What is Hook Rate?
The percentage of impressions where a viewer watched at least the first 3 seconds of a video ad, calculated as 3-second video views divided by impressions. It measures how well the opening of the ad stops the scroll. On Meta, a hook rate around 30% or higher is generally considered healthy, the 20-30% range is worth investigating, and below 20% usually means the hook is failing to earn attention.
Hook rate is the first checkpoint in the UGC ad funnel and the cleanest read on whether the opening line and first frame are working, because almost nothing else in the ad has had time to influence the viewer yet. It is closely related to thumb-stop rate and 3-second view rate, and the terms are often used interchangeably, though some teams reserve thumb-stop rate for an even shorter window. A low hook rate is almost always a hook problem, not a product or offer problem, so the fix is to test new opening lines, new first frames, and different hook formulas (curiosity question, surprising stat, direct callout) rather than reworking the body of the ad. Benchmarks shift by platform: TikTok viewers scroll faster and more passively than Meta viewers, so the same creative often posts a lower hook rate on TikTok, and 'healthy' should be read against the channel and placement, not as one universal number.
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