Glossary: Viral Short-Form Video

Every key term from the course, in plain English. When a lesson says a word you don't know, it lives here.

Retention Gravity

The principle that the feed promotes videos people finish. Watch-through rate is the gravity that pulls a video to more viewers.

Hook

The opening 1–3 seconds. Must create an open loop — a question, a stake, a surprise — that only watching resolves.

Open loop

A promise made but not yet kept. 'The mistake costing you $500/month' opens a loop; the payoff closes it.

The Rounds

The idea that a video gets shown in expanding rounds of viewers — it must win each round's retention to reach the next.

The Gap

The distance between what the viewer knows and what they want to know. Bigger gap, stronger pull to keep watching.

Payoff Arc

The structure: promise → build → payoff. Every viral short runs this arc, whether the creator knows it or not.

Loopback Ending

An ending that connects back to the opening, making rewatch feel natural. Rewatches count as retention.

Retention edit

Cutting every frame that doesn't earn its place: dead air, filler words, repeated points, slow transitions.

Pattern interrupt

Breaking the viewer's scroll rhythm in the first second — movement, a surprising statement, an unusual visual.

Share trigger

The psychological reason someone shares: identity ('this is so me'), usefulness, emotion, or status.

The Format

A repeatable video template — same structure, new topic each time. Formats are what make virality repeatable instead of lucky.

Watch-through rate

The percentage of viewers who watch to the end. The single most important metric for short-form distribution.

Doubling down

When a format works, making more of it immediately — same structure, new angles — while the feed favors it.