What Is Hook Rate?
Hook rate is the percentage of ad impressions where the user watched the first 3 seconds of a video ad. It's the fastest signal that your opening frame is working, a broken hook can't be saved by great mid-roll content.
Formula
Worked example
A video ad has 100,000 impressions, 32,000 3-second views. Hook rate = 32%. If a sibling variant hits only 18%, the opening frame is the problem, same offer, different hook. Kill the 18% variant, iterate on the 32% winner.
Benchmarks
- Meta feed video hook rate: > 25% healthy; > 35% strong.
- TikTok hook rate: > 15% healthy (audiences swipe faster).
- Hook rate correlates strongly with CPA on video-heavy accounts.
Why it matters
Hook rate is your earliest usable creative signal, often available within hours of a launch. If hook rate is dead, downstream metrics can't recover; refresh the opening frame instead of tuning bids.
Common mistakes
- 1.Judging hook rate with < 5,000 impressions. Sample too small.
- 2.Ignoring platform differences. TikTok's 15% ≠ Meta's 15%.
- 3.Confusing thumbstop (0.4s pause) with hook rate (3s view).
Put Hook Rate to work
Free calculators
Related services
FAQs about Hook Rate
What's a good hook rate?
Meta: > 25%. TikTok: > 15%. Below those, the opening frame is broken, content, thumbnail, or first line.
How do I raise hook rate?
Change the first 1 to 2 seconds. Bigger text, faster movement, tighter pattern-interrupt, faces up close. Same offer + new hook can double the number.
Related terms
% of impressions that stopped scrolling long enough to register the ad.
Clicks ÷ impressions, measures how often your ad earns a click.
When an audience has seen the same ad enough that CTR/CVR drops.
% of impressions that resulted in a qualified video view.
Repeatable process for launching, judging, and killing ad variants.
Lo-fi, creator-style ad that looks like a real person, not a brand spot.
Running an ad from a creator's handle with their permission for better trust.
YouTube/TikTok metric, cost per qualified video view.