How long should a video hook be?

A hook should be done in three to five seconds, which means one or two short sentences. Longer than that and you have already lost the viewers it was meant to hold.

Should I greet viewers at the start?

A greeting spends the most decisive seconds on information nobody needs at that moment. It works far better after the hook, once the viewer has decided to stay.

How do I know whether my hook worked?

Look at the retention graph across the first thirty seconds: a sharp early drop nearly always means the opening did not match what the title and thumbnail promised. That is the only measure that means anything, since view count says nothing about your opening.

Text Generators

Video Hook Generator

Enter your video's topic to get several opening lines you can test straight away.

Topic

What this is

A hook is a video's first line, and it has exactly one job: to make a viewer decide to stay. That decision happens within seconds, before anyone has judged the picture or the sound, so a weak hook wastes everything behind it. A hook that works says what the viewer is about to get or states something that contradicts what they assumed — it does not greet them, and it does not announce that the video is going to cover something.

How it works

The three things that most often weaken a hook are a greeting, saying the channel's name, and a sentence announcing what the video will cover instead of covering it. All three spend the most expensive seconds on information that could wait — and a viewer who has not decided to stay has no reason to care about your name yet.

Write the hook last, after the script is finished. Before the video exists you do not yet know which part turned out to be the most interesting; afterwards, the right hook is usually already in the script, just sitting in the wrong place.

How to use it

Enter your video's topic The more specific the topic, the sharper the hooks.
Read each candidate out loud A hook is spoken, not read — a line that is awkward to say will sound awkward.
Test one on your next video Watch the retention graph across the first thirty seconds.

Common questions

How long should a video hook be?: A hook should be done in three to five seconds, which means one or two short sentences. Longer than that and you have already lost the viewers it was meant to hold.
Should I greet viewers at the start?: A greeting spends the most decisive seconds on information nobody needs at that moment. It works far better after the hook, once the viewer has decided to stay.
How do I know whether my hook worked?: Look at the retention graph across the first thirty seconds: a sharp early drop nearly always means the opening did not match what the title and thumbnail promised. That is the only measure that means anything, since view count says nothing about your opening.

Notes

With no language model enabled, hooks come from written patterns in your browser.
Match every hook to what your video delivers — one that is not kept costs retention.