Hook

A hook is the opening stretch of a video, and its only task is holding the person who already clicked. That makes it a different problem from packaging. The title and thumbnail won the click; the hook has to prove the click was right. Openings that immediately match what the packaging promised and then go past it lose fewer viewers in the first seconds than openings that make people wait for the payoff. On Shorts that stretch is shorter still, and hook strength shows up in whether a swipe turns into an engaged view.