63 TikTok Hooks That Stop the Scroll (Copy-Paste List)
A copy-paste list of 63 proven TikTok hooks and video hook examples for brands, organized by type, with the psychology behind each and how to shoot them.
Your video gets about two seconds on someone's For You page before their thumb decides. That is why the hook, the opening line or visual, outweighs everything you shot after it: a mediocre video with a strong hook gets watched, a strong video with a weak hook gets skipped, and TikTok reads every skip as a verdict on the whole post.
Here are 63 TikTok hooks, the spoken or on-screen opening lines, grouped by the psychological lever each one pulls so you can pick by intent. Swap the brackets for your product, keep the structure.
Curiosity hooks (open a loop they have to close)
"I was today years old when I found out [X]."
"Nobody talks about this, but..."
"Here's what [industry] doesn't want you to know about [X]."
"I found the weirdest way to [outcome]."
"This is going to sound fake, but watch."
"There's a reason [common thing] never works, and it's not what you think."
"Wait for it."
"POV: you finally figure out [problem]."
"The [product] hack that feels illegal to know."
Why they work: each one opens a question the viewer can only answer by watching.
Problem-callout hooks (make the right person stop)
"If your [X] keeps [failing in specific way], this is for you."
"Stop doing [common practice]. Seriously, stop."
"You're using [product category] wrong."
"This is why your [X] isn't working."
"Tell me you struggle with [problem] without telling me."
"Raise your hand if you've bought [product] and never used it."
"Your [X] isn't the problem. Your [Y] is."
Why they work: the specificity filters your audience for you. "If your foundation separates by 2pm" scrolls past everyone it fails to describe and stops everyone it does, which is the whole job of targeted creative.
Result-first hooks (show the ending, then rewind)
"Here's the before... and here's 30 days later."
"This took me from [bad state] to [good state]."
"[Impressive number] in [timeframe]. Here's how."
"I didn't believe the results either, so I filmed everything."
Open on the after. Say nothing. Let the reveal be the hook.
"The glow-up you're about to watch took one week."
Why they work: showing proof first removes the doubt that kills watch time. Once the viewer has seen the result, the rest of the video explains something they already believe.
Contrarian hooks (pick a fight with common wisdom)
"Unpopular opinion: [common advice] is ruining your [X]."
"I stopped [popular habit] and my [metric] got better."
"[Expensive option] is a scam. Here's what to do instead."
"Hot take: you don't need [thing everyone buys]."
"Delete your [common tool]. You'll thank me."
Why they work: mild disagreement holds two audiences at once. Half the viewers stay to agree, half stay to argue in the comments, and the algorithm counts both as engagement.
Skeptic hooks (perform the viewer's objection)
"I really wanted to hate this."
"I bought [product] so you don't have to."
"Testing the viral [X] so you don't waste your money."
"My honest review after 30 days. Nobody paid me to say this."
"Everyone's lying to you about [product category]. Almost everyone."
"I returned three of these before I found one that works."
Why they work: opening with doubt borrows the credibility of a critic. A viewer who hears their own objection spoken aloud lowers their guard for the pitch that follows, which is why these dominate UGC-style and creator ads.
Direct-address hooks (call the shot)
"You need to hear this before you buy [category]."
"Don't scroll. This takes 20 seconds and saves you [X]."
"If you sell [X], drop what you're doing."
"This video is for the person who [specific situation]."
"You've seen this product everywhere. Here's the truth."
"Save this before it gets taken down." (Use sparingly. Very sparingly.)
Why they work: second person makes the viewer feel personally addressed, and that is what stops the scroll.
Story hooks (start mid-scene)
"So my package finally arrived, and..."
"Storytime: the day I almost gave up on [X]."
"My boss told me this would never work."
"I got fired for this idea. Then it did [result]."
"Three months ago I couldn't [X]. Watch this."
"The DM that changed how we make [product]."
Why they work: dropping into the middle of a story implies the stakes already exist. Viewers stay to reconstruct how it started and to find out how it ends.
List & tutorial hooks (promise a payoff structure)
"3 things I wish I knew before [X]."
"5 [products/tricks] that actually deserve the hype."
"How to [outcome] in under [time], no [dreaded requirement]."
"The 10-second fix for [problem]."
"Ranking every [category] I've tried, worst to best."
"Do this every morning and [result]."
Why they work: a numbered promise shows the viewer the finish line, so they commit to reaching it. Ranked lists earn a second life in the comments, where people rewatch to build their case for a different order.
Visual hooks (no words needed)
The oddly satisfying shot: the peel, the pour, the click-into-place.
The mess: open on the disaster before the fix.
The unexpected scale: absurdly big or tiny version of a familiar thing.
The freeze mid-action with on-screen text: "how it started."
The double-take: something subtly wrong in frame that resolves later.
Fast cuts of the end result from three angles before any talking.
Why they work: most viewers decide before a single word registers, and a large share watch muted. Treat the first frame like a thumbnail, because it does the same job.
On-screen text hooks (for muted autoplay)
"watch til the end, trust"
"this is your sign to [X]"
"day 47 of [challenge]"
"things in my [store/kitchen/studio] that just make sense"
"we need to talk about [X]"
Why they work: the text carries the video when sound is off and adds a second hook layer when it is on. Lowercase reads as a person; title case reads as a brand.
Putting the list to work
Match the hook to the goal. Problem-callout and skeptic hooks convert; curiosity and visual hooks reach. For a paid UGC ad, start with hooks #10–16 and #29–34. For organic top-of-funnel, live in curiosity and story. Stuck on a specific post? Run it through the hook generator.
Front-load ruthlessly in the edit. The best hook in your footage is usually the offhand line at second 43 of a take, buried well behind the scripted opener. Most of the editing job is cutting the video so it starts there.
Test hooks before anything else. The highest-ROI creative test on TikTok is one body of content with four different openings. Swapping hook A for hook B routinely moves hook rate (3-second views ÷ impressions) by 2–3x on identical footage, so check that metric before you judge captions, length, or CTA.
That workflow, finding the buried hook in raw footage, cutting multiple openings, then captioning and formatting every variant, is most of what brand teams use Bevyl for. Wherever you do the cutting, do the versioning: four openings on the same body content shows you within a week which hook works.
FAQ
What is a hook in a TikTok video? The first 1–3 seconds: the opening line, text, or visual whose only job is to stop the scroll and buy the rest of the video a chance.
How long should a TikTok hook be? Under three seconds. If the premise is unclear by then, the viewer has already scrolled past it.
Do these hooks work on Reels and Shorts? Yes. The psychology is the same on every platform; only the slang differs. Everything here works across TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.
What is a good hook rate? Rule of thumb on paid: 30%+ of impressions watching past 3 seconds is healthy. Under 20% means change the hook before touching anything else.