Hook rate and hold rate calculator

Hook rate is 3-second video plays divided by impressions on Meta, and 2-second video views divided by impressions on TikTok. Hold rate is ThruPlays divided by 3-second video plays. Thumbstop ratio is, in most working usage, hook rate under an agency-coined name. These are the definitions in our guide to hook rate, hold rate and thumbstop ratio, and the calculator uses them as written.

A ThruPlay on Meta counts a view of 15 seconds, or completion for videos shorter than that. TikTok has no ThruPlay. Its 6-second video views count a play of at least 6 seconds in one impression, a full play of a shorter video, or an engagement in the first 6 seconds, so the TikTok hold rate here is our reading of the nearest equivalent, not a metric TikTok defines. The 2-second view is the shortest view TikTok reports, which is why a TikTok hook rate is never compared directly with a Meta one.

Some published articles compute hold rate as ThruPlays divided by impressions. That is the blended rate in the last row: a different metric, and always a smaller number. Neither is wrong, but pick one and apply it identically in every report.

Pull three counts, sum them per video, divide, and read the result against your own account. These are the earliest creative signals you get, which is why a creative testing framework uses hook rate as its first kill signal. Each step says what it takes by hand and what Peachblue does at that step.

1. Pull the counts

Neither rate is a default column. In Meta Ads Manager, put 3-second video plays and ThruPlays next to impressions; in TikTok Ads Manager, 2-second and 6-second video views. Build the ratios once as custom metrics, or bring the raw counts here.

In Peachblue, your Meta and TikTok accounts sync on their own, so the performance data arrives without an export or a scheduled report.

2. Sum per video, then divide

The same video usually runs in several ads, and per-ad rates on thin impression counts wobble. Add impressions and plays across every ad that runs the asset, enter the totals, and give the video a few thousand impressions before you read its rates at all.

In Peachblue, perceptual fingerprinting recognizes the same creative across every ad and platform it runs in, even after re-crops and re-compression, so performance is rolled up per creative instead of per ad.

3. Judge it against your own baseline

Claims about a good hook rate range from 20 to 25 percent in some ranked articles to 30 to 45 percent in others and 60 percent and up in a few, contradictions too large to explain by audience or vertical. Enter your account's medians for the same placement and format in the optional fields, and the calculator says how far this video sits from them.

In Peachblue, every creative is scored against your own account's percentiles and placed in a tier from Top Performer to Underperformer, so the yardstick is your data, not someone else's benchmark.

4. Read the pair, then fix the right part

Strong hook and weak hold: the opening over-promises or the middle sags, so fix the body of the video. Weak hook and strong hold: the content works for whoever stays, so the first seconds are the rebuild target. Both weak: the concept, not the edit, is usually the issue.

In Peachblue, every creative is tagged for hook style, format and emotional tone, with a written analysis and copy suggestions. Intelligence finds the patterns your winners share, and the Next Creative Brief turns them into what to make next, with proven hooks pulled from your own headline performance. Peachblue does not edit or launch ads: the fix is yours to make.

5. Watch for decay

A winner whose hook rate slides week over week against its own history is fatiguing. Run the same video's numbers each week and compare it with itself, as the creative fatigue guide explains.

In Peachblue, the fatigue board flags CTR decay measured against each creative's own best rolling week, and every flag carries a dollar consequence.

Custom metrics in Ads Manager are free and compute these ratios correctly, one report and one platform at a time. Peachblue starts where they stop: one video counted once across every ad and platform it runs in, Meta and TikTok side by side, every creative judged against your own account, and an answer to why it won or lost.

If you run a handful of videos on one platform, a custom metric and this calculator are enough. Peachblue earns its place when the same creative runs in many ads, across platforms or across clients; plans and what each includes are on pricing. If you test at volume, the creative testing budget calculator shows what your losing creatives cost.