When it comes to advertisements, TikTok’s Gen Z and a large portion of its millennial audiences tend to be impatient. People will stop paying attention to your advertisements after the first three seconds. TikTok ads only have three seconds to grab a user’s attention before they swipe to the next video, so it’s imperative that you take the time to create compelling hooks for your campaigns.
According to data presented in 47 Key TikTok User Stats and TikTok Stats for 2022, the vast majority of successful TikTok ads (63%) get right to the point within the first three seconds of the video. In addition, TikTok for Business found that 63 percent of the highest-performing videos reveal their main selling point in the first three seconds.
Exactly what does the term “ad hook” refer to?
Ad hooks are used by advertisers at the beginning of commercials to quickly grab the attention of the target audience by providing pertinent background information about the advertised product or service, or even providing some lighthearted entertainment. The advertising hooks you create can be presented visually as well as audibly. Sure enough… In an advertisement’s hook, you don’t even need words to communicate your brand’s message.
Forty-five percent of viewers who stick around for the first three seconds of a video will do so for at least another thirty. These Facebook results show how crucial it is to grab your audience’s attention within the first three seconds of your ad.
Focus and Attention Are Captured in the First Three Seconds
You now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish, Time magazine reported a few years ago. Time’s report was based on a Microsoft study from 2015 that found the average human attention span had decreased to eight seconds from twelve in the year 2000. The average attention span of a human is nine seconds, while that of a goldfish is just nine. If you’ve read this far, though, you might not care.
Fearmongers initially blamed the internet for this four-second loss, but newer research suggests that humans have always been a “cognitively distracted species” who can only sustain their attention on a single task for about a quarter of a second at a time.
On TikTok, Position Is Critical
Commercials on TikTok take up the full screen, and the ones that do well mimic the style of regular TikTok videos. They seem at ease and like they were meant to be there. Topview ads are designed to grab users’ attention as soon as they launch the app. Within a day, TikTok assured me of millions of views.
Not only can more conventional in-feed advertisements attract viewers, but so can they. It’s a series of vertical videos ranging from 5 to 60 seconds in length, all of which can be viewed with sound. You can integrate them with other user-generated content in the ‘For You’ feeds of your target audience. To further boost their exposure, you can purchase an In-Feed One Day Max ad spot, which will place your ad directly after the user’s first three organic TikTok videos on users ‘For You’ feed, making it the very first ad they see.
Three Effective Hooks for Your Next TikTok Commercial
Clearly, there are differences between audiences, so what works for one group may not work at all for another. As a result, you need to be open to trying new things to see what connects with your target audience. But before you do that, you might want to try implementing the following TikTok ad hooks and marketing strategies into your videos.
Introduce your video and its topic
Always keep in mind that your TikTok ad only has three seconds to grab the attention of users. Therefore, you must either convey the essence of your message in that time frame, or come up with some other way to grab their attention and gradually roll out your message.
Sometimes companies will use a hook like “Craving the most delicious vegan food that was also produced in an ethical manner?” similarly to “What is the best way to choose lipstick? Adding appealing visuals to the inquiry can pique the interest of your readers. This ingenious device explains the nature of the advertisement without actually doing so.
It goes without saying that you should always provide an answer to the questions you ask. You don’t want your content to be criticised as clickbait just so people will look at it.
Secondly, use upbeat music in your video
In the first three seconds, music is present in the background of more than half of all viral videos. It’s a way to get people interested in your TikTok commercial who might not have been before. It’s possible that if you can hook them with the audio, you’ll be able to keep their attention for the duration of the video.
Try Showing Some Feeling at the Outset
Emotions are noticed instantly by others. TikTok videos that focus on feelings of joy tend to do better than those that focus on pain points and then explain how the brand’s product solves those problems. SEMrush found that 58% of popular videos on TikTok make people feel good. TikTok ads often use a sense of surprise or shock to pique viewers’ interest.
Keep in mind, though, that “bad” feelings tend to bomb on TikTok. According to SEMrush, only nine percent of viral videos show anger, four percent sadness, three percent fear, and less than one percent embarrassment.
Last Words
When compared to other video sharing sites like YouTube, TikTok is quite unique. TikTok has incredible user participation. Consequently, it is all the more impressive when you succeed in capturing the attention of your audience. For this reason, House of Marketers has decided to concentrate its marketing efforts on the TikTok platform. Despite this, the first three seconds of a TikTok advertisement are critically important.