Video Edits
The 0.8-second hook test
Nine openings cut from the same footage, judged only on second one.
- Client
- Cadence Fitness
- Year
- 2026
- Role
- Edit, sound design, testing
- Stack
- Premiere Pro, After Effects, Meta Ads
- 61% 3-second retention, up from 31%
- 9 Hooks tested
- $0 New footage
01 The brief
A 45-second brand film nobody watched past four seconds. The client wanted a new shoot. They did not need one.
02 The brainstorm
Retention graphs are brutal reading: the drop was not gradual, it was a cliff at 0:03. That is not a content problem, that is an opening problem.
So before spending a cent on production, we cut nine different first-seconds from footage we already had — a face mid-sentence, a hard sound effect, a text-only frame, an unfinished action, a number. Everything after second three stayed identical across all nine, which is the only way to know what you are actually measuring.
The winner was the unfinished action: someone starting a movement, cut before it completes. People stay to see it land.
03 The build
Nine variants exported at the same length and codec, launched as a single ad set with even budget, three days, then read at equal impressions rather than equal spend.
04 The result
Three-second retention went from 31% to 61%. The full-film completion rate more than doubled off a change that cost an afternoon of editing and no new footage.
