Paid media strategy and performance has fundamentally changed. Increased competition, evolving algorithms, and faster consumer behavior have made efficiency more challenging to achieve, even with strong creative strategy and meaningful investment.

Today, platforms like Meta reward attention quality, not just exposure. Content must earn interest immediately and sustain it long enough to drive impact. At SheSpeaks, we evaluate creator content through a performance lens built for this reality. That framework is Hook & Hold.

Why Attention Quality Matters More Than Ever

Consumers scroll faster and feeds are more saturated than ever before. As a result, simply appearing in feed and garnering impressions no longer guarantees quality performance.

Platforms now prioritize content that demonstrates immediate relevance, sustained engagement, and meaningful viewer behavior beyond the first impression.

This shift means surface level metrics alone no longer explain why some ads scale efficiently while others stall.

Views Don’t Tell the Full Story

High view counts can be misleading. While they indicate exposure, they do not reveal whether content truly resonated or earned the opportunity to keep serving.

An ad can attract early attention and still underperform if viewers disengage quickly. To understand real performance, brands must look beyond views and assess how audiences interact with content over time.

What “Hook” Signals in Paid Environments

Hook measures how effectively content captures attention in the opening moments.

In paid media, those first 3 seconds determine whether an ad earns continued delivery. Strong Hooks immediately establish relevance, value, or curiosity, signaling to both the viewer and the platform that the content is worth watching.

Without a strong Hook, even well produced content struggles to reach its potential.

Hook is shown as a percentage and is calculated by # of 3 second views / # of impressions.

What “Hold” Reveals About Performance

Hold reflects how well content sustains attention once it has been earned.

It captures the quality of pacing, storytelling, and message delivery throughout the ad. Strong Hold indicates that viewers remain engaged beyond the opening moment, ideally for the duration of the video, which is a critical signal for efficient scaling.

Ads with strong Hook but weak Hold often fail to deliver impact on the ad messaging before drop off occurs.

Hold is shown as a percentage and is calculated by # of thruplays / # of 3 second views.

This chart shows how creator content performs based on the relationship between Hook Rate (how effectively the opening captures attention) and Hold Rate (how well the content sustains that attention over time).

What High-Performing Creator Ads Have in Common

Across campaigns, the strongest performing creator ads consistently demonstrate:

• Clear, immediate hook statements & visuals
• Storytelling that feels native to the platform
• Intentional pacing that maintains engagement
• Messaging aligned to paid objectives

A hook statement is the opening line or visual that stops the scroll and sparks curiosity in the first few seconds.

Examples include:

• “I thought I had a favorite sour candy… until I tried this.”
• “This is the one thing I always keep in my fridge.”
• “I didn’t expect this to work, but here’s what happened.”

How SheSpeaks Thinks About Performance

At SheSpeaks, Hook & Hold is not a creative trend. It is a performance lens.

We use it to understand why content works, how it scales, and where opportunity exists. This approach allows us to evaluate creator assets beyond surface level success and identify the signals that matter most in today’s paid media environment.

For brands navigating an increasingly competitive attention economy, understanding how content earns and sustains attention is no longer optional. It is a strategic advantage.