Hook rate and hold rate: catch creative fatigue early
By Matheus Mello, founder of Ads Editor and owner of YEP Agência · Published · 6 min read
Hook rate tells you whether the first seconds of a video stop the scroll, and hold rate tells you whether the video keeps its promise once it has attention. Read together, and read as a trend, they warn you about creative fatigue days before CTR and CPA do.
Quick answer
Hook rate is the share of impressions that became a 3 second video view and measures the opening; hold rate is how many of those viewers reached 15 seconds and measures the promise. In the Ads Editor thresholds, good is a 30% hook and a 40% hold. The useful signal is the drop against last week, not the absolute value.
Summary
- Hook rate = 3 second video views / impressions. Hold rate = 15 second views / 3 second views.
- Our alarm thresholds: hook 30%+ good, under 20% critical; hold 40%+ good, under 25% critical.
- A hook dropping against last week, with CTR still stable, is a 5 to 7 day warning.
- Hook dropped means a new opening; hold dropped means a new body or clearer offer; both means a new concept.
- Refresh cadence depends on business type: 12 days for digital products, up to 28 for services.
How do you calculate hook rate and hold rate?
| Metric | Formula | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Hook rate | 3 second video views / impressions | Whether the opening stops the thumb |
| Hold rate | 15 second video views / 3 second video views | Whether the video holds after the opening |
| Save rate | Saves / impressions | Perceived value |
| Share rate | Shares / impressions | Free reach |
Hold rate has more than one definition in the market. A very common one divides ThruPlays by 3 second views. Ads Editor uses 15 seconds over 3 seconds because it is the same window as ThruPlay on long videos and behaves the same on short ones. What matters is always using the same definition.
Ads Manager does not show either metric by default. You build them as custom metrics under Columns, Customize columns, then create a custom metric, as Jon Loomer walks through in his custom metrics guide.
What is a good hook rate?
| Metric | Good | Watch | Critical or low |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hook rate | 30% or more | 20% to 30% | Below 20% |
| Hold rate | 40% or more | 25% to 40% | Below 25% |
| Save rate | Above 0.5% | 0.1% to 0.5% (normal) | Below 0.1% |
| Share rate | Above 0.3% | 0.05% to 0.3% (normal) | Below 0.05% |
Market references for most accounts sit around a 20 to 25% hook and a 40 to 50% hold. Our hook threshold is stricter because it is an alarm, not an average: it came from running client accounts at YEP Agência, not from a market study.
Why watch the trend instead of the value?
A creative with a 22% hook can be the best one in the account in a tough niche. The useful signal is the drop: hook falling against the previous week, with CTR still steady, is the 5 to 7 day warning. That is when you produce the replacement, not after CPA blows up.
Hook dropped or hold dropped: which brief do you send?
| What dropped | Diagnosis | Brief for the editor |
|---|---|---|
| Hook | First second problem: the audience has seen that opening | New opening, same body |
| Hold | Promise problem: it opened and did not deliver | Same hook, new development or a clearer offer |
| Both | Creative exhausted | New concept |
Treating both as the creative is tired makes you replace what did not need replacing.
What frequency is too high?
There is no universal ideal frequency. In ecommerce with a broad audience, high frequency usually means the algorithm is hitting the same people. A local business has a small, geo-fenced audience by definition; cutting a pizzeria at frequency 3 switches it off before it works.
| Business type | Frequency | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Local business | 6 to 8 is fine | Small audience, and recall matters |
| Digital products | 4 is already a warning | Niche audiences saturate in 7 to 14 days |
| Ecommerce | Above 5 signals decline | Broad audiences and retargeting renew the pool, but they tire |
| Lead generation | 4 is already a warning | Same logic as digital products, slightly broader audience |
| SaaS | 4 is already a warning | Behaves like digital products |
| Agencies and services | No fixed threshold | Long decision cycle: watch CTR and hook rate, not frequency |
How often should you refresh creatives?
| Business type | Refresh every | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Digital products | 12 days | Niche audiences saturate fast |
| Lead generation | 14 days | Same logic, broader audience |
| SaaS | 14 days | Behaves like digital products |
| Ecommerce | 18 days | Broad audiences and retargeting renew the pool |
| Agencies | 21 days | Longer decision cycle |
| Local business | 25 days | Small audience, but recall matters |
| Services | 28 days | Long decision cycle, audience decides slowly |
This cadence is the threshold behind the Ads Editor creative fatigue alert: once a day it checks the age of every active ad in accounts with a business type set, warns as an ad nears its niche limit, and raises the tone when, on top of age, frequency passes 4 or CTR falls below 1.2%. Both tables came from running YEP Agência client accounts, not from a market study. Use them as the starting point of your production calendar and adjust per account. If hook rate falls first, refresh earlier.
How do you turn this into a routine?
- Classify each account by business type.
- Build the creative calendar from the refresh table.
- Set alerts on the niche's frequency limit, not a single limit for every account.
- Ship the new pack in bulk on the scheduled day with bulk uploading.
Then test the replacements properly: the structure is in Facebook ads creative testing, and what to do with winners is in how to scale Facebook ads.
Frequently asked questions
What is hook rate?
The percentage of impressions that turned into a 3 second video view. It measures whether the opening makes people stop scrolling.
What is hold rate?
How many of the 3 second viewers kept watching. In the Ads Editor definition, 15 second views divided by 3 second views.
What is a good hook rate on Meta ads?
In our thresholds, 30% or more is good, 20% to 30% needs attention and below 20% is critical. Market references usually sit at 20 to 25%.
Does hook rate apply to image ads?
No. Hook and hold are video metrics. For images, watch CTR, save rate and frequency.
How often should I refresh Facebook ad creatives?
As a starting point: 12 days for digital products, 14 for leads and SaaS, 18 for ecommerce, 21 for agencies, 25 for local businesses and 28 for services.
Glossary
- Hook rate
- 3 second video views divided by impressions.
- Hold rate
- 15 second video views divided by 3 second video views, in the Ads Editor definition.
- Creative fatigue
- The decline in a creative's performance as the same audience sees it repeatedly.
- Custom metric
- A formula column built in Ads Manager from existing metrics.
References
- A Guide to Custom Metrics in Meta Ads Manager (Jon Loomer). Supports: Custom metrics are created from Customize Columns in the Columns menu of Ads Manager, using a formula that combines existing metrics.
Links opened and checked when the article was last updated.
About the author
Matheus Mello, founder of Ads Editor and owner of YEP Agência. Runs client ad accounts at YEP Agência and built Ads Editor so his own agency could stop publishing ads one at a time. Usage numbers quoted on the blog come from the product activity log. Instagram: @theusm
