One of the many metrics we use internally for judging creative performance on video ads is a metric we call Hook Rate (sometimes called Thumb Stop Rate). For TikTok, we calculate it by dividing 2-second video views by impressions. It’s a pretty simple metric, but it allows us to quickly see what ads are grabbing users’ attention and quickly iterate on what’s performing.
High hook rates are usually correlated with stronger overall performance. For that reason, we tend to focus our creative efforts on iterating on video creative that already has strong hook rates. For example, an ad could have a high hook rate, but a poor conversion rate, so we might try changing what value props the later part of the ad speaks to while keeping the hook (the first 2 seconds of the video) the same.
Just like we did with Facebook, we wanted to set some basic benchmarks and use them as a point of reference for the broader ecosystem.
The average hook rate between all of these accounts sits at 34.34%. There are countless other factors that could affect your click through rates, but overall higher hook rates lead to higher CTRs which should lead to more conversions!
In our data set, there is one big exception to this, App Install 3 looks to be doing extremely well in terms of CTR, but has the lowest hook rate of the group. It could be that they’ve got a killer offer or that they’ve got great product market fit or simply that they’re relatively low spend gives the TikTok algorithm a ton of room to find in-market users.
Hopefully these benchmarks are helpful when judging the performance of your TikTok campaigns. I’d encourage everyone to start measuring hook rates on their own ads and experiment with iterating on creative that trends higher than the rest of the account. It should help increase performance and influence your creative strategy on the platform.
