# Retention

> The share of a video viewers actually watch — the metric short-form algorithms reward most.

*Metrics*

*Also known as: audience retention, watch-through rate*

Canonical: https://novaclipper.com/glossary/retention

Retention measures how much of a video the average viewer watches before dropping off, usually shown as a curve from 0–100%. It is the signal TikTok, Reels, and Shorts lean on hardest: a clip that holds attention gets pushed to more people, while one that loses viewers early stalls.

Retention is won at the hook and held through pacing — tight cuts, captions, b-roll, and removing dead air. When you study a retention graph, every steep drop marks a moment to cut tighter or rewrite, and every flat stretch is a pattern worth repeating.

## Related

- [Best length for short-form](https://novaclipper.com/blog/best-length-for-short-form-video)
- [Auto-captions for retention](https://novaclipper.com/blog/how-to-add-captions-to-videos-automatically)

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