Open your analytics. Find your best-performing video. Now look at the drop-off curve. There's a cliff somewhere in the first three seconds. That cliff is the game.

Why three seconds

Mobile feed scroll velocity is roughly one full screen per second. Before your video can speak, before your logo loads, before your main point — the viewer has already decided. They're staying or they're gone.

The decision is emotional, not rational. Something in those first frames either generates curiosity or doesn't. Your job is to generate curiosity.

Hook types that work

The interrupted sentence: "The thing nobody tells you about—" Cut to a reaction shot. Then finish it. The human brain hates incomplete sentences.

The visual non-sequitur: Something unexpected in frame. Not random — unexpected. There's a difference. Random is noise. Unexpected is contrast. Contrast creates questions.

The immediate conflict: Start in the middle of something. A problem half-solved. An argument already in progress. We're pattern-completion machines. We stay to see the resolution.

The honest promise: "In 60 seconds I'm going to show you exactly how we grew @brand from 0 to 40k." Clear, specific, time-bounded. Works every time.

What doesn't work

Your logo. Your intro music. Thanking people for watching. "Today we're going to talk about..." A slow zoom to a talking head.

These are confidence signals for a world that no longer exists. Today, you earn attention in frames, not seconds.

Practical advice

Cut your current intro. All of it. Start with the first interesting frame. If you can't find it in the first three seconds of footage, reshoot the first shot.

The hook isn't the opener. It's the whole video compressed into a frame.