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How MrBeast Solved YouTube — Transcript

by Aprilynne Alter · 2,860 words · 435 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Mr. Beast has solved YouTube retention,
0:02hitting the golden benchmark of 70%
0:04retention with every video he makes.
0:0670% that's what you need.
0:07But how does Mr. Beast reach this magic
0:09number? To find out, I spent a week
0:11closely studying as many Mr. Beast
0:13interviews, videos, and tweets as I
0:14could find, and I started to realize
0:16something. Buried across his content,
0:18Mr. Beast has revealed the exact
0:20framework he applies to each of his
0:21videos to get their retention so high,
0:23and it starts with the first 5 seconds
0:25of the video.
0:26I roast the hell out of people who like
0:27have boring first 5 seconds.
0:29Here's how Mr. Beast approaches this
0:30crucial time frame.
0:32Essentially, your title and thumbnail
0:33set expectations, and at the very
0:35beginning of the video to minimize drop
0:37off, you want to assure them that those
0:39expectations are being met.
0:41Mr. Beast is very clear that in the
0:42first 5 seconds of a video, you need to
0:44meet the expectations of your viewer.
0:46And to do that, he applies a two-step
0:48formula to the very beginning of every
0:50one of his videos. First, his first
0:52sentence matches his title. And second,
0:55his first shot matches his thumbnail.
0:57Let's take a look at an example. Check
0:58out the title and thumbnail for this
1:00video. In the thumbnail, there's a
1:01close-up of Mr. Beast with a view of an
1:03icy Antarctica behind him. The primary
1:05colors used are red, white, and blue.
1:07The title of the video is I survived 50
1:10hours in Antarctica. Now, let's take a
1:11look at the first 5 seconds of the
1:13video.
1:14We just landed in Antarctica and we're
1:15going to survive the next 50 hours here.
1:17Did you catch it? The very first shot
1:19closely resembles the thumbnail. There
1:21are snowy mountains, a blue sky, a
1:23close-up of Mr. Beast, and the primary
1:25colors are red, white, and blue. And Mr.
1:26Beast's first sentence
1:28We just landed in Antarctica and we're
1:29going to survive the next 50 hours here.
1:31very closely matches his title. Let's
1:33take a look at another example. This
1:35video is titled Ages 1 through 100 fight
1:37for $500,000. The thumbnail depicts a
1:40close-up of Mr. Beast in front of 100
1:42people in red jumpsuits. The main colors
1:44used here are red, white, and black.
1:46Now, let's take a look at the first 5
1:47seconds.
1:48Behind me are 100 people, and they range
1:51from the age 1 all the way through age
1:53100.
1:54The first shot matches the concept of
1:56the thumbnail. Mr. Beast close up with a
1:58massive people in red jumpsuits behind
2:00him. The next shot further illustrates
2:02the point with all 100 people lined up
2:04in order of age. And the first sentence
2:06Behind me are 100 people, and they range
2:09from the age 1 all the way through age
2:11100.
2:12matches the first part of the title. By
2:14using the first 5 seconds to immediately
2:16match the title and thumbnail, Mr. Beast
2:18minimizes drop-off from the very get-go.
2:20And if you're wondering about the second
2:22part of that title, don't worry, we'll
2:24get to that next. Because after applying
2:26his two-step formula to the first 5
2:28seconds of his video, Mr. Beast moves on
2:30to the first 20 seconds. And this is
2:32where it gets interesting. Because to
2:34keep the retention up throughout the
2:35entire hook, the first 20 seconds of
2:38each of Mr. Beast's videos contain the
2:40same three core elements. He provides
2:43context, he introduces the stakes or
2:45payoff, and he creates a curiosity gap.
2:48Let's hop back to the ages 1 through 100
2:50video to see each of these elements in
2:51action. We last left off his video after
2:54he showed 100 people. See if you can
2:56follow along.
2:56And I've trapped each of them in their
2:58very own glass cube. The last one to
3:00leave their cube is going to win half a
3:02million dollars. The challenge has
3:04officially begun. Let's see which age is
3:06the best.
