Hook rate

Hook rate = (3-second video views ÷ impressions) × 100.

Example: an ad with 40,000 impressions and 10,000 three-second views has a hook rate of 25%. A quarter of the people who were shown the ad stopped long enough to see past the opening.

Some teams use 2 seconds, or the platform's own short-view metric, instead of 3. The threshold matters less than using the same one everywhere you compare.

Hook rate isolates the opening of the ad: the first frame, the first line, the first movement. Because it is measured before most of the message is delivered, it is the cleanest signal you have about whether the opening works.

It says nothing about whether the rest of the ad persuades. An ad with a shocking first second and no payoff can post a high hook rate and a poor cost per acquisition. Read it alongside hold rate and a downstream metric such as click-through or CPA.

There is no universal benchmark worth quoting. Hook rates differ by platform, placement, audience temperature and industry, and published 'good' numbers are usually from a single agency's accounts. The useful comparison is against your own ads in the same placement: a new opening that beats your median is a better opening.

• Open on motion or a face, not a logo or a title card.
• State the problem or the result in the first line rather than building up to it.
• Put on-screen text in the first frame so muted viewers get the point.
• Test several openings on the same body. The hook is the cheapest part of an ad to vary.

• Meta: a 3-second video play counts when the video plays for at least 3 seconds, or 97% of its length if it is shorter. Replays within one impression are not counted.
• TikTok: Ads Manager reports 2-second video views (at least 2 seconds in an impression session, replays excluded) and 6-second video views.
• Neither platform reports a metric called hook rate. A hook rate built on TikTok's 2-second views and one built on Meta's 3-second plays measure different things, so compare each only with itself.