Hook rate
Percent of impressions that keep watching past the first 3 seconds.
Hook rate measures how many viewers stay past the opening seconds of a video, typically the first 3 seconds on Shorts and TikTok, or the first 15 to 30 seconds on long-form YouTube. It is the single highest-leverage retention metric because nothing else in the video matters if the audience swipes away in the opening beat.
On TikTok and YouTube Shorts the platform exposes a 'watched full video' and 'average watch time' but not hook rate directly, so creators reconstruct it from the retention curve: hook rate is roughly 100 percent minus the swipe-away percentage in the first 3 seconds.
On long-form YouTube, hook rate is approximated by retention at the 15 second and 30 second marks. Both Shorts and long-form use this number as a quality signal that influences how aggressively the algorithm pushes the video to a second audience pool.
On long-form, substitute 3s with 15s or 30s depending on video length.
Benchmarks
Why it matters
A 10 point hook rate improvement compounds across every downstream metric. If 70 percent of viewers stay past second 3 instead of 60, you get 17 percent more total watch time without changing anything else in the video, and the algorithm rewards that gap by pushing the video to a larger second pool.
How to improve it
- 01Cut the first 1.5 seconds of throat-clearing. Most creators start 1 beat too early.
- 02Lead with a visual proof shot, not your face. Motion holds attention longer than a static talking head in the opening beat.
- 03Promise something specific in the opening sentence. Vague promises lose viewers faster than no promise.
- 04Test 3 different openers on the same script. The same body content can swing hook rate by 20 points.
See your own hook rate in seconds.
Paste any YouTube, Shorts or TikTok link and our analyzer will surface the metric, the curve, and the move that lifts it next.
Related terms
The line chart showing what percent of viewers are still watching at each second of a video.
The average number of seconds a viewer spends inside a video before leaving.
A sudden visual or audio break that re-grabs attention before the viewer drifts.
The unresolved question that keeps a viewer watching for the answer.