How to Write Great Hooks

You need to hook a viewer in the first 3 seconds of your short-form video.

It doesn't matter how brilliant your content is, how stunning your visuals are, or how persuasive your call to action is.

If you don't hook them right away, they will scroll, and your entire video is wasted.

The hook doesn’t have to be complicated.

Here’s our quick tips.

Have a Visual That Speaks For Itself

Hooking is not about “tricking people”.

It’s about making it immediately obvious what the video is about.

We understand images 1000x faster than audio or text.

What’s the first image that comes to your mind?

It should be so easy, a caveman can understand it.

Good example:

The familiarity of the “text box” visual is why it’s one of the most successful ad visual hooks.

Formula: Use something widely recognizable and familiar as the main graphic to hook people in.

Make Sure Your Audience is Familiar With The Hook

Bad Example:

• How Blackberry built a status symbol.

Good Example:

• This phone used to be a status symbol until the iPhone came along.

Younger generations don’t know what a Blackberry is.

This helps to reframe the script by hooking with familiarity with the iPhone.

Then go on to talk about the dominance of the Blackberry - pre iPhone.

Our brains are wired to prefer things that we recognize. When we see something unfamiliar, our brains go into "threat assessment" mode. We're more likely to scroll past, click away, or tune out.

Use “But & So” To Create Hook After Hook.

Just like the "This happened, therefore, but" framework used by South Park creators in their writing, you can use a similar concept in your short-form videos.

Dylan Jardon (674k YouTube subs) likes to use the “But & So” framework in his videos.

When viewer attention starts to drift, he hits them with something new.

• A surprising fact.
• A thought-provoking question.
• A change in scenery or perspective.

The goal is to keep viewers on their toes, constantly wondering what's coming next.

A master of this technique is Connor Price, creator of the viral "Spin the Globe" TikTok series with 5.6M followers.

Conor credits the success of his videos to the integration of constant hooks.

Every 3-5 seconds, just when the viewer’s attention is about to lapse, there's a new frame, a new hook to bring the viewer back in.

By constantly introducing new hooks, he can maintain viewer engagement throughout the entire video, significantly increasing watch time and shares.

Formula: Use "but..so.." to create constant hooks.

Next time you make a video, remember:

1. Have a visual that speaks for itself.

2. You need a hook so simple a caveman can understand it.

3. Use “but & so” to re-hook through the video.