Where viewers drop off in a Reel: what you can check before posting.

The retention curve, the line that shows how many viewers were still watching at each second, exists only after you post. Instagram draws it from the people who actually saw the Reel. No tool can draw it from the file beforehand, and anything that says it can is guessing. What can be known before posting is different and more useful: the places in the cut where viewers usually leave, which are built into the edit and can be measured.

After posting: read the curve

From a professional account, open the Reel's insights. The retention chart shows how many viewers were still watching at each point. Find the steepest drop, note the second, and go and look at what the cut does there. Nine times out of ten it is one of the seven things below. The curve tells you where; the cut tells you why.

Before posting: the seven places viewers leave

Each of these is one of the checks NeuroVidz runs on every clip, with the same target. The full method is on our methods page.

1. 1.The first second

   Nothing happens: silence over a still picture, or a slow fade-in.

   target

   0 s of dead air at the start; -26 LUFS or louder

   fix

   Begin where something first happens. Remove the fade-in.

2. 2.The first three seconds

   The picture does not change, no face arrives, and the opening is calmer than the rest of the Reel.

   target

   a cut, movement or new look within 3 s; the opening as lively as the clip's typical moment

   fix

   Open on movement or a face; tease the strongest moment early.

3. 3.Before the first word

   A lead-in (a sting, a breath, a walk into frame) delays the talking.

   target

   first word under 1 s

   fix

   Trim the lead-in.

4. 4.Dead air in the middle

   A second or more that is both silent and still.

   target

   no stretch over 1 s that is silent and still

   fix

   Cut it, or lay a music bed under the quiet stretch.

5. 5.A still stretch

   The picture stays the same for more than three seconds while the talking carries on.

   target

   nothing still for more than 3 s

   fix

   A cut, a punch-in or b-roll.

6. 6.A sag

   Several seconds with nothing new: no cut, no new line, no sound hit, no change of shot.

   target

   2 or more new moments per 10 s, in every part

   fix

   Add a re-hook where the stretch starts.

7. 7.The ending

   A silent tail after the last line.

   target

   the ending as lively as the rest; no dead end

   fix

   End on the payoff, or loop back to the start.

What a result shows

A NeuroVidz read lays the whole clip on one strip: the opening window, every stretch of dead air and every still stretch where it happens, where someone talks, where music plays, and a numbered pin for each fix. Under it, each fix has the frame it is about, what the clip does now next to what good looks like, and the points it is worth. Make the edits, upload the new cut, and the re-check shows which fixes landed. See one on the sample page, no account needed. It is a check of the cut, not a forecast of the curve.

Questions

The whole check, step by step, is in How to check a Reel before posting; the printable version is the Reel edit checklist.