Hook rate
calculator.
Hook rate is 3-second video plays divided by impressions: how many people the opening stopped. Hold rate is ThruPlays divided by 3-second plays: how many of them kept watching. Compare several ads side by side.
Hook rate is the same ratio many teams call thumbstop ratio. Bands: hook under 20% weak, 20 to 30% okay, 30%+ strong; hold under 25% weak, 25 to 40% okay, 40%+ strong. These are rules of thumb, not Fovea benchmarks, and they vary by format and placement. For a public reference point, Billo's H1 2026 report puts the average Meta hook rate at 25.44%. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Thumbstop ratio, hook and hold.
Two ratios tell you where a video ad loses people: in the first three seconds, or after it has their attention.
Hook rate (thumbstop ratio) = 3-second video plays / impressionsHold rate = ThruPlays / 3-second video playsCost per 3-second play = spend / 3-second video playsWhat a ThruPlay is
Thumbstop ratio
Three cuts of one product.
Illustrative numbers. The calculator fills them in with Fill example numbers.
- UGC wrist-shot hook: 16,870 / 48,200
- 35.0% hook
- Its hold: 7,420 / 16,870
- 44.0% hold
- Founder story: 8,770 / 35,100
- 25.0% hook
- Static-to-video offer: 8,460 / 52,900
- 16.0% hook
Hook rate benchmark, with a source.
Benchmarks move with format, placement and audience. Use them to spot outliers, then compare against your own history.
The public number
Billo's H1 2026 report puts the cross-industry average hook rate at 25.44%, across 88,329 sales-objective Meta video ads with more than 1,000 impressions each, run from January to June 2026. It uses the same formula as this calculator: 3-second plays divided by impressions. Billo sells UGC ads, and the data comes from its own customers.
Source: Billo, Video Ad Hook Rate Benchmarks H1 2026, checked 2026-10-21.
Rules of thumb
| Metric | Weak | Okay | Strong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hook rate | Under 20% | 20 to 30% | 30% and up |
| Hold rate | Under 25% | 25 to 40% | 40% and up |
These bands are practitioner rules of thumb, not Fovea data. We found no large public dataset for hold rate (checked 2026-10-21), so treat the hold bands as a starting point only.
What to do with it
A low hook rate with a healthy hold rate usually means the opening is the problem: test new hooks on the same body. A strong hook with a weak hold means people stop, then leave: show the product sooner or cut the video shorter. If both are low, the angle itself may be off. Wait for a few thousand impressions before you judge, and read both next to CTR and ROAS before you kill or scale anything.
Hook and hold, with history.
Fovea syncs 3-second plays and ThruPlays from Meta every night and stores hook and hold history, so you can watch a creative tire out instead of guessing.
Questions, answered.
What is the hook rate formula?+
Hook rate = 3-second video plays / impressions. 16,870 three-second plays on 48,200 impressions is a 35.0% hook rate.
Is thumbstop ratio the same as hook rate?+
Usually, yes: most teams compute thumbstop ratio as 3-second plays divided by impressions, the same as hook rate. A few use 2-second plays or video plays, so check the definition before comparing accounts.
What is a good hook rate on Meta?+
As a public reference point, Billo's H1 2026 report puts the average at 25.44% across 88,329 sales-objective Meta video ads. Many teams treat 30% and up as strong. Your own account's history is the better yardstick.
What is the hold rate formula?+
Hold rate = ThruPlays / 3-second video plays. It is the share of people who stopped for the ad and then kept watching to 15 seconds, or to the end of a shorter video.
Where do I find these numbers in Ads Manager?+
Add the 3-second video plays, ThruPlays and Impressions columns (they are in the Video engagement preset), then export or read them per ad.
Hook rate, every ad.
No spreadsheet.
Fovea syncs your Meta ads nightly and keeps hook and hold history on every linked creative.
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