Hook rate
Hook rate is the percentage of impressions that watch past the first 3 seconds. It's the cleanest measure of a video ad's opening attention.
Hook rate = (3-second video plays / Impressions) × 100What does Hook rate actually mean?
Hook rate measures the share of viewers who continue watching past the opening 3 seconds of a video ad. It isolates the hook's effectiveness from the rest of the creative.
Meta reports it as ‘3-second video plays / impressions.’ TikTok's equivalent is the 6-second view rate. The benchmark for a strong DTC hook on Reels or TikTok is 25-35%; below 15% means the hook isn't earning attention; above 40% is exceptional.
Hook rate is the cleanest creative-quality signal because it's upstream of conversion. A creative with low hook rate can never convert at scale because nobody watches the body. A creative with high hook rate that fails to convert tells you the hook did its job and the body or offer needs work.
Example
A Reels ad got 50,000 impressions and 14,000 3-second video plays. Hook rate = 28%, which is solid for DTC on Meta.
When it matters
Hook rate is the diagnostic metric for video ad creative quality. Most modern teams pause ads with hook rates under 15%.
Related terms
Thumb-stop rate
Thumb-stop rate is the percentage of impressions that pause to engage. It's sometimes used interchangeably with hook rate, sometimes as the 1-second version.
CTR
CTR is the percentage of impressions that result in clicks. It signals creative resonance and ad quality.
Creative fatigue
Creative fatigue is performance decay caused by users seeing the same ad too many times, measured by rising CPM and frequency.
Hook
The hook is the first 1-3 seconds of an ad: the moment that earns attention and decides whether the rest of the ad gets watched.
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