The Secret Strategy Creators Use to Keep You Watching for Hours

[00:00] I analyzed hundreds of viral short-form videos to figure out what their secret was that

[00:03] made them go viral in hopes that I could teach you their secret. After months

[00:07] of research, I discovered that 99.99999% of the videos that my team and I analyzed,

[00:12] they all used one strategy that no one else is talking about. So I'm going

[00:16] to teach it to you today. Let's see if you could identify that strategy. Watch

[00:20] just the first three seconds of these three videos to see if you could catch

[00:23] what they all have in common.

[00:33] Any guesses? The strategy we're going to

[00:39] dissect today is something every creator could benefit from mastering, and that's implementing something that

[00:44] I call hook layering, which by the way, can I just coin that term here?

[00:48] Trademark it something? Because before my viral shorts deep dive video that I did, I

[00:53] hadn't heard this term anywhere else. Just saying. Now first, this might sound familiar to

[00:57] those of you who have like scoured the internet for all sorts of how to

[01:01] go viral content tips. I mean, how many of you have heard the tip Use

[01:05] a hook in the beginning of your video to capture attention. While hook layering is

[01:10] similar to the concept of hooking somebody in in the first few seconds, it's actually

[01:14] a little bit more complicated than what most people are teaching. Because really, the best

[01:19] of the best content creators are using more than just one hook in their videos

[01:23] to capture your attention. So hook layering is when you layer multiple hooks in the

[01:28] first few seconds of your video. And by a few seconds, I literally mean like

[01:31] the first three seconds, four seconds max. only am I going to teach you how

[01:36] to do this in this video, but I'll also give you a few hook layering

[01:40] formulas that you can try in your next video. So why do you even need

[01:45] a hook at all with your videos? If you're an aspiring content creator and you

[01:49] want to grow creating short form video content, you are competing against not only

[01:55] millions of other people posting every single day, but you're also competing against people's

[02:01] attention spans. An average viewer will decide whether or not they want to keep watching

[02:05] a video within the first three seconds of that video playing. And if you're not

[02:09] taking the time to figure out how you can stop their scroll or pique their

[02:13] interest enough in those first few seconds, that's probably why you're stuck at that 200

[02:18] jail view. The first few seconds of your video are the most important. And if

[02:23] you don't recognize that, or if you don't take that seriously, unfortunately, you might spend

[02:28] the rest of your content creator career blaming an algorithm for something that you actually

[02:33] had control of the entire time. So how can you use hook layering? The most

[02:39] common and simple use of hook layering that we discovered when doing our deep dive

[02:43] analyzing viral videos is layering three different types of hooks together. And those three hooks

[02:49] are text on screen, an audible hook, and a visual hook. The text hook is

[02:54] simply the text that appears on the video in the first few seconds to capture

[02:59] somebody's attention. This text could be used in a variety of ways. It could be

[03:02] used to create immediate relatability to the viewer, communicate, hey, this is what you will

[03:07] gain by watching this video, or even just explaining what your video is about. An

[03:12] audible hook is what the viewer will hear. in the first few seconds of your

[03:17] video to capture their attention. This is typically either a trending audio that they recognize,

[03:23] a catchy audio, or even something that you verbally say, whether it's voiceover or talking

[03:29] to the camera, that will capture their attention. And then the visual hook is simply

[03:33] the first shot that they see. What's happening in the video itself in those first

[03:38] few seconds that will capture someone's attention. For this visual hook, typically we saw

[03:43] that creating a movement right away in the beginning was a very common way to

[03:48] hook somebody's attention. Two other ways we saw were adding multiple cuts, changing shots

[03:53] within those first few seconds, or starting with an aesthetic shot, something that's visually

[03:59] appealing. Let's take a look at an example together, paying attention to the text hook,

[04:05] audible hook, and visual hooks. For text, the text in this video says, not

[04:10] one or two, but five new transitions. So the viewer knows when they see this,

[04:15] they'll learn at least five different transitions to create in a video. The visual is

[04:19] matching the text. So the text is promising transitions. The visual is showing those transitions.

[04:25] You have movement from the very beginning, her hands moving, and of course, a cool

[04:29] effect or transition happening. So there's kind of two visual elements at play. And then

[04:33] for Audible, what the viewer hears, this was a trending audio at the time, and

[04:38] this creator gets bonus points because the visual is actually matching the audio. If

[04:44] you're able to edit your videos to the rhythm of the audio that is playing

[04:49] in the background, it just adds that much more satisfaction to the viewer. It'll feel

[04:54] way more in sync, way more cohesive, and that satisfaction will be peaked. So we

[04:59] add text, visual, and audible. That's entry-level hook layering. For you

[05:05] to implement this, Every time you post, all you have to do is ask yourself

[05:09] these three questions. What will the viewer read? What will they see?

[05:15] And what will they hear that will capture their attention? If you can identify each

[05:19] of those three things with your video and you're intentional with each of those three

[05:24] things before you post your video, that video has so much more chances to getting

[05:29] traction because you're hitting all three layers of that simple hook layering. Now, before going

[05:35] over some other hook layering formulas that you could test out in your next video

[05:39] to help you with the visual hook of your video, I want to tell you

[05:43] about today's sponsor because it could also be a hack that you could use to

[05:47] help step up your visual and aesthetic video game. If you're a longtime subscriber, you

[05:52] know who I'm about to talk about because I've been recommending them here on my

[05:55] channel since 2021. And that is one of my favorite website resources, Storyblocks.

[06:01] Storyblocks is a stock media subscription service with unlimited downloads of diverse, high-quality media for

[06:07] one predictable subscription cost. They have everything that you need to create high-quality video with

[06:12] over a million 4K HD footage, templates, music, sound effects, images, and so much more.

