What is a hook in an ad?

What does a hook include?

A video hook has three parts that land together: what the viewer sees in the first frame, what is said or shown as text, and what is heard. Omniconvert defines the hook as the opening moment that grabs attention, roughly the first few seconds of a video or the first few words of text.

How long is a hook?

There is no fixed length, but platform guidance is about the first few seconds. TikTok's creative best practices tell advertisers to introduce the content proposition in the first 3 seconds and to prioritize the hook in the first 6 seconds, using suspense, surprise or other emotions. Meta's 3-second video plays column counts plays of at least 3 seconds, which is why hook rate uses that point.

How is a hook different from an angle?

The angle is the reason to buy; the hook is how the ad opens that argument. One angle can carry many hooks. Changing the hook while keeping the angle and body the same is the cleanest creative test, because only the opening changes.

How do you test hooks?

1. Fix the angle, script body and format.
2. Make three to five openings that differ in one way each: first frame, first line or first sound.
3. Run them in the same ad set and date range.
4. Compare hook rate first, then hold rate to check the hook did not promise something the body does not deliver, then CPA.

The hook rate calculator ranks a pasted Ads Manager export by hook rate and hold rate.

How do AI ad makers write hooks?

AI tools make new openings cheap, so the limit is ideas and checks, not production. Keep the product and the person consistent between the hook and the rest of the ad, so the cut does not look like two different videos. Make sure any claim in the hook is one the brand can legally make, and that the first frame has no visible generation errors, because it is the frame every viewer sees. The ad hooks guide has patterns and line templates for each format.