---
name: viral-hook-patterns
description: Hook patterns sourced from primary creators (Jenny Hoyos on the official YouTube Blog, the leaked MrBeast production manual, Paddy Galloway's data analyses) — not generic creator-folklore. Read when analyze_hook fails, when picking a find_viral_moments candidate, or when generate_youtube_metadata needs a punchier title. Each pattern names a real creator example, the primary source, and the failure mode.
---

# viral-hook-patterns

**When to use:** the user wants a stronger opener, a Short's hook scored < 60 in `analyze_hook`, or `generate_youtube_metadata` needs to phrase a title around a proven structure. Also useful when picking which `find_viral_moments` candidate to ship — the candidate's `hookLine` should map to one of these patterns; if it doesn't, the hook is probably weak.

**Sources used.** All patterns below reference **at least one named creator example AND a primary source** — the leaked MrBeast production manual (authenticated by 2 former producers per Passionfruit's August 2024 reporting), Jenny Hoyos's interview on YouTube's own blog (Jan 28 2025), the My First Million ep. 580 with Hoyos (May 3 2024), Paddy Galloway's LinkedIn / X analyses, and the YouTube Creator Liaison's official commentary. Patterns without that level of provenance were dropped.

---

## How a hook is judged in 2025

The retention bar:

- **Shorts:** **[primary]** Jenny Hoyos on YouTube's blog (Jan 28 2025, https://blog.youtube/creator-and-artist-stories/youtube-shorts-deep-dive/): *"I really do think you have one second to hook someone, especially on Shorts."*
- **Shorts continued:** **[primary]** Paddy Galloway's analysis of 3.3 billion Shorts views (Rattibha-archived X thread, 2023): the best-performing Shorts hold **70–90%** of viewers from swiping away. Below 70% view-vs-swipe = burial.
- **Long-form:** **[primary]** YouTube's Senior Director of Growth, Todd Beaupré, via Stan Ventures (Sept 5 2024): *"the importance of the first 30 seconds of a video, the role of thumbnails, and engaging intros in capturing the audience's attention."* Marketing Agent's recap of Feb 2025 Creator Insider: *"Establish value within 7 seconds."*
- **Mid-video:** **[primary]** MrBeast leaked production manual: re-engagement checkpoints at the **3-minute** and **6-minute** marks for long-form (per Cybernews Sept 16 2024).

**The retention data backdrop.** Retention Rabbit's 2025 benchmark study (75+ niches, Q1 2024 – Q1 2025): the average video retains 23.7% of viewers; only 1 in 6 surpasses 50%; 55% of viewers leave within the first minute. A working hook isn't optional — it's the difference between distribution and burial.

---

## The 12 patterns

### 1. Click-to-unpause packaging (Paddy Galloway)

**Structure:** Thumbnail captures a mid-action moment that the brain wants to resolve by clicking.

**Source.** **[primary]** Paddy Galloway, LinkedIn post March 2026 analysing four viral thumbnails (a MrBeast piece, an old man mid-conversation, two others): *"They each use a simple (yet powerful) packaging technique. Click to unpause. All four of these videos create a scene that you have to 'click' to 'unpause' and see for yourself. The thumbnail and title create an open loop in the brain we want to close."*

**Worked example (Galloway's own).** *"Imagine the opposite — MrBeast standing beside the steps pointing vs actually partaking. The old man smiling and posing for the camera instead of being mid-conversation. Dead in the water."*

**Failure mode:** posed shot, neutral expression, completed action. The loop is closed before the click. Eyes-at-camera-while-smiling is the universal signal of "nothing is about to happen."

### 2. Shock → Intrigue → Satisfy (Jenny Hoyos's three-beat)

**Structure:** Three distinct beats compressed into the first second of a Short. Shock = a visual/audio interrupt. Intrigue = a one-line setup that withholds the answer. Satisfy = the implied promise the rest of the Short will deliver.

**Source.** **[primary]** YouTube's own blog (Jan 28 2025): *"Jenny emphasises the critical importance of hooking viewers within the first second of a Short, using a three-step formula of shock, intrigue, and satisfy."*

**Worked example.** Hoyos's $1 chicken sandwich vs Chick-fil-A Short — opens with the punchier visual hit (shock), poses the value question (intrigue), promises the comparison (satisfy). Marketing Examined's breakdown of her playbook (May 16 2024): she would "even change the idea of the entire video for a strong hook."