3:07In the first 20 seconds, Mr. Beast has
3:09provided context about the video setup,
3:11has introduced a juicy payoff, which by
3:13the way finishes meeting the
3:14expectations from the title and
3:15thumbnail, and creates a curiosity gap
3:18that entices viewers to stick around and
3:19wait till the end to figure out which
3:21age wins. He does all of that in less
3:24than 20 seconds. But it doesn't stop
3:26there. Because in addition to those
3:28three core elements, there's actually
3:30one more secret element that Mr. Beast
3:32applies to every one of his hooks. He
3:34alludes to it here.
3:35So, at the very beginning, match the
3:37expectations, and then you want to
3:38exceed them. So, you want to assure
3:40people that what they clicked on is what
3:41they're getting, and then blow their
3:43mind and be like, "What? You're also
3:45getting even more."
3:46It's not enough to simply match the
3:48expectations set by the title and
3:49thumbnail. To get that retention through
3:51the roof, Mr. Beast exceeds those
3:53expectations. How does he do that? It's
3:55simple. He puts in effort.
3:57A lot of people though, they
3:58underestimate effort in videos. Viewers
4:00aren't stupid. They can tell when you,
4:02you know, half-ass, I don't know if I'm
4:04allowed to curse, a video, or if you
4:06like really put in effort. And like if
4:08they can tell you're putting in a lot of
4:09effort.
4:10Beast talks about effort, what he's
4:11really doing is leveraging something
4:13called input bias, which is the idea
4:15that the more input we put into
4:16something, whether that be time or
4:18energy or cost, the more we'll value it.
4:20As an example of input bias, if we pay
4:23$50 for a bottle of wine, we'll value
4:25that more than if we had paid $20 for
4:27the same bottle of wine. And leveraging
4:30this bias is the special sauce that
4:32makes Mr. Beast's hooks so retentive. If
4:35we revisit the first 20 seconds of the
4:37Ages 1 Through 100 video, we can see
4:39input bias being leveraged starting
4:41here. This shot is masterful. In one
4:44glance, you instantly get the sense that
4:46an immense amount of time, effort, and
4:48money has gone into the making of this
4:49video. The next few seconds this effect,
4:52showing the full magnitude of all the
4:54effort that went into the video. This is
4:56how Mr. Beast not only meets the
4:57expectation that 100 people will fight
4:59for 500k, but exceeds that expectation
5:02by showing how much work was put into
5:04this idea. Now, I know what you're
5:05probably thinking. How can you leverage
5:07input bias when you don't have a Mr.
5:09Beast budget? Well, you don't need a
5:11huge warehouse or a flashy set to
5:13trigger input bias. I did it in the
5:16beginning of this video. Did you catch
5:17it? To find out, I spent a week closely
5:20studying as many Mr. Beast interviews,
5:21videos, and tweets as I could find. At
5:23the beginning of this video, I
5:24specifically mentioned how much time I
5:27spent researching for this video. My
5:28editing shows a high degree of effort as
5:30well. As a result, you as a viewer
5:32hopefully started to value my video more
5:35because you could tell how much work I
5:36put into it. The other elements of Mr.
5:38Beast's hooks aren't exclusive to Mr.
5:40Beast style videos, either. See if you
5:43can spot them in the hook to this video.
5:45Mr. Beast has solved YouTube retention,
5:47hitting the golden benchmark of 70%
5:49retention with every video he makes.
5:5170% that's what you need.
5:52But how does Mr. Beast reach this magic
5:54number? To find out, I spent a week
5:56closely studying as many Mr. Beast
5:58interviews, videos, and tweets as I
5:59could find, and I started to realize
6:01something. Buried across his content,
6:03Mr. Beast has revealed the exact
6:05framework he applies to each of his
6:06videos to get their retention so high,
6:08and it starts with the first 5 seconds
6:10of the video. Now, my hook is nowhere
6:13near perfect, and it makes one big
6:15mistake that Mr. Beast is always careful
6:17to avoid. Each of his intros is always
6:20no longer than 20 seconds long. Mr.
6:22Beast knows that the largest drop-off
6:24happens during the hook, so he jumps
6:26into the action as soon as possible. In
6:28his ages 1 through 100 video, he says
6:31The challenge has officially begun.
6:33Let's see which age is the best.
6:35at the 12-second mark. In his video
6:37comparing the $1 yacht to the $1 yacht,
6:40his experience of the $1 yacht starts at
6:42the 18-second mark. For Mr. Beast,
6:45jumping into the action usually means
6:47starting the first challenge or
6:48experience. For a video like mine, it
6:51could mean jumping into the first point.
