retention-auditlisted

# Retention Audit - A retention graph is the story's autopsy: every drop is a moment the script broke a promise, every spike is a beat viewers rewound to see again. - Audit by **zones**, not by staring at the whole line — each zone has its own failure causes and its own fix. - Always diagnose **against a baseline**: the same channel's best comparable video (same length/format). Absolute numbers mislead; the gap between winner and loser is the finding. - Built on the six levers — see **storytelling-hooks**. Recap: 1. Curiosity gap · 2. Emotional mirror · 3. Conflict engine · 4. Relatability · 5. Pattern + surprise · 6. Three-act. ## When to Use - A video got clicks but died (decent CTR, low average view duration). - YouTube stopped recommending a video after its first test batch. - Comparing a flop against the channel's winners to find what broke. - Any niche; needs the retention graph (screenshot is fine), the script or beat outline, and ideally one winner's graph. ## Intake (Before Auditing) - Get: this video's retention graph + length, the script or beat list with rough timestamps, CTR and impressions if available, and a winner's graph from the same channel/format. - Also get the **thumbnail + title + the video's first frame** — the #1 retention killer lives in that triangle, not in the script. - Missing the winner baseline? Use the gray "typical retention" band as a weak substitute and say so. - **No graph, no audit.** Never estimate or invent retention numbers — ask