Hook rate is the share of people who saw your video ad and kept watching past the first three seconds. It is the fastest way to tell whether the opening of a video works, and on Meta it is calculated as 3-second video plays divided by impressions. A video with a weak hook never gets the chance to sell, because nobody is still watching when the product shows up.
It is also one of the most overrated numbers in paid social. A video can stop every thumb in the feed and still sell nothing. This guide covers what hook rate is, the hook rate formula, how to set it up in Meta Ads Manager and TikTok, what hold rate adds, how to write better hooks with UGC creators, and how to connect all of it to the only number that pays the bills: sales per video.
Short answer: hook rate (also called thumbstop rate) measures how many impressions turn into a video view of at least three seconds.
- Hook rate formula (Meta): 3-second video plays ÷ impressions × 100. 5,400 plays on 20,000 impressions is a 27% hook rate.
- Hold rate: how many of those viewers keep watching. Usually ThruPlays ÷ 3-second video plays.
- TikTok: use 2-second video views ÷ impressions for the hook, and 6-second video views for hold.
- Where to find it: Meta has no built-in hook rate column. You create it as a custom metric in Ads Manager in about a minute.
- What it is not: a sales metric. A high hook rate buys attention, not revenue. Judge videos on ROAS per video, measured in your own store.
What is hook rate?
Hook rate is a creative metric. It answers one question: did the first seconds of this video make people stop scrolling? Everything after the opening (the problem, the product, the offer) only matters for the people who stayed, so hook rate is the gate every video ad has to pass first.
You will see the same idea under a few names. Thumbstop rate is the most common alternative, coined because the metric counts how often a thumb stopped moving. Some teams say "3-second view rate". They all describe the same ratio: views that lasted past the opening, divided by the number of times the ad was shown.
Hook rate matters more for UGC ads than for most formats. UGC works because it looks like a normal post, but a normal post also gets scrolled past. The opening line, the first frame and the first movement decide whether the video gets a chance at all.
The hook rate formula
The standard hook rate formula for Meta ads is:
Hook rate = 3-second video plays ÷ impressions × 100
Worked example. A UGC video runs for a week and gets 20,000 impressions. Meta records 5,400 3-second video plays. Hook rate is 5,400 ÷ 20,000 = 0.27, or 27%.
| Video | Impressions | 3-second video plays | Hook rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creator A, "before and after" opening | 20,000 | 5,400 | 27% |
| Creator B, unboxing opening | 18,000 | 2,700 | 15% |
| Creator C, question opening | 25,000 | 8,500 | 34% |
Two details that change the number. First, Meta counts a 3-second video play when the video plays for at least three seconds, or for nearly its full length if it is shorter than that. A four-second clip will therefore look great on hook rate without telling you much. Second, some people divide by reach instead of impressions. Pick one denominator and keep it, or you will compare videos on different scales. Impressions is the most common choice.
How to find hook rate in Meta Ads Manager
Meta does not ship a column called hook rate. You build it once as a custom metric and it stays available in every report.
- Open Ads Manager and go to the Ads tab, since hook rate is a per-video metric.
- Click the Columns dropdown and choose Customize columns.
- Click Create custom metric.
- Name it "Hook rate" and build the formula: 3-second video plays ÷ Impressions. Start typing a metric name and the formula builder suggests it.
- Set the format to Percentage and save. Add it to a saved column preset together with spend, ThruPlays, CTR and purchases.
While you are in there, create hold rate too (formula below). Menu names shift from time to time, but the custom metric builder has lived under Customize columns for years; Jon Loomer keeps an up-to-date walkthrough of custom metrics in Ads Manager if the layout has moved.
The underlying video metrics you will use, as Meta defines them:
| Meta metric | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 3-second video plays | Plays of at least 3 seconds, or nearly the full length for shorter videos |
| 2-second continuous video plays | Plays of at least 2 continuous seconds |
| ThruPlays | Plays to completion, or of at least 15 seconds |
| Video plays at 25%, 50%, 75%, 95%, 100% | Plays that reached that share of the video length |
| Video average play time | Average time played per impression, including replays |
The full list is in Meta's Business Help Center under video ad metrics.
