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Glossary / Video metrics

Hook rate.

Short answer

Hook rate is the share of impressions where someone watched at least three seconds of a video ad: 3-second video plays divided by impressions. It tells you whether the opening stops the scroll.

Also called: thumbstop rate, 3-second view rate

The formula

Hook rate = 3-second video plays / impressions

An ad with 48,200 impressions and 16,870 three-second plays has a hook rate of 16,870 / 48,200 = 35.0%. A second cut of the same ad with 8,770 plays on 35,100 impressions sits at 25.0%, so the first opening is doing more work.

Why it matters

Most people decide in the first seconds whether to keep watching. A low hook rate means the first frame or first line is not doing its job, however good the rest of the video is, and Meta has to buy more impressions to get the same number of people into the ad.

Benchmark

Billo's H1 2026 report puts the cross-industry average at 25.44%, across 88,329 sales-objective Meta video ads with more than 1,000 impressions each (January to June 2026).

Source: Billo, Video Ad Hook Rate Benchmarks H1 2026, checked 2026-10-21.

How to improve it

Test new openings on the same body: show the result first, ask a direct question, put movement in frame one, or open on on-screen text that names the problem. Change one thing per variant so you know which change moved the number, and give each variant a few thousand impressions before you judge it.

Hook rate in Fovea

Fovea syncs 3-second plays and ThruPlays from Meta every night and keeps hook and hold history, so you can watch an opening tire out instead of guessing. Every hook is also written down by the AI tagging, so you can search the openings that worked.

See Winners →

Questions, answered.

Is hook rate the same as thumbstop ratio?+

In practice, yes. Both are usually 3-second plays divided by impressions. Some teams use 2-second plays or video plays instead, so check the definition before you compare numbers across accounts.

Where do I find 3-second plays in Ads Manager?+

Add the "3-second video plays" column from the Video engagement metrics, or pick the Video engagement column preset.

Stop defining it.
Start seeing it.

Fovea tags every hook, angle and transcript on upload and keeps hook rate, hold rate and ROAS beside each linked creative.

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