Hook rate, explained.
By Denzel Geng · Updated September 6, 2026
Hook rate is the percentage of impressions that watch the first 3 seconds of your video ad. Formula: 3-second video views ÷ impressions × 100. It measures how scroll-stopping your hook is.
Meta reports it off 3-second views; some teams use the 2-second “thumb-stop” view instead — pick one and stay consistent.
Hook rate = 3-second video views ÷ impressions × 100.
How to see hook rate in Ads Manager.
Hook rate isn't a native Meta column — Ads Manager won't show it until you build it as a custom metric. It takes two minutes, once:
Open the columns menu
In Ads Manager, click the Columns dropdown above your table and choose “Customize columns…”.
Create a custom metric
In the bottom-left of the dialog, click “Create custom metric”.
Build the formula
Name it “Hook rate”, set the formula to 3-second video plays ÷ Impressions, and set the format to Percentage.
Save and sort
Save, add the new column, and sort your ads by it — the spread between your best and worst hooks is usually the most useful number on the screen.
On TikTok the convention is a 2-second “thumb-stop” view instead of Meta's 3-second play, so a TikTok hook rate will read higher for the same creative — never compare the two platforms' numbers directly.
What's a good hook rate?
Benchmarks move a lot with platform, audience, and how you count the view, so treat these as rules of thumb, not targets:
| Hook rate | Read | Next move |
|---|---|---|
| Below 20% | Weak — the opener isn't stopping the scroll. | Replace the hook outright; nothing downstream can compensate for a hook nobody sees past. |
| 20–25% | Below par for cold traffic. | Test new opening frames and first lines against the current one — change only the first 3 seconds. |
| 25–30% | Around average for cold paid traffic. | Keep iterating hook variants, and check hold rate before touching the rest of the video. |
| 30–40% | Strong — the hook is doing its job. | Shift attention to hold rate and CTR; the hook is no longer your bottleneck. |
| 40%+ | Elite — rare outside retargeting and native-feeling formats. | Scale it, and bank the hook pattern so you can clone it onto the next creative. |
Why published benchmarks disagree
Every blog quotes different numbers because four things move the metric before creative quality does:
The counting window
3-second plays vs 2-second thumb-stops — the shorter window always reads higher.
Placement mix
Reels and Stories placements typically run lower hook rates than feed for the same ad.
Audience temperature
Retargeting audiences recognise you and stop; cold prospecting traffic doesn't.
Format and vertical
UGC and native-style openers outpace polished brand spots almost everywhere.
Because the number shifts so much with setup, the comparison that matters is your own hooks against each other — test variants on the same video and keep the highest.
Hook rate vs hold rate.
Hook rate measures the first 3 seconds — did the hook stop the scroll. Hold rate measures whether they keep watching after that — did the body hold attention. A high hook rate with a low hold rate is a great hook on a video that doesn't deliver; a low hook rate caps everything downstream, which is why the hook is the first thing to fix.
Two hold-rate formulas circulate, so check which one a number you're quoted uses. The impression-based version (15-second or ThruPlay views ÷ impressions) reads the whole video against everyone served. The funnel version many Meta buyers prefer (ThruPlays ÷ 3-second plays) asks: of the people the hook stopped, how many stayed? The funnel version isolates the body of the video from the hook, so a weak hook doesn't drag hold rate down with it. Either works — pick one and stay consistent.
What a high hook rate looks like.
The fastest way to internalise the metric is to look at hooks built to maximise it. Two from our teardown library, with the mechanism spelled out:
How to improve your hook rate.
Hook rate is a hook problem, so fix the first 3 seconds: test 3–5 hook variants on the same video, change only the opener, and keep the winner. Use the library for the patterns and the generator to spin up variants fast.
Hook rate questions.
Hook rate is the percentage of impressions that watch the first 3 seconds of your video ad — 3-second views ÷ impressions × 100. It measures how scroll-stopping your hook is.
As a rule of thumb, above ~30% is strong, ~20–30% is around average for cold paid traffic, and below ~20% means the hook needs work. Benchmarks vary, so compare your own hooks against each other.
Hook rate = 3-second video views ÷ impressions × 100. Some teams use 2-second (thumb-stop) views instead of 3-second — just stay consistent.
Hook rate measures the first 3 seconds (did the hook stop the scroll); hold rate measures whether viewers keep watching after that (did the body hold them). You want both high.
Change the first 3 seconds. Test 3–5 hook variants on the same video, swap only the opener, and keep the one with the highest hook rate. Retire hooks as they fatigue.
On Meta, 25–30% is around average for cold traffic, 30%+ is strong, and 40%+ is elite territory usually seen on retargeting or native-feeling formats. Reels placements typically run lower than feed, so read your number against your placement mix.
No — Ads Manager doesn't ship a hook-rate column. Build it once as a custom metric: 3-second video plays ÷ impressions, formatted as a percentage, then add it to your columns.
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