# Hook Formulas — Global Reference

> **Reference file** — Load when using `25-copy-quang-cao-global`, `27-content-matrix-pb-global`, `26-script-video-global`, or any skill that produces social media or ad copy.
> Scope: international (US, UK, AU, SEA, LATAM). Extends VN reference `hook-formulas-vn.md` with English-language examples and cross-market context.

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## 1. Six Hook Types Overview

A hook is the first 1-3 seconds of a video or the first 125 characters of an ad. It decides whether the audience stays or scrolls. Six types cover roughly 95% of high-performing creative across English-speaking markets:

1. **Question hook** — pose a pain-point question the viewer cannot ignore
2. **Numbers hook** — lead with a surprising statistic that demands explanation
3. **Contrarian hook** — oppose a popular belief or "best practice"
4. **Story hook** — open with a POV or mini-story that pulls the viewer in
5. **Result-first hook** — show the outcome before explaining the method
6. **Confession hook** — admit a mistake, failure, or vulnerability

### Universal principles

- **Hooks decide 80% of performance.** Video drops in 1-3 seconds. Ads get cut off at 125 characters on mobile.
- **Never open with "I".** Start with "You", numbers, names, or direct action.
- **Specific beats general.** "97% of founders skip this step" beats "Most founders skip this step."
- **Numbers beat adjectives.** "Grew 340% in 60 days" beats "Grew quickly."
- **One idea only.** A hook carries a single promise; do not stack 2-3 ideas in 50 characters.

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## 2. Hook 1: Question Hook

### Formula
Pose a question that names a pain, contradiction, or curiosity gap. The viewer cannot answer it without continuing to watch.

| Component | Limit | Example |
|-----------|-------|---------|
| Line 1 | <= 50 chars (video) / <= 125 chars (ad) | "Why is your CAC up but conversion flat?" |
| Line 2 (optional twist) | <= 50 chars | "It's not your ads. It's your offer." |

### 5 Examples in English

1. **US SaaS founder** — "Why does your demo book rate keep dropping?"
2. **UK D2C brand** — "What if your best-selling SKU is killing your margin?"
3. **AU coaching** — "Why do most coaches plateau at six figures?"
4. **SEA agency** — "Why are your clients ghosting after month two?"
5. **LATAM e-commerce** — "Why does your cart abandonment spike at 11pm?"

### When to use
- Top of funnel (TOFU) cold traffic
- Audiences sitting on an unresolved pain
- Educational content series

### When to avoid
- BOFU / hot audiences who already know the problem (they want solutions, not questions)
- Vague questions without specificity ("Are you struggling?" reads as spam)

---

## 3. Hook 2: Numbers Hook

### Formula
Lead with a specific, unexpected statistic. Numbers create instant credibility and curiosity — the viewer needs to know the context behind the number.

| Component | Limit | Example |
|-----------|-------|---------|
| Line 1 | <= 50 chars | "97% of founders skip this one step" |
| Line 2 (twist) | <= 50 chars | "And it costs them $200K a year" |

### 5 Examples in English

1. **US B2B SaaS** — "$487K wasted on ads — here's what I learned"
2. **UK retail** — "1 in 3 customers leave because of this checkout flow"
3. **AU fitness** — "From 12 clients to 340 — without paid ads"
4. **SEA fintech** — "78% of users churn in week one — here's why"
5. **LATAM beauty** — "Sold 12,000 units in 60 days from one Reel"

### When to use
- Any funnel stage
- Industries where credibility and proof matter (finance, B2B, health, education)
- Cold traffic that has not encountered your brand

### When to avoid
- Numbers without context (avoid round numbers like "1000% growth" that read as exaggeration)
- Niches where audience is skeptical of statistics (use case studies instead)

---

## 4. Hook 3: Contrarian Hook

### Formula
State a widely accepted belief, then invert it. The cognitive dissonance forces the viewer to keep watching to resolve the tension.

| Component | Limit | Example |
|-----------|-------|---------|
| Line 1 | <= 50 chars | "Running more ads will NOT help you" |
| Line 2 (twist) | <= 50 chars | "I cut budget 50% and tripled orders" |

