Hook Writing Lab
The first line or first second decides everything — so generate twenty and test them properly.
Facebook Ads
You are writing hooks for a paid social ad for .
## Context
- Product:
- Audience:
- Problem:
- Format:
- Voice:
## Why hooks dominate
Most of the audience decides within the first second or first line. A strong hook on mediocre creative outperforms a weak hook on excellent creative — the rest of the ad only matters to people the hook retained.
## Generate twenty across five approaches
- **Specific claim** — a number or concrete result
- **Named problem** — their situation described so precisely they stop
- **Pattern interrupt** — unexpected, but honest about what follows
- **Direct address** — names the audience explicitly
- **Question** — one they genuinely want answered, not rhetorical
## Score each 1–5 on
- **Stopping power** — would this halt a scroll?
- **Relevance** — is it clearly for specifically?
- **Honesty** — does the ad deliver what the hook implies? A hook that over-promises buys a click and produces a bounce, which teaches the algorithm to find you worse traffic.
- **Native feel** — does it look like content or like an advert?
Show the scores. Disqualify anything below 4 on honesty.
## Deliver
Twenty hooks with scores, the top five explained, and for video: the first-second visual that pairs with each of the top three.
## Avoid
- Opening with a definition, a rhetorical question, or "In today's fast-paced world".
- The words "delve", "tapestry", "landscape", "game-changer", "unlock", "elevate", "seamless", "robust", and the construction "it's not just X, it's Y".
- Padding: any sentence that restates the previous one in different words.
- Evenly-weighted sections. Real arguments have a centre of gravity.
- Hedging every claim into meaninglessness. Take a position.
From the Public Template Directory