**Failure mode.** Hook is too abstract or builds slowly. Her test: *"a good hook should be so clear that viewers understand the video even on mute."*

### 3. Foreshadow the ending (Hoyos)

**Structure:** Open on a moment from the END of the video, rewind, withhold the payoff until the end.

**Source.** **[primary]** Hoyos via vidIQ blog (Dec 2023, https://vidiq.com/blog/post/how-jenny-hoyos-gets-10m-views-per-youtube-short/): *"I started a video by giving my grandma a $5 Christmas present and showing her reaction… you don't see what the gift is until the end of the video."*

**Worked example.** Her $5 Christmas-gift Short — opens on grandma's reaction shot, hides the actual gift, makes viewers stay to find out.

**Failure mode.** Foreshadowing something the ending can't visually pay off. AVP collapses around the reveal point.

### 4. "But / So" escalation (Hoyos)

**Structure:** Every story beat connected by a `but` or `so`, not `and then`. Each `but` raises stakes; each `so` makes a consequence visible.

**Source.** **[primary]** Hoyos via vidIQ: *"You can bring this to life by using the words 'but' and 'so'… 'But the dog whined softly, so I followed him for a few miles. He led me to a dark tunnel, so I backed away in fear. But I saw a bunch of abandoned puppies at the rim of the opening.' Each 'but' stops the viewer from scrolling away as conflict rises."*

**Failure mode.** Plot progression via `and then… and then…` produces flat retention curves and reads as low-satisfaction.

### 5. Power-word opener (Hoyos)

**Structure:** Open with a single high-curiosity word: `$1`, `banned`, `free`, `secret`, `cheap`, `nobody`. Pair it with a concrete claim.

**Source.** **[primary]** Marketing Examined (May 2024) on Hoyos's playbook: hook should be "Concise, no more than 3 seconds, visually pleasing — power words like 'banned,' 'free,' 'one dollar,' 'secret,' or 'cheap' instantly pique curiosity."

**Failure mode.** Power word with no payoff — classic clickbait. Triggers Ritchie's CTR/retention penalty: *"If you over-index on CTR, it could become click-bait, which could tank retention, and hurt performance."*

### 6. Crazy Progression — show, don't tell, then skip ahead (MrBeast)

**Structure:** First 3 minutes of long-form aren't a setup — they're an escalation. Don't say "we'll do X" — show X already happening at scale.

**Source.** **[primary]** Leaked MrBeast production manual (per ProTunesOne Oct 2025 https://protunesone.com/blog/leaked-mrbeast-document-on-his-youtube-strategies/): *"Minutes 1-3: Instead of telling viewers what you will do, show them. MrBeast uses a technique called 'crazy progression.' For example, if he is making a video about a guy surviving weeks in the forest, he would cover multiple days instead of making the first 3 minutes about the first day. The intention here is to hook viewers as fast as possible and get them emotionally invested in the story."*

**Worked example.** *$1 vs $1,000,000,000 Yacht!* — the manual explicitly: *"As the viewer progresses through the video, the stakes rise, first presenting the $1 yacht, then a $1 million yacht, then a $10 million yacht, and so on, until the payoff at the end."*

**Failure mode.** A first 3 minutes that explains the rules instead of showing escalation. The manual's frame: *"Match the clickbait expectations and front-load as much information about the video as possible while incorporating the maximum amount of visuals, music, effects and quick scene changes."*

### 7. Match-the-thumbnail-promise (MrBeast)

**Structure:** Whatever the thumbnail visually promises, deliver in the first 60 seconds. Not at minute 8.

**Source.** **[primary]** MrBeast manual via Creator Handbook (Sept 18 2024): *"Thumbnails must align with expectations set by the title. If a thumbnail promises a specific scene or visual spectacle, the video must deliver on that promise to keep viewers engaged."* Plus: *"CTR is what dictates what we do for videos. 'I Spent 50 Hours In My Front Yard' is lame, and you wouldn't click it. But you would click 'I Spent 50 Hours In Ketchup.'"*

**Source corroboration.** **[primary]** Rene Ritchie via vidIQ Aug 2025: *"Great thumbnails don't just get viewers to click — they also help viewers understand what the video is about, so that they can make informed decisions about what to watch."*

**Failure mode.** Thumbnail-bait. CTR spikes, retention craters, the algorithm penalises distribution.

### 8. Mid-video re-engagement at minute 3 and 6 (MrBeast)

**Structure:** A mini-hook (twist, reveal, escalation) at exactly the points where retention historically dips. Not the climax — a refresh.