6:53Regardless, Mr. Beast starts the body of
6:55his video no later than 20 seconds in,
6:58because he knows that the sooner the
7:00retention curve starts to level off, the
7:02better. The question then becomes, how
7:04do you keep their attention curve level?
7:06What is Mr. Beast's secret to retention
7:09curves that look like this versus the
7:10steadily declining line that so many of
7:13us are familiar with? As it turns out,
7:15it's not one secret, it's three, and it
7:17starts with visual variety. When it
7:19comes to visuals, Mr. Beast is quite
7:21clear where he stands.
7:22If I just talk to a camera for 10
7:24seconds without a cut, like a lot of
7:26people will just like get bored or
7:27they'll lose interest.
7:28To avoid this, Mr. Beast maintains
7:30visual variety with a cut at least every
7:333 to 5 seconds to break things up. One
7:35of the best examples of this is in his
7:37Antarctic survival video. Take a look at
7:39the timing of his cuts during this clip.
7:42Oh my gosh. Oh,
7:45don't slip. Oh, this is wild. I'm so
7:47terrified. There's a drop to my right.
7:49If I fall backwards, I roll for
7:522,000 ft.
7:55Jimmy.
7:55What?
7:56We're 30 hours in.
7:57Oh, yes.
7:58This is a This is a huge cliff. No joke
8:01No joking. If we fall down there, we
8:03die.
8:03Yeah, 100%.
8:04The process of hiking a mountain could
8:06have easily become quite boring. But by
8:09using eight different shots within 20
8:11seconds of footage, Mr. Beast is able to
8:13hold your attention throughout the
8:14entire process of climbing a mountain.
8:17And you don't need expensive drones or
8:19multiple cameramen to pull this off. If
8:21you do talking head of videos, could you
8:22put another camera at an angle and then
8:24switch between the two to add variety.
8:26Alternatively, if you're like me and are
8:28too broke to afford two cameras, you can
8:30incorporate different levels of scale,
8:31zooming in and out in between clips to
8:34keep things visually dynamic. But even
8:36the most frequent changes in camera
8:38angles still can't make walking in a
8:40steep line interesting forever.
8:42Attention spans are shorter than they've
8:43ever been, a fact that Mr. Beast is
8:45quite aware of.
8:47It's very hard with a single storyline,
8:48if you're doing like a double-digit
8:50minute video, to just have that one
8:52thing grip their entire attention
8:54throughout the whole video and have
8:55payoff at the end.
8:56And that's where secret number two comes
8:58in, consistent contrast. Instead of an
9:01entire 12-minute video featuring an
9:03Antarctic trek, Mr. Beast breaks things
9:06up using contrast. From the moment Mr.
9:08Beast sets off on his hike, a side story
9:11is introduced.
9:12Now, operation hole. Come on.
9:15For the duration of the hike, to break
9:17up stretches of Mr. Beast's mountain
9:19journey, the viewer is periodically
9:20taken back to base camp to see the boys
9:23digging a hole. The contrast between the
9:25intensity of a frigid climb and the
9:27tomfoolery of the base camp shenanigans
9:29prevents the snowy footage from ever
9:31getting stale. And before you start
9:33thinking, "But side stories don't work
9:35for my particular style of video." There
9:37are other ways to incorporate contrast.
9:39For a talking head video like this one,
9:41I try to do this by blending footage of
9:43me talking with clips from Mr. Beast's
9:45videos or interviews. Hopefully, that
9:47contrast prevents you from getting too
9:49bored of my talking head. Now, is it
9:51working?
9:52I hope so. And while visual variety and
9:55consistent contrast are integral
9:57components of Mr. Beast's videos, the
9:59final secret to the body of his videos
10:01is the most retentive of them all. The
10:03final secret is good pacing. This is a
10:06concept often stated broadly, but rarely
10:09seen in detail. So, let's get real
10:11specific. Most videos look like this. At
10:14the beginning of the video, there's high
10:16energy from your hook. At the end of the
10:17video, there's high energy from your
10:19payoff. But, this middle bit is low
10:21energy in comparison, steadily declining
10:23in energy until the boost from the
10:25payoff at the end. In comparison, Mr.
