The problem
You already look at six numbers on every video: Hook, Payoff, Body, Finish, Click and Convert. Most people check them one at a time, in order, and stop at the first one that looks low. That is how a weak Click gets blamed on a hook, and how a dead product page gets blamed on a script.
Read them together instead, as one shape. By the end of this lesson you should be able to look at any funnel and know within seconds whether the fix belongs in the opening, the middle, the offer, the product page, or whether there is no fix to make at all.
Here is what each one is asking.
- Hook. Who stopped scrolling in the first two seconds.
- Payoff. Who was still watching at six seconds.
- Body. How much of the video the average person watched.
- Finish. Who watched to the end.
- Click. Who tapped the product.
- Convert. Who bought after tapping.
No fixed bar is printed here on purpose. Strong and weak depend on the product, and Verdict grades every number against the videos that are actually converting on the same product in the same window, then shows you those floors on the row. What follows is about shape, which holds whatever your floors turn out to be.
The example
Seven shapes you will run into. The numbers are invented, the patterns are not. Read each funnel, pick an answer, and only then reveal it. Committing to a wrong answer is what makes the right one stick.
Shape 1 of 7
Read on a settled pool of views.
What is this shape telling you?
- AThis is the best version you have. Protect it and make careful versions beside it.
- BPeople watch it but don’t want the product enough.
- CThe middle loses people before the offer.
- DThere isn’t enough here yet to judge.
Pick one, then click to reveal the answer
Answer: A
Green the whole way down, and the money confirms it. This is the best version you have. Protect it and make careful versions beside it without changing what is working. Lesson 22 is the rule about leaving a winner alone, and Lesson 25 is how to test beside one without risking it.
Shape 2 of 7
Enough views to read, and the attention numbers are healthy.
What is this shape telling you?
- AThis is the best version you have. Protect it.
- BPeople watch it but don’t want the product enough.
- CThe video makes curiosity the product page doesn’t pay off.
- DThe whole account dropped together. This isn’t about the video.
Pick one, then click to reveal the answer
Answer: B
They watch it and they don’t want the product enough. Everything above Click is fine and the few who tapped bought happily, so the product page is not the problem. The fix is the angle, the desire, how the product shows up and the proof. Lesson 13 works through this one.
Shape 3 of 7
Enough views to read.
What is this shape telling you?
- AThe middle loses people before the offer.
- BThere isn’t enough here yet to judge.
- CNot enough people stay past the opening.
- DThe video makes curiosity the product page doesn’t pay off.
Pick one, then click to reveal the answer
Answer: C
The opening stops people and then loses almost all of them by six seconds. Everyone who survives that converts well, which means the argument works and hardly anyone hears it. The next version needs a new opening, not a new ending. Lesson 8 is why a high Hook with a collapsed Payoff is a trick rather than a hook.
Shape 4 of 7
Enough views to read, and plenty of clicks to judge Convert on.
What is this shape telling you?
- AThis is the best version you have. Protect it.
- BPeople watch it but don’t want the product enough.
- CThe video makes curiosity the product page doesn’t pay off.
- DThe whole account dropped together this week.
Pick one, then click to reveal the answer
Answer: C
The video creates curiosity the product page doesn’t pay off. Check what people expected when they tapped, then the offer, the price, the reviews, and who the hook pulled in. A hook that attracts the wrong person produces exactly this shape. Lesson 14 covers it.
Shape 5 of 7
A thin pool of views, far fewer than the others here.
What is this shape telling you?
- AThere isn’t enough here yet to judge, and little worth keeping so far.
- BThis is the best version you have.
- CNot enough people stay past the opening.
- DThe whole account dropped together. Check the room.
Pick one, then click to reveal the answer
Answer: A
Weak everywhere, on a pool of views thin enough that every number is still bouncing. There may be little worth keeping, but this is not the moment to decide that. A video that was never really shown did not fail. It was never tested. Lesson 9 covers when a video has earned a verdict.
Shape 6 of 7
Enough views to read, and the shape is the one this video has always had.
Account note: Convert dropped across every creator posting this product this week.
What is this shape telling you?
- APeople watch it but don’t want the product enough.
- BNothing changed here. The drop is everywhere on this product.
- CThe middle loses people before the offer.
- DThis is the best version you have. Protect it.
Pick one, then click to reveal the answer
Answer: B
Nothing about this video changed. The drop shows up everywhere on the product, not just here. That is the room, not the script: check budget, price, stock and competition before anyone touches the creative. A dozen creators don’t all get worse in the same week. Lesson 18 covers reading a Convert leak from the product side.
Shape 7 of 7
Enough views to read.
What is this shape telling you?
- ANot enough people stay past the opening.
- BThis is the best version you have.
- CPeople watch it but don’t want the product enough.
- DThe middle loses people before the offer.
Pick one, then click to reveal the answer
Answer: D
It grabs attention and holds it past the opening, then loses people in the middle, before the offer ever arrives. Find the second where the sag starts. The next version tightens the pacing or drops the slow section. Lesson 16 is the habit of looking one step before the leak.
The hard part is never looking away from a number that doesn’t fit the story you already believe about the video. The sixth shape is the one people get wrong most often, because the script is the thing in front of them and the room is not.
Do this in Verdict
- 1The Leak Finder runs this read on every video in the roster automatically, including the account-wide check from the sixth shape, and hands back a verdict: SCALE, OPTIMIZE, REWORK, TEST, HOLD or KILL, with what to fix and why.
- 2Read the shape yourself before you read the verdict. That is how you catch a leak the moment a video posts, sanity-check what you were handed, and say the fix to a creator in one sentence instead of guessing.
- 3When the shape and the verdict disagree, look again rather than picking one. Usually the sample is thinner than it looked, or the account-wide note explains it.