**Source.** **[primary]** Leaked MrBeast manual via Cybernews (Sept 16 2024): *"Around the three-minute mark, MrBeast's team aims to include a 're-engagement,' which is highly interesting and impressive… The next most crucial segment of a video is the 3–6 minute mark, which needs to be filled with most exciting and interesting content. After another 're-engagement' at the six-minute mark, the hope is to retain the viewers till the end."*

**Failure mode.** Recapping what just happened instead of escalating. Recap-style re-engagements drop retention sharper than no recap.

### 9. The "I asked Google" / "I asked an expert" hook (Sean Andrew)

**Structure:** Open with a researched question whose answer the audience wants. The hook frames you as proxy: you found out, viewer doesn't have to.

**Source.** **[secondary, named example]** vidIQ Shorts hooks roundup (Feb 2026, https://vidiq.com/blog/post/viral-video-hooks-youtube-shorts/): *"Sean Andrew used this opener to get 478,000 views on a long-jumping video. He asked Google 'what the longest jump in history is,' and then attempted to break the long-jump record."*

**Failure mode.** The answer is in the hook. The hook works because Google's answer becomes the implicit promise *to be tested*; if you reveal the answer, the test loses tension.

### 10. Credibility + specific N (Erika Kullberg)

**Structure:** "Here are N things I do before [scenario], coming from [credential]." Combines foreshadowing (audience knows it ends on item N) with credential framing.

**Source.** **[secondary, named example]** vidIQ (Feb 2026): *"Erika Kullberg's 'Quick Travel Tips' starts: 'Here are three things I do before every flight, coming from a lawyer who travels six months out of the year.' She speaks directly to travellers and builds credibility by saying how often she travels."*

**Failure mode.** Generic credibility ("as a content creator…") or N too high. Lists of 10+ erode foreshadowing because viewers can't track them.

### 11. End-of-video cliffhanger (Rene Ritchie's underused tactic)

**Structure:** End the current video on a cliffhanger that resolves in the next upload. Pulls watch-time INTO the channel, not out of it.

**Source.** **[primary]** Rene Ritchie via Search Engine Journal (Aug 15 2023 — older but still cited canonically): *"Cliffhangers are an underused tactic on YouTube. Similar to how they're used in television and movies, implementing cliffhangers at the end of YouTube videos can make viewers eager to watch the next video to see what happens. This builds excitement and investment in the audience."*

**Failure mode.** No payoff in the next upload. The cliffhanger creates an unfulfilled loop, dropping satisfaction surveys (one of the four signals YouTube weighs in 2025).

### 12. First-frame-as-thumbnail (Hoyos + Galloway)

**Structure:** The literal first frame of the video should communicate the promise without audio. Treat it like a thumbnail.

**Source.** **[primary]** Paddy Galloway's Rattibha-archived X thread (2023): *"It's important to make your first second really punchy and engaging to hook viewers early into the video. Treat your intro like a thumbnail."* **[primary]** Hoyos on My First Million ep. 580 (May 3 2024) discusses the importance of "the first frame" as a retention lever; she found that removing a single frame can change a Short's retention curve.

**Failure mode.** First frame is a logo, a black slate, a cold-open loading shot, or a face mid-blink. Mobile autoplay shows this in the feed before audio loads.

---

## Picking a pattern

Default order to try, by content type:

| Content type | First choice | Backup |
|---|---|---|
| Shorts | Pattern 2 (Shock/Intrigue/Satisfy) + Pattern 5 (power word) | Pattern 3 (foreshadow ending) |
| Long-form challenge / spectacle | Pattern 6 (crazy progression) + Pattern 7 (match thumbnail) | Pattern 8 (3-min re-engagement) |
| Educational long-form | Pattern 10 (credibility + N) | Pattern 1 (click to unpause) |
| Vlog / journey | Pattern 4 (but/so) | Pattern 11 (cliffhanger to next) |
| Reaction / opinion | Pattern 1 (click to unpause) | Pattern 9 (asked Google) |
| Series content | Pattern 11 (cliffhanger) | – |

**Avoid combining patterns** — viewers can only track one promise at a time. One pattern, executed well, beats three layered patterns.

