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Guerdon: The Retention Technique Successful YouTubers Never Tell You About (thread)

Better Known as "Dopamine Hits" in YouTube, Guerdon Means to give a Reward or Compensation But What Does Compensation, Rewards and Dopamine Have To Do with YouTube videos? And How Can You Use it To Get Higher Retention? It Boils Down To 5 Actionable Pieces of Advice

1. Understanding Dopamine Dopamine ISNT the "Pleasure Chemical", it links good feelings with a urge to do them again For Example: You Click a Video > You Enjoy The Video > Dopamine is Realised > You Link Clicking a Video with Enjoyment THEREFORE You Click and Watch More Videos

This is why I would Guess the Lead of Recommendations and The Homepage Todd (@.hitsman) pushes creators to focus on viewer satisfaction and the Viewer over the "Algorithm" And why Mr Beast Simplifies down Success on YouTube as "just make good videos" But How Do You Do This?

By Using The Hook Model External Trigger: Thumbnail Is Shown On Recommendations Action: The Viewer Clicks Reward: The Viewer Enjoys The Video Investment: The Viewer Invests More Time Into the Video Internal Trigger: Dopamine is Realised Creating a Inner Desire For more

YouTube Promotes content based on this Model through 3 main metrics. Action = Clicking on the Thumbnail (*CTR*) Reward = Enjoying Watching the Video (*AVD*) The Hook Model = Watching More Videos (*Session Time*) This is because More Time on YouTube = More Money FOR YouTube

Now You Understand WHY you Need to Reward Viewers, Let's focus on HOW you can Reward Your Viewers, with Examples of how the top creators do it! What Was Even More Surprising With These Examples was how using the Hook Model in Manipulative Ways decreases views in the Long Run...

2. Compensation for the viewer On YouTube, Your Viewers Invest Their Time into your Product. This means you should Compensate their time with Value. So When A Viewer Clicks on Your Video, Compensate them for their time ASAP The Top Creators usually deliver this in under 15s

This is the reason why a Hook in a video is super important, it rewards the viewer for clicking on the video and keeps them engaged in the content This is why Mr Beast Always has a Massive Spectacle in his intros which I like to call a Twist. Twist = Something Unique and Cool

Similarly, one of my favourite creators @.airrack on average in his last 10 videos delivered reward in the first 8.2 seconds So having a spectacle, joke or anything that makes the viewer feel goose bumps within the first 10 seconds is important as a thank you for clicking :]

3. Reward The Viewer For Staying If the viewer has stayed past your intro, reward them! But how do you reward the viewer for watching? A. One of them is a *Tribal Reward.* This based in tribal feelings like sex, humour and belonging. This appeal to our more primitive emotions

B. Another is a *Progressive Reward.* This is based on progression of the video. Humans are hard wired to feel good after progress is made, like how you feel good after doing chores The viewers need to work for their rewards... but they don't know they WANT to work for it!

C. Another is the *WOW Reward*. This is what's known more commonly as a spectacle. But calling it a spectacle dumbs down the power of the WOW factor. This Wow reward is not only limited to spectacle, but to any form of going above and beyond for your viewer For example...

@.Chr1sDaC0w outlier video not only used spectacle, retention techniques like gamification and foreshadowing but used the Wow Factor in his audio design This one is much harder to quantify and explain, but it makes the viewer go "Wow, I can't believe that was possible"

D. Another example is realising built up tension. Tension engages us into the content making viewers less likely to leave but realising tension realises dopamine It's important to realise tension as well as build it as if you build and build it will strain the audience too much

This means most YouTube videos have the storytelling structure of a Fichtean Curve with a 10 second falling action In simple terms, The Videos have the structure of: Hook > Build up > Reward > Re-Hook > Build Up > Pay off > Video Ends

E. This is one I stole from a friend (@.tobylejeune) having what's called candy in the video can reward superfans This is a hidden joke / Easter egg for devoted fans to find that makes them feel like insiders @.ryantrahan loves to add this (see example below)

4. The Payoff This one a lot of people over look and forget about... it's the final moments of your video This is where you reward your viewers for investing their time into your video. This is known as the climax or conclusion,

It's important that the payoff of a video is good as that's what the viewer remembers and leaves a impact Having a weak ending can create an association of boring conclusions with your videos And if you ask my girlfriend, she hates subpar deliveries

Psychologically, humans have a bias to remember the peak and end of a experience, which is known as the peak end rule This means that the end of your videos will have a lasting effect on the viewer So it's important to have a great payoff, but how do you make a great payoff?

Audio ✅ Music can make or break a payoff! It's best to have music that has a strong bridge to chorus to emphasise a payoff Change ✅ Without a change in the story or progression, then the payoff will be boring! This is why following a story circle can help improve a payoff

Emotion ✅ If I don't feel anything at the end of a video, it's not a good payoff. Think simple when it comes to emotions, I use the inside out characters as a checklist Outrageous ✅ A cheeky Twist in the story that we didn't expect leads to a better payoff

Conclusion ✅ The story comes to a satisfying end Bookend ✅ Having the first and last scene match can feel satisfying for the viewer Deliver on the Build Up ✅ If you character takes of there shoes in the first scene, have a scene where there's broken glass

5. Make (feel) good content If you really want to get people's attentions and keep it, make them feel good! There's a reason why commentary channels died where as Mr Beast, Ryan Trahan and Airrack are thriving! Negativity may get more clicks, but positivity builds a audience

And Talking of building a community, I wanna announce I will NEVER be making a course. I do this Twitter cause I find it fun lol What I find fun is sharing information... and...

COMPETITION BABY! Recently @tobylejeune GLOATED that he had more followers then me so please if you found this useful: 1. Follow me @LowKeyJude To CRUSH all other Twitter Strategist 2. Like The First Tweet So This Reaches More People! LETS TAKE DOWN TOBY TOGETHER #LowKeyBetter

Since there's a lot of new people, check out these free resources that go in depth on how to make good videos How to get better retention: docs.google.com/presentation/d/1U1Y8HyeWv8ppJP8Tmx7RNFHS5bNXpYmdz-Z1GWlxcZg/edit?usp=sharing A Breakdown on how a YouTuber got 1 million subs in 1 year docs.google.com/presentation/d/1M49incd2r30pKPF7OWJjAOahdgIf_4LoO3jDu5ZYQYM/edit?usp=sharing