Why your Reels lose people in three seconds

We spent a month reading retention graphs across 40 client accounts. The shape was almost always the same: a cliff between the second and fourth second, then a long flat tail of the people who stayed. Fix the cliff and everything after it gets cheaper — reach, leads, all of it.

1. The first frame explains nothing

A wide shot of your shopfront tells a stranger nothing about why they should care. Open on the thing that changed — the plate landing, the door opening, the before. Your first frame is a headline, not an establishing shot.

2. The audio starts after the visual

Half a second of silence reads as a mistake, and people scroll on reflex. Start the sound before the cut lands, and put your first spoken words inside the first second — not after a logo sting.

3. Nothing moves

Static talking heads lose to movement every time. A slow push in, a hand entering frame, steam rising — small motion is enough to hold a thumb for another beat.

Retention isn’t an editing problem. It’s a decision you make before you press record.

On the next shoot, film three different openers for every clip you plan. It costs ninety seconds and it gives the edit somewhere to go when the first version flops — which it sometimes will, even for us.