Hook rate on TikTok: 2-second and 6-second views
TikTok Ads Manager has no 3-second metric. It reports 2-second video views (plays of at least two seconds within one impression) and 6-second video views (plays of at least six seconds, full plays of shorter videos, or an engagement within the first six seconds). That gives you two natural ratios:
- TikTok hook rate = 2-second video views ÷ impressions
- TikTok 6-second rate = 6-second video views ÷ impressions, or ÷ 2-second views if you want it as a hold metric
Because the thresholds differ, a TikTok hook rate is not comparable with a Meta hook rate. Two seconds is a lower bar than three. Compare TikTok videos with TikTok videos and Meta with Meta. TikTok also leans on the 6-second mark in its own reporting: it cites a 157% higher 6-second view-through rate for Spark Ads than for standard In-Feed ads, which is one more reason to run creator videos from the creator's own profile.
Hold rate: what happens after the hook
Hook rate tells you whether people stopped. Hold rate tells you whether they stayed. A video that hooks 35% of viewers and loses nearly all of them by second five has a strong opening glued to a weak video.
The most common hold rate formula on Meta is:
Hold rate = ThruPlays ÷ 3-second video plays × 100
In the example above, if Creator A's video had 1,300 ThruPlays, hold rate is 1,300 ÷ 5,400 = 24%. Some teams use ThruPlays ÷ impressions instead, which mixes hook and hold into one number. Dividing by 3-second plays keeps the two separate, so you know which part of the video to fix.
For longer videos, the 25%, 50% and 75% play metrics show where people drop off. A steep fall between 25% and 50% usually means the middle drags: too much setup before the product appears, or the creator repeats the hook instead of moving on.
What is a good hook rate?
There is no published, independent benchmark for hook rate that we trust enough to quote. The numbers floating around come mostly from ad tools and agencies analyzing their own clients, with different definitions, placements and niches. Treat any single "good hook rate" figure with suspicion, including ours.
What we can give you is a way to read your own numbers. The ranges below are illustrative working ranges that media buyers commonly use as rules of thumb for Meta feed and Reels video. They are not benchmarks, and your account will have its own baseline.
| Hook rate (Meta, 3-second plays ÷ impressions) | How to read it (illustrative) |
|---|---|
| Under 20% | The opening is not stopping people. Test new first seconds before anything else. |
| 20 to 30% | Workable. Look at hold rate and sales before touching the hook. |
| Above 30% | Strong opening. If sales lag, the problem is later in the video, the offer or the landing page. |
The better benchmark is internal. Sort every video you have run by hook rate, and look at your own median. A good hook rate is one above your median that also comes with sales. Keep placements apart while you do it: Reels, Stories and feed behave differently, and a blended number hides that.
How to improve hook rate with UGC: hook types and example lines
The first two seconds of a UGC video carry three hooks at once: what the viewer sees, what they hear, and what they read in the on-screen text. The strongest videos line all three up. Here are the hook types that work reliably for creator content, with example lines you can put straight into a brief.
1. Result first. Show the end state before explaining anything. - "This is my kitchen counter after one wipe. Watch." - "Three weeks ago my skin looked like this." (cut to before)
2. The callout. Name the viewer so they recognize themselves. - "If you have ever returned a pair of jeans because of the waistband, this is for you." - "Runners with flat feet, stop scrolling."
3. The objection, said out loud. Start with the doubt the viewer already has. - "I was sure this was another overhyped Instagram product." - "No, it's not a scam, and here's the receipt."
4. The mistake. Tell people they are doing something wrong. - "You're applying sunscreen in the wrong order." - "Stop washing your pan like that."
5. Pattern break. Something visually unexpected in frame one: the product dropped into water, a creator mid-sentence, an odd angle, a fast zoom. No line needed; the image does the work.
6. The specific number. Specifics sound real, round numbers sound like ads. - "I've used this every morning for 41 days." - "This replaced four things in my bathroom cabinet."
7. Social proof in the first frame. A pile of orders, a comment screenshot, a friend asking "where did you get that?"
A few rules that apply to all of them:
- No intros. "Hi guys, so today..." or a logo in the first second is not a hook.
- Caption the hook. Plenty of people watch with the sound off, so the opening line should also appear as on-screen text.
- Keep text in the safe zone. Meta and TikTok lay buttons and captions over the top and bottom of the frame.