### 5 Examples in English

1. **US marketing** — "Stop posting daily. Post twice a week instead."
2. **UK B2B** — "Cold email is dead — except for one specific use case"
3. **AU coaching** — "Niching down is killing your business"
4. **SEA SaaS** — "Free trials are losing you money. Here's why."
5. **LATAM consulting** — "Charging less is the fastest way to grow"

### When to use
- TOFU on TikTok and short-form video (where attention is hardest to win)
- Thought leadership content
- Audiences saturated with generic "best practices" advice

### When to avoid
- Highly regulated industries (medical, financial) where contrarian claims invite scrutiny
- When the contrarian position is genuinely wrong — clickbait kills trust

---

## 5. Hook 4: Story Hook

### Formula
Open with a POV moment, a scene, or a mini-story. The viewer becomes the protagonist or witness, which makes the rest of the content feel personal.

| Component | Limit | Example |
|-----------|-------|---------|
| Line 1 (scene) | <= 50 chars | "POV: It's 11pm and a client just left" |
| Line 2 (stakes) | <= 50 chars | "They were 40% of my revenue" |

### 5 Examples in English

1. **US founder** — "POV: Your biggest investor just emailed you 'we need to talk'"
2. **UK creator** — "The day my second-largest client churned, I learned the hard way"
3. **AU consultant** — "POV: You open your inbox to a one-star review at 6am"
4. **SEA agency owner** — "POV: It's payroll day and your invoice is overdue"
5. **LATAM coach** — "The moment I realized I had been pricing wrong for three years"

### When to use
- LinkedIn long-form posts
- YouTube long-form videos
- Mid-funnel (MOFU) — building connection with a warm audience
- Personal brand content where authenticity is the lead

### When to avoid
- Performance ads with tight attention windows (story hooks work better organically)
- B2B technical audiences who prefer data over narrative
- Hooks that are stories about yourself with no benefit to the viewer

---

## 6. Hook 5: Result-First Hook

### Formula
Show the outcome immediately, then explain how it happened. The viewer is hooked by the result and will watch to understand the method.

| Component | Limit | Example |
|-----------|-------|---------|
| Line 1 (result) | <= 50 chars | "From 5 clients/week to 40 — in 60 days" |
| Line 2 (curiosity hook) | <= 50 chars | "And I did not spend more on ads" |

### 5 Examples in English

1. **US agency** — "$0 to $1.2M ARR in 14 months — here is the system"
2. **UK creator** — "From 800 to 80,000 followers in six months — no virality"
3. **AU e-commerce** — "Cut CAC from $94 to $23 — one change"
4. **SEA SaaS** — "From 12% to 38% conversion — the demo script that did it"
5. **LATAM coach** — "Booked 47 calls in one week — and here is the offer"

### When to use
- MOFU / BOFU audiences considering a similar transformation
- Audiences with high intent who want to see proof before method
- Case study and testimonial content

### When to avoid
- Cold traffic that does not yet care about your specific result
- When results are not yet verifiable (avoid making claims you cannot back up — this is also a legal risk under FTC and UCPD)

---

## 7. Hook 6: Confession Hook

### Formula
Admit a mistake, failure, or vulnerability. Empathy and trust are the emotional triggers — the viewer leans in because authenticity is rare.

| Component | Limit | Example |
|-----------|-------|---------|
| Line 1 (admission) | <= 50 chars | "I wasted $500K on ads I should not have run" |
| Line 2 (lesson hook) | <= 50 chars | "Here is the most expensive lesson I have learned" |

### 5 Examples in English

1. **US founder** — "I hired five marketing leads in a row — all wrong. Here is what I missed."
2. **UK consultant** — "I almost went bankrupt because of one pricing mistake"
3. **AU agency owner** — "I lost my biggest client because I avoided one hard conversation"
4. **SEA creator** — "I built my audience on the wrong platform for two years"
5. **LATAM coach** — "I refunded $80K in one month — and it saved my business"

### When to use
- BOFU / hot audiences who already trust you
- LinkedIn and Facebook (story-driven platforms)
- Building long-term trust with personal brand audience
- Founder-led content

### When to avoid
- Cold paid ads (audience does not know you well enough for empathy to kick in)
- Industries where vulnerability is misread as weakness (some B2B enterprise contexts)
- Confessions without a lesson — admission alone is not enough

