The biggest leverage point of Google is how easy it is to scale in broad audiences. Leverage the Google algorithm through the power of an amazing opening scene and brilliant hook that powerfully calls out your audiences and catches their attention.
When launch campaigns, target broad audiences. The first 5 seconds of the ad is the most important. The visual element of the opening scene is the first order of importance as there is a big percentage (%) of people who may be watching on their mobile device (iPhone) with the sound muted.
YouTube Opening Scene & Creative Video Hook Strategy
Within the first 5 seconds, try 2 different scenes:
- 1st Scene: Extravagant “out there” and implements the most/all of the psychological elements
- 2nd Scene: More basic scene realistic scene that allows the user to feel the momentum of the video prior to being able to skip.
The opening scene is the most important part of the video. The most important thing to know is that the opening scene must be a pattern interrupt.
What is Pattern Interrupt?
Pattern interrupt is a way to alter a person’s mental, emotional, or behavioral state to break their typical habits. Think of it as an unexpected act that jolts them into another state of mind.
The goal is to break the user out of the perception of watching a normal video. If the user skips the first 5 seconds, no matter how great the script is, the user will bypass and not watch the remainder of the video.
How To Ensure that YouTube Opening Scene is Not Good but GREAT?
We achieve this by being out of the ordinary, and have an opening scene that breaks the pattern of their video viewing. The can be achieved by having a scene that is
- Gross
- Curiosity provoking Imagery with an Open Loop
- Scientific
If the opening scene contains all 3, it can be a powerful anchor in the visitor’s mind to anchor them to the video and creates a lot of curiosity. One important aspect is the open loop. If the video is confusing and the visitor doesn’t quite understand what is happening, the visitor will be mentally and subconsciously invested to figure out what the video is going to be about.
The opening scene is then paired with a script and hook.
These elements when paired together create a very abrupt and curiosity provoking sense of intrigue.
It should make you think:
“Wow what is that?”
or
“Wow this is weird and interesting, I need to know what this is”
Example of Great YouTube Opening Scenes Videos
The opening scene can be realistic or stock footage, or also cartoony and vectorized. The goal is to captivate and capture attention.
Example #1: Dental and tooth implants and showing vectorized receding gums in the mouth. An example opening line is “There’s a new powerful and natural method to regrow teeth” with an image of a person’s mouth with black gums and missing teeth. People without dental issues will likely skip the ad and this will train Youtube’s algorithm to exclude them from audience targeting. Dental implants are a trending topic for search feed monetization and search arbitrage campaigns.
Example #2: Diabetes or weight loss stock footage image showing a man and woman’s leg with colored highlights on the mans ankle and colored highlights on the women’s knees. The headline on the opening scene can be wrapped in red highlight at the top of the video. The point of the image is to spark curiosity since the image is weird and doesn’t make too much sense.
Example #3: Vision vertical with an image of two eyes looking at each other. The caption is “If you wear glasses or contacts, or suffer from cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, glaucoma and blurred vision, you must see this”
For the other visuals of the YouTube video, create the YouTube video with the use of stock images. If you have user generated content or other videos used in other social platforms, blend them in with stock footage. It’s important to connect with the script and your target audience and customer profile, demographic and avatar.