Hook Rate
Hook rate is how many viewers survive a video ad’s opening seconds, the first gate everything else plays behind.
What hook rate is
Hook rate is how many viewers survive the opening: the share of impressions still watching a video ad past its first seconds, the metric of whether the hook earned attention before the scroll took it.
Why hook rate matters
Feed video is decided instantly: most viewers are gone within seconds, and everything after the hook, the story, the proof, the offer, plays only for those it kept. Creative teams treat hook rate as the first gate: a weak hook wastes a strong ad, and testing hooks moves results more than polishing anything downstream.
Working the hook
- Test hooks as variants: same body, different first three seconds
- Front-load the reason to stay: motion, claim, question, or product-in-action
- Design for sound-off: the hook must work as pictures and text
- Read it with completion and conversion: kept attention must still sell
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a good hook rate?
Platforms define the measurement window differently and norms vary by format and audience, so the working benchmark is your own account: rank your ads by hook rate, study what the top ones do in second one, and make more of that.
Can a hook be too good?
Clickbait’s problem in video form: a sensational open that the ad can’t pay off holds viewers who never convert and trains distrust. The hook’s job is starting the sale, not just stopping the thumb.