[06:19] For me, the thing that I love the most about having access to Storyblocks is

[06:22] how it streamlines your workflow. So for me, instead of having to spend a bunch

[06:26] of time filming all these extra things, extra shots, extra B-roll, I get to save

[06:31] time and enhance the overall look of my videos by using their stock footage with

[06:36] complete ease. Now I use them the most with my YouTube videos, like all the

[06:41] B-roll that you've seen in this video so far, Storyblocks. But if you're looking for

[06:45] clips to add to your short-form videos, what I like to do is when I'm

[06:48] searching for a specific type of B-roll or footage, I'll search for that term, and

[06:53] then I'll adjust the search filters to 4K and 30 frames per second. That way,

[06:57] if the video is horizontal, I could still add it to my vertical video and

[07:02] zoom in without compromising the quality of the shot. The best part is anything that

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[07:22] slash Modern Millie, or click the link in the description. Now I wanna share with

[07:26] you two hook layering formulas that you could try in your next video. These formulas

[07:31] were common layering strategies that we saw multiple videos using when we did our deep

[07:37] dive analyzing viral videos. So formula number one is a four step formula.

[07:43] What you're going to do is you're going to start with the result, make sure

[07:46] there's text on screen, change your shot at least one time in the first three

[07:51] seconds, and lean into a trend. We're gonna look at an example together, but to

[07:56] kind of break each of these down, when starting with the result, you're going to

[08:01] start with the result of your video. So if you're making a smoothie or you're

[08:03] like, with me you show the final result that the person will see when they

[08:08] watch the whole video so you start with the end result if you're doing a

[08:12] get ready with me don't start with no makeup start the get ready with me

[08:16] with the full face saying like get ready with me for blah blah blah blah

[08:19] so you're starting with the end result second make sure there's text on screen explaining

[08:23] what the video is about thirdly you're changing shots at least once in the first

[08:27] three seconds and then for leaning into a trend this could either be a trending

[08:31] topic at that time a trending video idea at the or even a trending audio.

[08:36] So let's take a look at this example together. Slave bells ring. Are you

[08:42] listening? As you can see, this creator, they're starting with the end result. They're starting

[08:46] with the latte that you will learn to make by the end of the video.

[08:49] And the text on screen is matching what you will gain by the end of

[08:53] the video. This creator changes shots multiple times in those first few seconds. You see

[08:57] it's like back to back three to four different cuts happening relatively quickly. And this

[09:02] creator leaned into two trends. One is a topical trend. So at this time, this

[09:08] video is posted. The holidays are a trending topic. They posted this a month

[09:14] before Christmas, which gives it plenty of time to ride the holiday trend, and of

[09:18] course, a trending audio. That is just one formula that you can try to implement

[09:22] in your next video. If you've learned something new so far, be sure to like

[09:25] this video so YouTube can show it to other creators like yourself that might need

[09:29] these tips. If you learn two new things by the end of this video, consider

[09:32] subscribing because it's a free way to support my channel. It allows me to continue

[09:37] to make weekly content like this for you. Let's break down our formula number two.

[09:41] This is going to be a five step process. Step one, start with a question.

[09:46] Two, make sure text is on screen. Three, incorporate some sort of quick

[09:52] movement. Four, change your shot at least once in those first few seconds. And five,

[09:57] add trending music to the background of your video. This formula is best fit for

[10:01] if you're talking to the camera or doing a voiceover and then layering that with

[10:05] background trending music. Let's take a look at an example together. Is it faster to

[10:10] use your left foot or your right foot when touching first base? Growing up, I

[10:13] was always told right foot. With this example, the creator verbally starts with the questions.

[10:17] They ask the question as the audible hook and the text on screen is like

[10:22] the simplified, short, quick, easy to read version of that question. Now, when it comes

[10:27] to incorporating movement, there's actually two things happening here that I think the creator does

[10:33] really well. So the first obvious movement is they're running. towards the camera. That is

[10:38] definitely going to capture somebody's attention. But the second less obvious movement, if you play

[10:42] back the video to the very first frame, the very first shot, you notice the

[10:46] video actually starts like zoomed in on the creator's face. So there was a zoom

[10:51] effect that was added in post or while they were editing to have kind of

[10:56] like two contrasting movements happening. So not only is he running towards the camera, but

[11:00] the camera's also like zooming out and away from the creator at the same time.

[11:04] So it creates a really cool contrast of movement happening. So zoom effects in editing

[11:10] can be considered a movement. This creator does cut at least once in those first

[11:15] few seconds, and they have a trending music as the backtrack, not overpowering the

[11:21] voice too much, but because they use a trending audio, it helps boost that video's

[11:25] visibility. Hook layering is something that totally fascinates me, and I could just talk about

[11:31] it in all the different formulas for forever. So if it's something that fascinates you

[11:35] as well, and you want to learn more advanced strategies for how you as a

[11:40] creator could finally grow to 100,000 followers, no matter what platform you're on, Instagram, YouTube,

[11:44] TikTok, I do have a one hour masterclass that I'll link down below. I've been

[11:50] fortunate enough to be able to work with hundreds of content creators, helping them blow

[11:54] up on social media and turn content creation into their full-time job. And a lot

[11:57] of the mindset shifts and strategy adjustments that they had to make are things that

[12:02] I'm teaching in this masterclass. So make sure you save your seat for that if

[12:06] you're serious about growing as a content creator and you want to learn some more

[12:10] advanced practices. And if you want to see more about what I discovered when doing

[12:15] my deep dive analyzing viral short-form videos, be sure to watch this video next. Thank

[12:20] you so much for watching and I will see you in the next one. Follow

[12:22] your joy. Bye.