The first three seconds of a short-form ad decide everything. No hook, no view; no view, no conversion. Here are the five hook families that keep winning.
1. The pattern interrupt
"I stopped buying skincare." Contradiction forces attention — the brain needs the resolution. Works best when the contradiction resolves into your product naturally.
2. The specific claim
"This serum cleared my texture in 11 days." Specificity reads as honesty. Round numbers and vague claims read as ads.
3. The callout
"If you have oily skin, stop scrolling." Naming the audience creates instant relevance for exactly the people you want.
4. The demo-first
No words — the product working, immediately. Show the before/after, the pour, the transformation. Let curiosity do the work.
5. The confession
"Okay, I was wrong about this." Vulnerability is disarming and buys you ten more seconds of attention.
Test, don't guess
UGCGenie generates ranked hook variants for every script, so you can put all five families in market and let performance data pick the winner instead of a committee.