Free. Sixty-six hooks. Nothing to install.
The Hook Engine
Thirteen hook categories, sixty-six variations, and the principles underneath them — built from a classified library of roughly two million short-form clips. Not templates to paste. A reference set that tells you which opening to reach for, at the video length you are actually writing.
Written for entrepreneurs & creators who would rather know what the data says than guess louder.
Most hook advice is a list of fill-in-the-blank lines someone screenshotted from a thread. It tells you nothing about which opening suits a Short versus a twenty-minute video, and nothing about which lines are so overused they now read as noise.
The data says the crowded move is not the winning move. Direct Address and Shock openings are 80.4 percent of every hook in the library and rank fifth and fourth on views. Story openings are 7.4 percent of the library and lead the entire field.
The Hook Engine gives you the map instead of the templates: what each category actually does to the viewer, where the empty lanes are, and which numbers are solid enough to act on.
The six to learn first
Sixty-six variations is a reference set, not a working set. These six cover most of what a channel ships. Look up the rest when a specific video calls for it.
The Belief Flip
Challenge something the viewer is sure of. Works at every length and on every platform.
The Intriguing Incident
Open at the dramatic moment instead of the beginning. The biggest measured gap in the whole library: 4,204 views against 1,014.
The Named Frustration
Say their problem out loud before you say anything else. Feeling seen buys you the next line.
The Withheld Named Thing
The cleanest curiosity loop there is, and the easiest one to close honestly.
The Reframed Truth
Redirect instead of denying. No invented claims, so it never tips into clickbait.
The Naming
Coin a term for the thing. The only opening that compounds across videos instead of expiring with one.
Sorted by video length
A thirty-second Short and a twenty-minute video need different openings, so the file is organised by how much time you have before the viewer decides. Find your length, then pick from the few hooks that work there.
3 seconds — Shorts, Reels, TikTok
No room to build up. Only four hook shapes survive here. Everything else needs setup time you do not have.
15 seconds — a long video's opening
One hook, one turn, then the promise. This is where opening at the dramatic moment beats starting at the beginning by 4.1x.
30 to 60 seconds — a new section
The viewer already chose to be here, so the job is holding them, not catching them. Bold claims, reframes and questions all work.
3 minutes or more — a pitch or webinar
You stop picking a hook and start picking an idea. The opening becomes a consequence of the idea, not a separate choice.
Every number carries its own warning label
How often each hook gets used is measured cleanly and worth trusting. How well each one performs rests on far smaller samples, and the file says so on every page. A guide that hides its weak spots is asking to be trusted on faith.
Solid enough to act on
Pattern interrupts, and the question and curiosity-gap family. Performance measured across thousands of clips.
Directional only
Story teases, pain openings, you-focused lines, product intros, authority claims. Measured on 77 to 790 clips each.
Not enough data — do not lean on it
Visual hooks. Twenty-seven clips in the entire performance table.
No data at all
Statistic openings, trending-topic openings, audio hooks. Nothing published, and the file says so rather than guessing.
How it works
1
Enter your email and the 44-page swipe file arrives in your inbox. Free, no payment.
2
Turn to the page for the video length you are making, and pick one hook. Not thirteen. One.
3
Rewrite one line you already wrote and say it out loud. If you would say it to someone's face, it works.
The first three seconds decide whether the rest of your video gets watched at all. Everything you make is in service of them. Get the reference set that tells you what to put there.