- Test hooks, not whole videos. Ask the creator for three to five openings on the same body. Swapping the first three seconds is the cheapest creative test there is, and it tells you directly which opening wins.
For more openings and formats taken from real creator videos, see our collection of UGC examples.
Why a high hook rate is not ROAS
Here is where most creative testing goes wrong. It is easy to sort by hook rate, find the video with 38%, and scale it. But hook rate is measured at second three, and the sale happens minutes or days later in your store. A lot can go wrong in between.
The classic failure is the clickbait hook. A shocking first frame or a curiosity line that has nothing to do with the product stops everyone, including people who will never buy. Hook rate goes up, and the audience that stays gets worse. The opposite also happens: a quiet, specific opening like "for anyone with a wide foot" stops fewer people, but exactly the right ones.
| Illustrative example | Hook rate | Hold rate | ROAS (store data) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video 1: shock opening | 38% | 12% | 1.2 |
| Video 2: callout opening | 22% | 31% | 4.1 |
| Video 3: result-first opening | 29% | 26% | 3.0 |
In this made-up but typical pattern, the video with the best hook rate is the worst investment. If you scaled by hook rate alone, you would move budget from a 4.1 to a 1.2.
The right way to use the metrics is as a diagnosis chain, each step answering a different question:
- Hook rate: did the opening stop people?
- Hold rate: did the story keep them?
- CTR: did the video make them want to act?
- ROAS per video: did it make money?
Only the last step decides where budget goes. The first three tell you what to fix when a video underperforms. Low hook, fine hold: change the first three seconds. Good hook, low hold: the middle is weak. Good hook and hold, low sales: look at the offer, the price or the landing page. Our guide to what ROAS is covers how to set the line that separates a winner from a loser: your break-even ROAS.
Connecting hook rate to sales: per-video attribution
To put hook rate next to ROAS, you need revenue per video. Meta and TikTok will each give you a conversion count, but each platform credits itself using its own attribution window, and a customer who saw the same creator on both will often be claimed twice. At the level of a single video, those numbers get noisy fast.
The fix is to measure sales in your own store, per video. Give every creator video its own trackable link, let that link follow the video wherever it runs, and count each order once under one rule. Then you can line up the creative metrics from the ad platforms (hook rate, hold rate, CTR) with the business metric from your store (revenue and ROAS per video), and see which openings bring buyers rather than viewers. The full method is in our guide to measuring influencer marketing ROI.
That is what Attribyte does. Every approved creator video gets its own link that follows it into Meta ads, partnership ads, TikTok Spark Ads, Snapchat and the creator's organic post. Sales are measured in your Shopify store with 7-day last-click attribution and credited once, so you see revenue and ROAS per video and per creator. When you know which hook sells, you can ask the creator for three more like it, and pay them commission on what their videos actually sold.
Frequently asked questions
What is hook rate?
Hook rate is the percentage of ad impressions that turn into a video view past the opening seconds. On Meta it is 3-second video plays divided by impressions. It measures how well the first seconds of a video stop people from scrolling.
What is the hook rate formula?
Hook rate = 3-second video plays ÷ impressions × 100. With 5,400 3-second plays on 20,000 impressions, hook rate is 27%. On TikTok, use 2-second video views ÷ impressions instead.
What is a good hook rate?
There is no reliable independent benchmark. As an illustrative rule of thumb for Meta video, under 20% suggests the opening needs work and above 30% is strong. The best reference is your own account: a good hook rate is above your median and comes with sales.
What is the difference between hook rate and thumbstop rate?
None in practice. Thumbstop rate is another name for hook rate: the share of impressions where the viewer stopped and watched past the first seconds.
What is hold rate?
Hold rate measures how many people keep watching after the hook. The common formula on Meta is ThruPlays ÷ 3-second video plays. A strong hook rate with a low hold rate means the opening works but the rest of the video loses people.
How do I add hook rate in Meta Ads Manager?
Go to Columns, Customize columns, Create custom metric. Enter 3-second video plays divided by impressions, set the format to percentage, and save it to a column preset. Meta has no built-in hook rate column.
Does a high hook rate mean more sales?
Not necessarily. A clickbait opening can stop everyone and sell nothing. Use hook rate to diagnose the opening, and judge the video on ROAS per video measured in your own store.