---

## 8. Funnel Mapping

Choose the hook type based on where the audience sits in your funnel.

| Funnel stage | Primary hooks | Why |
|--------------|---------------|-----|
| **TOFU (Cold)** | Numbers (2), Contrarian (3), Question (1) | Capture attention from people who do not yet know you |
| **MOFU (Warm)** | Story (4), Result-first (5), Question (1) | Build trust with audiences who recognize your brand |
| **BOFU (Hot)** | Confession (6), Result-first (5), Story (4) | Drive action from people ready to buy |
| **Retargeting** | Numbers (2), Confession (6) | Re-engage with proof or vulnerability |

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## 9. Platform Character Limits

Hook design must respect the visible character window on each platform. Beyond the cutoff, viewers see "...more" or similar truncation.

| Platform | Format | Visible chars before cutoff | Hook placement |
|----------|--------|-----------------------------|----------------|
| **TikTok** | Caption + voice-over | ~50 chars caption | First spoken sentence + on-screen text |
| **Instagram Reels** | Caption + overlay | ~40 chars caption | Text overlay first 3s + first spoken line |
| **YouTube Shorts** | Title + first line | ~60 chars title visible | Title + first 2 seconds of audio |
| **YouTube long-form** | Title + thumbnail + first 8s | ~60 chars title | Title curiosity + first spoken hook |
| **Facebook Ads** | Primary text | 125 chars before "See more" | First line of primary text |
| **Instagram Ads** | Primary text | 125 chars before "..." | First line of primary text |
| **Google Search Ads** | Headlines | 30 chars per headline | Each headline is a mini hook |
| **LinkedIn** | Post text | 210 chars before "see more" on desktop, ~140 mobile | First two lines |
| **X / Twitter** | Tweet body | 280 chars total | Entire post is the hook |
| **Email subject line** | Subject | ~40 chars on mobile | Entire subject line |
| **Email preview** | Preheader | ~80 chars | Preheader text |

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## 10. Anti-Patterns — 10 Things NOT To Do

| Anti-pattern | Why it fails | Fix |
|--------------|--------------|-----|
| "Hi everyone, today I want to talk about..." | No hook; viewers scroll past introductions | Cut the greeting; start with the most interesting line |
| "Did you know...?" (vague) | Question without specificity reads as filler | Add a specific number, name, or detail |
| "We are [Brand], a leading provider of..." | Self-centered; viewer does not care about you yet | Lead with the viewer's problem or outcome |
| Copying competitor hooks verbatim | Platform algorithms flag duplicate content; audience recognizes derivative work | Change the angle, use different stats, change the format |
| Hook longer than 125 chars in ads | Cut off at "See more" — your punchline disappears | Cut to one idea, max 100 chars |
| Hook that does not match content (clickbait) | Viewer feels misled, unfollows or marks as spam | Hook must be a promise the content delivers |
| Reading hook word-by-word with no rhythm | Sounds robotic; loses energy in the first second | Read aloud before recording; emphasize key words |
| Multiple competing ideas in one hook | Brain cannot process two ideas in 2 seconds | One idea per hook. Save the second for the body. |
| Hook full of jargon for cold audience | Cold viewers do not have context for industry terms | Translate to plain language for TOFU; use jargon only at BOFU |
| Hook with no emotional trigger | Logical-only content has lower watch rates | Add curiosity, surprise, empathy, or urgency to every hook |

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## 11. Pre-Use Hook Checklist

Before publishing, verify:

- [ ] Line 1 fits within the platform's visible character window
- [ ] Hook contains a specific number, name, or concrete detail (not generic)
- [ ] Does not start with "I" — starts with "You", a number, a name, or a verb
- [ ] Creates curiosity, surprise, empathy, or urgency
- [ ] Matches funnel stage (TOFU / MOFU / BOFU)
- [ ] Matches platform character limit
- [ ] Line 2 builds on Line 1 (twist, stakes, or curiosity hook) — does not repeat
- [ ] Reads naturally when spoken aloud
- [ ] Promises something the body of the content actually delivers
- [ ] Complies with FTC, EU UCPD, ASA, or local advertising standards (especially for claims-based hooks)