10:27Beast's videos look like this, with
10:29frequent cycles of high and low energy.
10:31What do I mean by high and low energy?
10:33It depends on the video. In Mr. Beast's
10:35$1 versus $1 billion yacht video, each
10:38cycle is the experience of a new tier of
10:41yacht. The cycle starts with the
10:42high-energy exciting introduction of the
10:44new yacht, followed by the lower energy
10:46of the act of exploring the yacht,
10:48followed by a new cycle with a new
10:50exciting yacht introduction. This keeps
10:52the pacing up throughout the entire
10:54duration of the video, right up until
10:56the final high-energy payoff of the
10:58billion-dollar yacht at the end. Each of
11:00Mr. Beast's cycles tends to be between
11:02two to four minutes long from start to
11:04finish, with the shorter cycles towards
11:06the front of the video, and the longer
11:07cycles towards the back of the video.
11:09The slower, more emotional parts of Mr.
11:11Beast's videos are reserved for the last
11:1320% of his videos, with the beginning
11:16allocated for lighter content. And of
11:18course, the concept of energy cycling
11:20for good pacing is not unique to Mr.
11:23Beast's style videos. For this video,
11:25each new retention tactic I mentioned
11:27starts a new cycle, with the cycle
11:29starting with the high-energy
11:30introduction of a new tactic, followed
11:32by the lower energy of explaining and
11:34giving examples followed by a new cycle
11:36with a new tactic. The use of energy
11:38cycling keeps Mr. Beast's retention as
11:40flat as possible until the very end of
11:43his video. And when it comes to those
11:44final seconds, well, they're more
11:46important than most people give them
11:48credit for. Most people tend to see long
11:50drop-offs at the end of their videos,
11:52which hurts their overall retention. But
11:53Mr. Beast keeps his retention up right
11:56until his final ad read. To do this, he
11:58applies a two-part equation. First, he
12:01reveals a big payoff. And second, he
12:02makes sure to end the videos on a high
12:04note, whether that be a dramatic,
12:06wholesome, or funny. To see this in
12:07action, check out the end of the ages 1
12:09through 100 video.
12:11I don't think it's in there. I think I'm
12:12going to pick my case.
12:14You're going to keep this? Locked in?
12:16All right, Joe, what is inside your
12:18briefcase?
12:27Oh my
12:29I knew it.
12:32Oh, no.
12:33Bro,
12:35you told her it was in there.
12:37You This man literally said he had it.
12:39Oh my gosh, what a crazy play. What is
12:41wrong with you?
12:44He told the truth and he got it. We said
12:46all along good guys can't win.
12:48So it pays off to be honest.
12:52Even though you didn't win, we still
12:53want to give you $10,000 and your family
12:55a trip to Disneyland to make losing a
12:57little better.
12:58You're still going to go.
13:00Who took items
13:01Mr. Beast ends with an ad read because
13:02he's contractually obligated to do so.
13:04But regardless, you're still left with
13:05the high of the big half a
13:07million-dollar payoff and the
13:09wholesomeness of the loser still being
13:11gifted $10,000 and a trip to Disneyland.
13:14Of course, you don't need to shell out
13:15thousands of dollars in each of your
13:16videos. But to ensure your viewers leave
13:19your videos wanting to come back for
13:20more, end on a high note.
13:22You'd think that would be the end,
13:24right? But no, despite being so
13:26intentional about every component of the
13:27video, the first five seconds, the first
13:2920, to the body, to the very end, Mr.
13:32Beast still has one final secret he
13:33applies to hit that 70% retention. After
13:37the entire video is made, start to
13:39finish, Mr. Beast will go back and cut
13:41out every dull moment. How does he
13:43identify these dull moments? Simple.
13:45He'll have 10 friends roast his videos,
13:48and he'll watch people watch his videos.
13:50He trusts his friends to not hold back
13:52when shelling out criticism. And when
13:54watching people watch his videos, he
13:56looks specifically for when they get
13:57bored or reach for their phones. He'll
13:59go back to those moments in his videos
14:01and either rework them or cut them
14:03completely. And that's how Mr. Beast
14:05solved retention. Here's the full guide
14:07to Mr. Beast's retention solution. And
14:09don't forget to subscribe.

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