Hook rate
Three-second video views divided by impressions: how many people the opening actually stopped.
It measures the first moment only. Whether the opening frame and the first second earned enough attention for the video to begin playing to someone who was paying attention.
Why it matters for HVAC
It isolates the part of the creative you can fix fastest. A video with a weak hook and a strong middle performs like a bad video, and no amount of budget or targeting rescues it. Recutting the first second is an afternoon’s work.
For home services the hooks that work are usually concrete and local rather than clever: the failed part in someone’s hand, a recognisable street, a technician saying what the problem turned out to be. Homeowners are screening for whether you are real long before they are evaluating an offer.
How it is measured
Three-second video plays divided by impressions. Compare across creatives in the same ad set over the same period, because it moves with placement and audience as well as with the ad.
A worked example
Three videos in one ad set: hook rates of 31%, 24% and 9%. The third has the best offer and the strongest middle, and almost nobody is seeing either. Recutting its opening to lead with the failed compressor rather than the company logo takes it to 27%, and the offer it was carrying finally gets seen.
These figures are invented to show the arithmetic. They describe no real business.
Where this is demonstrated
The Creative production pillar scores every listed agency on what they document here, and gives you the questions that tell you which one you are being sold.