---

## Anti-patterns (don't ship these)

- **"Hey guys what's up so today I want to talk about…"** — Beaupré's quote about establishing value in 7 seconds rules this out. `analyze_hook` will catch it; flag with a red marker.
- **Static talking head with no visual change in 0–2 seconds** — even with a perfect line, retention adds zero. Pair every hook with a visual change (cut, zoom, gesture). MrBeast manual: *"incorporating the maximum amount of visuals, music, effects and quick scene changes."*
- **Hooks that contain the answer.** "Here are 5 ways to save money: 1. budget, 2. invest, 3. …" — burns the curiosity gap immediately.
- **Generic music sting with no spoken content for 1+ second** — the first second is the hook on Shorts. Move the punchline forward.
- **Posed thumbnail mismatch.** A posed studio thumbnail paired with a candid mid-action video opener loses both audiences (no click-to-unpause AND no thumbnail-promise match).

---

## Operationalising in the agent

The agent does NOT generate footage. It can only re-cut from what was filmed, or recommend a re-shoot. Frame every hook diagnosis around that constraint.

When `analyze_hook` returns a low score:

1. Read the `hookLine` field from `find_viral_moments` (or the first sentence of the chosen window).
2. Call `rewrite_hook(currentHook=<line>, videoTopic=<one-line>, transcriptExcerpt=<200–500 chars>, pattern="auto")` — returns 3 candidate rewrites with the chosen pattern + rationale.
3. Surface the candidates to the user. **Do NOT auto-apply** — we can't speak the new line on-camera; the user has to either:
   - **Pick an existing alternative opener from the source footage** — if so, propose a cut window via `text_based_cut`.
   - **Re-shoot the opener** — if so, drop a red marker:
     ```
     add_marker(color="red", note="PAUSE: hook needs re-shoot. Suggested line: '[candidate]'")
     ```
4. **Never silently ship a sub-60 hook.** If the user can't re-shoot and source has no better alternative, the right move is to tell them so explicitly — not to pretend the current opener is fine.

For Shorts specifically, the canonical pre-flight chain is:

```
audit_first_frame(input)               # is the t=0 frame thumbnail-quality?
analyze_hook(input)                    # does the spoken line earn the watch?
verify_thumbnail_promise(thumb, input) # does the opening deliver the thumbnail's promise?
```

Gate at all three. If any returns blocking findings, pause before render.

**Operational targets** (executable today via the tools above):
- **Optimal duration 30–45 s** — `find_viral_moments` already defaults to `[20, 45]`.
- **Target ≥ 90% retention** through to last second (Hoyos's bar) — the agent can't measure this until upload, but it's the bar to rewrite toward.
- **Target ≥ 70% view-vs-swipe** (Galloway's 3.3B-views floor) — same: post-upload metric the user reports.
- **Seamless re-loop** — run `loop_match_short` as the last step before delivery.

For long-form retention checkpoints (Pattern 8 — 3-min and 6-min re-engagement), use `audit_retention_structure(transcript)`. It returns per-checkpoint scores and weakest-checkpoint suggestions; the agent then proposes `cut_filler_words` / `text_based_cut` / `punch_in` / `add_sfx_at_cuts` on the flat windows.

---

## Sources & further reading

**Primary creator sources:**
- Jenny Hoyos × Todd Sherman, **YouTube Creator Blog**, Jan 28 2025 — https://blog.youtube/creator-and-artist-stories/youtube-shorts-deep-dive/
- Jenny Hoyos, **My First Million** ep. 580, May 3 2024 — https://www.mfmpod.com/videos/the-formula-to-break-100-million-views-on-shorts-ft-jenny-hoyos/
- Jenny Hoyos × **Marketing Examined**, May 16 2024 — https://www.marketingexamined.com/blog/jenny-hoyos-short-form-video-playbook
- **Leaked MrBeast production manual**, August 2024, full PDF mirrored at https://simonwillison.net/2024/Sep/15/how-to-succeed-in-mrbeast-production/
- Paddy Galloway, **Creator Science Podcast #209**, Jan 27 2026 — https://podcast.creatorscience.com/paddy-galloway-2/
- Paddy Galloway, **LinkedIn "Click to unpause"** post, March 2026
- Paddy Galloway, **3.3 billion Shorts views** X thread, archived at https://en.rattibha.com/thread/1646898356419981315

**Authoritative third-party syntheses:**
- vidIQ — Hoyos breakdown (Dec 2023), Shorts hooks roundup (Feb 2026)
- Creator Handbook — MrBeast manual recap, Sept 18 2024
- ProTunesOne — Leaked MrBeast doc breakdown, Oct 28 2025
- Cybernews — MrBeast manual on retention checkpoints, Sept 16 2024
- Search Engine Journal — Rene Ritchie on cliffhangers, Aug 15 2023
