It's A Metric! Hook Rate
Are your videos thumb stopping?
Do they have the right hooks?
To find out, calculate the hook rate.
Solve for X
How do you pick a video length?
The easiest answer is that you go with what each platform gives you.
The current standard set by the Interactive Advertising Bureau is 2 seconds (I think this used to be 3 seconds), which makes it a common metric across platforms.
Meta reports on 2 second views (or at least has columns for it), 3 seconds, and ThruPlays—which are views up to 15 seconds (either entire video or 15 seconds if longer). You can optimize for 2 second views or 15 second thruplays.
TikTok reports on 2 second views and 6 second focused views. You optimize for focused views.
Pinterest reports on 2 second and 3 second video views. Bidding based on 2 second views.
LinkedIn reports on 2 second views. Or a click. Whichever comes first.
Google / YouTube counts a view as a duration up to 30 seconds depending on the length of the video. Anything shorter than 30 seconds counts a full play as a view. Clicking the video ad also counts as a view. And viewability is based on 1-2 second views depending on type. Honestly, a bit messy.
I do wish 5 second views was an easy-to-pull metric as this is the cutoff frequently cited by these platforms. Most best practices talk about what you need to include in the first 5 seconds. But they didn't ask me what should be in the reporting view, so oh well.
What's Good?
Every decision maker's favorite question and every analyst's least favorite.
The short answer: it depends!
The best approach would be to develop an internal baseline and then start keeping an eye out for outliers, good and bad.
But let’s say ~25%. Because that’s a nice round number that falls in line with this benchmark analysis.
Get Hooked Up
As with most metrics, hook rate is useless in a vacuum.
Here are a few use cases I can think of to incorporate hook rate into your strategic analytics toolbox:
- Compare hook rates across platforms to identify high performers and those that may need different creative to succeed.
- Compare videos within a platform to see what hooks viewers the most and adjust your (platform-specific) creative strategy accordingly.
- Monitor hook rate for each video over time to determine when effectiveness is waning and creative fatigue may be setting in.
- Determine if there is a correlation between hook rate and business goal performance.
- For A/B testing, of course.
To Review
Hook rate is the number of video views of a certain length divided by the number of impressions that video delivered.
As an example, a client's Meta account has a video with 6,902 3-second views so far this month on 15,970 impressions.
6,902 / 15,970 = 43% hook rate
Go forth and measure!
Syllabus:
- Benchmarking Facebook Video Ad Hook Rates
- What is a Hook Rate? (I find the written explanation of the formula sub-par in this, but it includes more platforms and context if you’re interested.)
- Google: Overview of Viewability and Active View
Google will now use AI to tell you how to optimize your video ads based on their “data-backed creative best practices”.
Basically, it’ll tell you if you didn’t check a box on the list.
That list includes:
- Show your brand off the bat and continue to show it often
- Have the right video length
- Use a voice-over
- Include all 3 aspect ratios
More ABCD compliant attributes coming soon.
There is an expression in Japanese that says that someone who makes things of poor quality is in fact worse than a thief because he doesn’t make things that will last or provide true satisfaction. Athief at least redistributes the wealth of a society.
-Andrew Juniper
The core of good marketing is a providing more value than the customer expects. This is built on a quality product or service.
If the quality is missing, the value doesn’t exist, and everything else is a lie.
Podcasts remain an underrated messaging medium for brands (whether via content or advertising).
Over half of business owners are daily podcast listeners, study shows
Majority of executives would buy from brands promoted on podcasts
More ads in more places: Spotify will let artists pay to appear as homescreen recommendations
Surprised this wasn’t an option already.
Steal This: Your Haters' Words to Your Stans Ears
No matter what you do, you'll have fans and you'll have haters.
As I said previously:
Here is that concept in action.
It's like Subpar Parks, but the brand is owning the negative reviews.
These 1-star experiences are someone else's dream day on the slopes. This is a brilliant way to attract that group, tout the "benefits," warn those that don't want this kind of experience, and have a little fun all at the same time.
Grail level messaging right here.
🚨 Zero-Day Security Vulnerability Found in Chrome, Firefox and Other Browsers
Update your browsers
(HBO) Max is keeping its ad load light compared to other streaming platforms. Why?
buying commercials in a scarce and premium inventory pool has “more value and impact” for the advertiser
Exclusivity and scarcity increase the perceived value of a good. Which typically correlates to higher prices.
The advertisers that can afford it typicall benefit from less competition for recall.
Win-win
Interesting…
Some search results on TikTok now include a snippet and link to Wikipedia.
More heartburn for Google. Or maybe not, since they are going to trial for being a search monopoly.
I still wonder how much of the Google disclosure around how many people use TikTok to search was about setting the stage to argue they aren’t a gatekeeper on the internet.
But another reminder that search is no longer a defendable platform, it’s a feature.