TikTok hook score: what the first three seconds are worth
A hook score rates the opening of a video from 0 to 100 on one question: does a stranger who has never seen your account have a reason to still be watching at second three? Go Viral reads that opening from the clip itself, before you post.
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What a hook score measures
A hook score is a 0 to 100 rating of the first three seconds of a short video. It answers one question: does a viewer who has never seen the account have a reason to still be watching at second three? The score reads what is on screen and on the audio in that window. Whether the first frame changes quickly. Whether text or speech makes a promise. Whether the subject is visible at once, and whether the reason to keep watching arrives before the third second. It does not read the rest of the video, so a strong hook attached to a slow middle scores high and still loses viewers at second eight. That is what the retention heat map is for. Go Viral shows the hook score next to the view forecast and the heat map so the three are read together.
Why three seconds and not ten
A new TikTok is shown to a small test audience before it is shown to anyone else, and almost none of those people follow you. Each of them makes the scroll-or-stay decision in the first moments, and the retention curve of nearly every short video falls fastest before the third second. The platform reads that early drop as a lack of interest and stops the test there. Nothing that happens at second twenty can rescue a video that has already lost the batch.
The first frame does extra duty. It is the still the feed shows for a fraction of a second before playback starts, and on Instagram it is the cover tile in the grid. A black frame, a fade from black or a logo card spends that moment on nothing.
Six things the opening is judged on
What raises and lowers a hook score
Signal
Raises the score
Lowers the score
First frame
The subject already in motion, mid-action
Logo card, black frame, fade-in
On-screen text
A claim or a question in six words or fewer
A title that restates the caption
Spoken opener
A number, a contradiction or a result
"Hey guys, welcome back to my channel"
Cut timing
A cut or camera move before second two
One static shot held past second three
Audio start
The beat or the first word at 0.0 seconds
Silence, or intro music with no words
Promise
The payoff is named and is coming
The topic is announced but nothing is promised
None of these require a camera crew. A phone, a first line and the discipline to cut the greeting cover all six.
How to read the number
Under 40: the opening is the problem
Recut it before touching anything else. Usually the fix is mechanical: delete the first two seconds, put the line that was at second five at second zero, and start the audio on the first frame.
40 to 69: it works for people who already care
Someone searching for the topic will stay; someone scrolling past will not. The line needs a sharper promise, a number, or a contradiction of what the viewer expects.
70 and above: the opening is doing its job
If a video in this band still stalls after posting, the hook is not where to look. Open the heat map and find the second where the curve bends.
Three openings, rewritten
The pattern in each pair is the same: the first version announces a topic, the second version makes a specific promise and starts inside the action.
Cooking
Today I'm going to show you how to make my favourite pancakes.
This is the only pancake recipe that survived my grandmother.
Fitness
Hey guys, so a lot of you have been asking about my ab routine.
Stop doing crunches. This is the three minutes that replaced them.
Personal finance
In this video we're going to talk about budgeting apps.
I found $214 a month in an app I forgot I was paying for.
The hook generator writes lines in the second style for any topic, across six hook types, with thirty finished examples on that page.
Hook score questions
What is a good hook score on TikTok?
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Treat 70 and above as an opening that is doing its job, 40 to 69 as an opening that works for people already interested in the topic but does not stop a stranger, and anything under 40 as the first thing to recut. The bands are guidance for prioritising edits, not thresholds TikTok uses.
Does the hook score work for Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts?
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Yes. The score reads the clip, not the platform. The three-second window matters on all three, though Shorts tends to give a slightly longer opening and Reels leans harder on the first frame because it doubles as the cover in the grid.
Can I get a hook score before I film?
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No. The score needs a clip, because it reads the first frame, the cut timing and the audio, none of which exist on paper. Write the line with the hook generator, record it, then score the recording and compare takes.
Does a high hook score mean the video will go viral?
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No. The score covers three seconds. A video can open well and lose everyone at second nine, which the retention heat map will show and the hook score will not. Read the two together with the view forecast.
Score the opening before the test audience does
Import the clip, read the hook score, recut the first three seconds, score it again. Two minutes, and the version with the higher number is the one that goes live.