How to Write a Video Ad Hook in Ten Words or Less

Choose a hook type first: question, confession, complaint, number or claim, pattern interrupt, or direct callout. Then write inside that box. Starting from 'something punchy' produces three paraphrases of the same idea. The formula is the test variable; the adjectives are decoration you will cut in the next step. Name the formula on the page before the first draft so you cannot drift into a slogan.

Write the formula name at the top of the page so you cannot drift. A question hook asks something the buyer already thinks ('why does this stain never lift?'). A confession admits a mistake ('I wasted a year on the expensive one'). A complaint names the irritation without the brand ('I am so tired of refill packs that leak'). A number hook is only allowed if you can substantiate it. A pattern interrupt starts mid-action, often with almost no branding. A callout names the buyer ('if you pack lunches every night'). Five formulas, one line each, is a real list. Five tones of 'you have to see this' is not.

Do not mix formulas in one sentence. 'Why did nobody tell me I wasted $80?' is a question stacked on a confession and will run long. Pick one job for the first breath. The body script can carry the rest of the story. The hook's only job is earning the next three seconds, which is why ten words is a ceiling, not a style preference. If your category legally needs a qualifier, put the qualifier on screen or in sentence two — not in the spoken open. A stacked formula is how a 'short' hook quietly becomes a fifteen-word skip.

Draft the line as you would text a friend, then delete until ten words or fewer remain. Count spoken words, not characters. Cut throat-clearing ('so I just wanted to share'), brand names, and any clause that explains the product. What remains should still make sense with the sound off if you burn it in as a caption. If you cannot caption it in two lines, you have not finished cutting.

A useful cutting order: first drop the product name, then drop the why, then drop the hedge. 'I want to show you this bottle that finally stopped my sink from smelling' becomes 'this is what finally stopped the sink smell' (nine words) and can go shorter: 'this is what stopped the sink smell' (eight). Read both out loud. If the shorter line still points at a concrete object or irritation, it is done. If it becomes a riddle no stranger would care about, you cut the specific noun — put the noun back and cut a filler word instead.

Ten words is a spoken-time budget. At a natural pace that is roughly one and a half to two seconds, which is the entire thumbstop window. Lines that need eleven to fifteen words usually have a subordinate clause you can move to the problem beat. Do not cheat by speaking faster; rushed delivery makes AI UGC and human UGC sound like an ad. If a legally required phrase will not fit, it does not belong in the hook — it belongs on screen or after the pause. Time the cut with a stopwatch, not with your inner presenter voice.

Stand up, phone in hand, and speak the line over the actual first frame: face, product, mess, or text. If you stumble, or the words describe something that is not in the frame, rewrite. A ten-word hook that fights the picture is still a skip. Mute the room and confirm the caption of those same words is readable at arm's length in one glance. If the caption and the picture disagree, the line is not done.

Mismatch is the silent killer. A confession about oily skin over a smiling studio packshot tells the brain this is an ad. A complaint about a leaking bottle should open on a leak, a stain, or a frustrated face — not a logo. If you do not have the matching shot, change the line to match the footage you do have, or get the shot. Do not hope the avatar's eyebrows will carry a sentence the picture contradicts. Time the spoken line with a stopwatch; if it overruns two seconds, cut another word before you blame the face.

Record a single take of you saying the line and play it back without looking at the script. If it sounds like a presenter, swap in a contraction and a concrete noun. 'It really, truly changed my mornings' is nine words and still dead. 'I stopped rewashing the same pan' is seven and alive. Keep a rejected-lines list so you do not recycle the presenter version in variant three. The read-aloud is the edit, not a confidence check, and it is cheaper than regenerating the whole grid later. Keep the rejected take; it is cheaper than forgetting why the presenter version died.

Produce three openings that use three different formulas and, if you can, three different first frames. Lock the body script. That trio is the hook column of a 6-creative test (3 × 2 avatars). Synonym tests ('you need this' vs 'you have to try this') waste the week and will not survive a 48–72 hour read as three ideas. Three jobs, one body — that is the whole test.

Check difference with a blunt test: cover the product name and ask a colleague which irritation, question, or action each line is about. If they collapse into one meaning, you have one hook. Example set: 'why does this stain never actually lift' (question), 'I was ready to throw the shirt out' (confession), 'watch the oil come off in one wipe' (pattern interrupt). Same product, three jobs. Write them in a column in the brief before anyone renders. If you cannot fill three jobs from real customer language, mine reviews before you invent a third adjective.

Do not improve the body between variants. The whole point of a short hook is to isolate it. If you also change the demo beat, a winner teaches you nothing you can reuse. Keep captions in the same style; only the words of the first line and the first frame should move. When you generate the videos, watch the first two seconds of all three in a row, muted. If they feel like one ad, go back to the formula step before you spend — the auction will agree with that mute test. Mute disagreement is cheaper than a week of spend on one idea in three fonts.

Run the three hooks (ideally × two avatars, six ads) in one test ad set. Wait 48–72 hours or about 1,000 impressions per variant. Promote the line that returns a 30%+ hook rate without wrecking hold. Retire cute lines the Slack channel liked. Then write two new ten-word challengers against the winner — do not enlarge the sentence. Brevity is the constraint you keep when you iterate, not a stunt for draft one.

Judge hook rate first (3-second views ÷ impressions), then hold, then CTR and CPA. A ten-word line that thumbs-stops but dumps viewers at second eight over-promised; keep the brevity and change the claim, not the word count. A line under ~20% hook is dead regardless of how on-brand it is. Do not add words to 'explain' a weak open — explanation is what the body is for. If both avatars lose on the same line, the formula failed, not the face, so change the formula next, not the wardrobe. Do not pad a dead open with a product name to 'make it clearer.'

When frequency on the winner later climbs into the 2.5–3.5 band, write a new ten-word open in a different formula rather than lengthening the old one. Length does not reset a familiar thumbstop. Store winning lines in a swipe doc with the first frame attached so next month's you does not start from a blank page. Short hooks compound; paragraphs do not. Klip Kanvas will generate several hook variants from one brief — still paste your three ten-word lines in so the test stays isolated. The next challenger should be a new formula, still under ten words.