried to cut my videos down to just the most zoom zoom stuff and I hate it, cutting down content is fine of course cause I drone on or something takes way too long to do (I do gaming) but I'm not cutting 15 hours of gameplay into 8 minutes and I don't have that high energy to give or fake anymore. Even if these quick success strats work, the REAL effort will come through long term.

This resonates with me alot. There will be tiktok videos in which I am actively aware that I am being strung along and it is so annoying. they will have their stupid little ebbs and flows to keep me engaged but the whole time I want to get to the point and leave the video Most of the metrics on youtube just suck the life out of the game and become all about numbers, its a very odd way to approach creation

I go back and forth on how many of these tricks I should use, but it goes against everything I feel like I should stand for which is quality over quantity. But when I work for a month on a video and only get 150 views, it makes me want to just give up. It's a cruel game sometimes.

Amazing video you also managed to retain me, without the loud flashy bangs

this describes my problem with modern content on yt pretty well, while yes it may keep peoples attention, its just plain boring, that's why I watch more old RU-vid videos then I do new ones, because of retention editing, the only new videos I watch are ones that either follow the old rules from back in 2016-2018, or ones that i just find actually entertaining.

How did this not go viral? For this niche ... I have no idea... I think the algorithm missed this one

I just stumbled across this and THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I have a new channel that's a cross between educational/info-tainment with off-the-beaten-path travel and I am finding myself editing to match this style and I absolutely hate it. I have no idea where to turn, and my footage is rather rare. It's baffling that this video is not 1 million views (or at least in the hundreds of thousands). I am now subscribed. Thanks for making this.

Great video! Glad the algo is pushing it now.

i found this GEM of a channel by accidentally finding your video analysis on the opening scene of the social network, and i am so grateful

Gg ez you just made an absolutely banger video that’s soooo true dude it’s genuinely sad what’s been done to society

Yesssss!!!! Pleaseeee change the meta!!!

I usually watch any video I click all the way. I don't click on just any old thing. The price is if it's not good...I avoid the creator passionately. Often leaving with a headache

I couldn't agree more. Thank you.

Thank you for this! I’m trying to establish a calming gardening vlog and I have been trying to research how to edit better. I have only found information that promotes the quick edit which doesn’t fit my goals.

Great video my guy, someone needed to say this. Sadly, I guess this is the name of the game with huge channels like MrBeast that’s like an industry and ”need” to maximize the views and retention. It’s sad tho that videos are more focused ok keep you watching than actually telling you something.

Incredible video that deserves so much more love. Subscribed.

“We have short attention spans.“ people say this a lot, but I’m not sure it’s true. People will binge watch a TV show for five hours a night. That’s not short attention span. We will give our attention to things that we value.

Awesome video! Everything you said is why I start now to enjoy watching podcast. It has zero edit, with zero cut, all conversations, all kind of blanks in it etc... And feels and is more natural. I may watch videos of MrBeast or others but then: 1. I feel exhausted after because of the non stop push of adrenaline, 2. At the end of the day the content of the video is not fulfilling.

yeah

So this is why most videos I get recommended very boring videos as I don't really get interested in overexcited crap Also I do not incorporate retention editing, i might have crap retention but my videos feel a lot more personal to the viewer and that is what I want ❤

This was an excellent video and I'm glad I clicked. I have too many thoughts about the subject to share, but I am too excited for this upcoming shift in videomaking on RU-vid - more storytelling, less attention grabbing.

Fantastic video and perspective! Thank you for sharing 🔥

watching those videos with "retention-based" editing is breaking my brain. thank god i'm not only one.

I'd like to tell y'all about bobby broccoli. dude makes hour long science history documentaries that he narrates, paces and visualizes so well that his videos will keep you entertained for the full hour.

You got me to watch the whole way The truth spoken here is very sad, hope the change comes soon I subbed

Thx for such insightful presentation, which takes the bet on the quality side, & potentially anticipate the following trend that might [not replace, but] find a growing room in the attention pool, that clearly needs a huge wipe & recovery. The interesting part for me, will be to always put my efforts in what I consider quality, as much as a viewer as a content creator, regardless the stoopid trends.

Very thought provoking and well worth my time. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I'll no longer feel bad about 20-40% retention, if anything proud of finding my audience

This was absolutely brilliant. My instinct also told me to stay away from this kind of editing. Thanks for confirming it!

I'm really impressed by your confidence to record facecam vids! ❤

Wow your video on this is BY FAR my fave so far - your insights, commentary and content here makes soooo much sense 👏

Soon, I hope to see an AI that summarizes videos to weed out the crap and show me if there's anything worthwhile.