Hook

Why does the hook matter so much?

Short-video feeds decide in a second or two whether to keep showing a video, and viewers decide just as fast whether to swipe. Everything after the hook only counts if the hook held them.

A good hook makes a promise the rest of the video keeps. A hook that promises more than the video delivers raises early views but loses people in the middle, which hurts more than a plain opener.

What kinds of hooks work?

Most hooks fall into a handful of patterns:

• Problem: name the exact pain the viewer has.
• Curiosity: open a question only the video answers.
• Contrarian: disagree with common advice.
• List: promise a number of tips, so the payoff feels finite.
• Proof: show the result first, then how it happened.

How do you write one?

Start from the viewer's problem in their own words, not your product's name. Keep it under about ten words so it fits on screen as a caption and can be said in two seconds. Then write two or three versions and test them on the same video body.

Related terms

• Hook rate

  Hook rate is the share of people shown a video who keep watching past its first few seconds, used to judge whether the opening works.

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• Audience retention

  Audience retention shows how many viewers are still watching at each moment of a video, usually as a graph from the first second to the last.

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• Call to action (CTA)

  A call to action is the one thing a video asks the viewer to do next, such as follow, comment, visit the link or book.

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