What is hook rate?

What is the hook rate formula?

Hook rate is 3-second video plays divided by impressions, multiplied by 100. Motion and Vaizle both use this formula, and Motion treats hook rate and thumbstop rate as the same metric.

Hook rate = 3-second video plays ÷ impressions × 100

Meta counts a 3-second video play when a video plays for at least 3 seconds, or for 97 percent of its length if it is shorter than 3 seconds. Replays are not counted.

Worked example

These are the example numbers the hook rate calculator uses.

Hook rate = 30,000 ÷ 100,000 × 100 = 30 percent. Three in ten impressions turned into a play of at least 3 seconds.

Where do you find the numbers?

In Ads Manager, add the columns Impressions and 3-second video plays for the ads and date range you want. Both are standard columns listed on Meta's video ad metrics page. Hook rate is not a built-in column, so either create a custom metric or use the calculator, which also takes a pasted export and ranks every ad.

Is there a good hook rate?

Meta does not publish one, and the targets on marketing blogs differ from each other. Compare hook rate between ads in the same account, format and placement, over the same dates. A change of hook on the same script is the cleanest comparison.

How do AI ad makers use hook rate?

Hook rate isolates the first seconds of the ad, which is the part an AI creator can change fastest. A common workflow:

1. Keep the script, angle and body of the ad the same.
2. Generate three to five different openings: a new first frame, a new first line, a different first shot. See ad hooks for patterns.
3. Run them in the same ad set and compare hook rate first, then hold rate, then CTR and CPA.

A high hook rate with a low hold rate usually means the opening promised something the next seconds did not deliver. A low hook rate means the opening itself needs work, whatever happens after it.

Hook rate is the same number as thumbstop ratio. For what a hook is and how it relates to the angle, see hook and ad angle.