The hook is not the hardest part of producing content. The hook is the only part. Get the hook right and the audience will tolerate a lot. Get the hook wrong and nothing else matters.
After 70 million views across personal and client work, the patterns that consistently win are these.
Hook one. Specificity about a tension the viewer is already living. "Why your $100K marketing hire keeps churning" beats "Hiring tips for founders" every time. The first names a specific pain. The second describes a content category.
Hook two. A number the viewer cannot ignore. "27x ROAS" beats "great ROAS". "1,000,000 views in 6 months" beats "high view counts". The eye locks onto numerals before words. The brain decides if the number is worth investigating.
Hook three. A controlled contradiction. "Most marketers chase reach. The ones who win chase saves." The contradiction creates a half-second pause where the viewer commits to the next sentence. If the resolution lands, you have the next 30 seconds.
Hook four. The pattern interrupt. A frame, a sound, a cut, an inserted prop that does not match what the viewer expected to see in that scroll lane. Pattern interrupt only works if the next beat justifies it. Bait without payoff trains the algorithm to stop showing your content.
Hook five. A specific named person or named outcome. "How VBC went from 75 reviews to 155 in 11 months" beats "How to get more Google reviews". The name asserts that you have the receipts. Specificity reads as truth.
What does not work. Generic openings. Open-ended questions. Industry buzzwords. Anything that could have come from any other account. The platform's job in the first 3 seconds is to decide whether you earned the next 60. Generic does not earn anything.
The good news is that hooks are testable. Ship 30 of them in a week and the data will rank them for you. The hard part is having the production system to ship 30 in a week.