Transcription
The single most reason why your reels or short-form videos don't perform are bad hooks, and I kid you not, fixing and understanding your hook game will get you views, lots of them.
So, recently, thousands of creators applied to get their hooks analyzed by me, and most of them make these simple mistakes that crush retention, make people swipe away before they even know what's up, and as a result of that, make the algorithm hate you. So, today, I'll pick three creators and fix their hooks with some tricks and strategies that have helped my clients gain millions of views, and that you can actually instantly implement yourself as well.
All right, so the first issue is probably one of the biggest problems I see with hooks, and it's this. Think of people swiping through their reels feed as being on autopilot, and a lot of creator gurus talk about this, but they never really explain the reason why and how to deal with this. So, when people swipe, they basically have this automated muscle memory at this point to keep swiping until something hits their brain receptors, where the brain goes, hmm, that is interesting. And ideally, I've actually done lots of research on that. A lot of people recently actually swipe, swipe, swipe, and then it takes the brain a little longer to kind of process it, and then they swipe back again, and this seems to be like a big major trigger indicator for the algorithm at this point. And because of all of that, this process happens so fast that you need to carefully construct your hooks to basically hit those triggers as fast and as best as possible to get people from your target audience to basically do that. Stop and think and be like, hmm.
So, essentially what you want to do at all times is you want to open loops and don't close them as long as possible, basically keeping them tangling at all times. And when you do close the loop, you want to open another one. This is essentially what we can see clearly here with our first creator, Max. Malgo, Max. Let's just call her Max. So, let's just take a look at this video right here. Things I don't do being lean over 40. So, based on the cover, sounds interesting, but let's take a look first. Okay. So, at this point, we're already past the hook. And here's the thing. People at this point don't care. People don't even know what the context of the video is. And this is how you need to think when especially crafting your hooks. People sit, they swipe on autopilot, and then they see this frame starting with this. And somebody in the kitchen saying, I definitely don't cut out carbs. I'm like, okay, cool. But like, why? And why should you cut out carbs? I don't get the context, right? It's like going to a hardware store and somebody comes up to you and is like, I never pull out. And you're like, huh, what? But he's like, yeah, I mean, the screws obviously halfway through a project. I always finish what I start. You already notice here, there's actually a very fine line from being borderline criminal and getting people's scroll swapping attention, right? And the fix to that whole thing is simply adding context as easy as that.
So, the first thing I would do here is slap that context right at the top of the screen. Let's just do this together. So, let's slap on the safe zone. The first thing you can actually see already from the first sort of frame here, not really the actual first frame, but the hook is that this sling right here is actually overlapping with the comment box. You instantly see it's just way too big and honestly, it doesn't look good. So, the first thing I want to do here is literally remove the caption just to show you how much cleaner that is. So, we're just going to hit the generative fill. So, boom, looks pretty, looks pretty good actually. Looks a lot cleaner. Captions usually can be a lot smaller, but let's not even get into that. The second thing is, like I said, adding context to this whole thing. And by adding context, I wouldn't just say like the cover image of this video says, things I don't do being lean over 40. I mean, it's not bad, but I try to create even more of a curiosity gap with this whole thing to basically force people to watch even further. Because suddenly they have this whole open loop in their head and they're like, okay, now I need to watch further. To kind of create that and be able to craft that, you need to understand your target audience in an actual way, right? And in that case, the content of the reel itself, if we watch the whole video, is a gold mine. Because basically she says, I'm lean over 40, but I definitely do eat carbs. And that in and of itself challenges a common belief, one of the strongest forms of creating hooks, right? So, remember that. In this case, just to make it a little shorter and a little snappier, I'd say lean at 45 and I eat carbs every day or something like this. So, let's just, you know, I'll just do it here right in front of you so you can see, because, you know, the second part of this whole thing is actually making this look better, but let's get into that. And I eat carbs every day. Okay. So, obviously we're not going to make this work. Carbs every day. And if we have here a safe zone, we can already see it needs to be smaller, way smaller than you might think. Also, I'm going to play around with this. I mean, it doesn't look bad. Then you can make it a little bigger. Eat carbs every day. Make this a little there. And you know, one thing you can instantly see right there is that the way this whole shot is framed, and it's actually a big part of why people actually stop scrolling is that it basically overlaps with this part right here. And there's just no way, there's basically clutter. This one is clearly a kitchen. This is a person. This one is safe zone, safe space to put your text, but this is virtually unusable. So, you know, there's almost no way of making this look good. One thing you could do at all times is just slapping some background thing right there. As we can see, it looks a little too big, so make it a little smaller. I eat carbs every day, right? Already not that bad, to be honest, if you ask me. A few things you could play around with, just a few extra lessons right here for you guys, is that now you can play with font, weight, for example, and I eat, you put this a little smaller, like medium, and carbs every day, also like medium, and suddenly it's just way easier for the eye, basically, you know, as you can see right here. So you kind of read this. I actually like it quite a lot, right? But just to kind of make you understand that, yeah, the hook is cool. The spoken hook is cool. It opens up some sort of curiosity gap with what she says and what she has here. You know, this challenge is a common belief, but all of this is still pretty off. So let's actually try to fix that. And what I'm going to do is I'll pull this picture into Chatubity and actually try to create a nice looking frame to just prove the point for you right here. Create a real screenshot where you put her into the frame. Nice lighting, natural, and a kitchen with a big bowl of unhealthy carbs in the bottom half of the screen. I wrote this because I want to create even more sort of a contrast because, you know, curiosity gaps and stuff like this. Scroll, stopping visual, hook real, aspect ratio, 9 by 16. Let's just see what it will come up with. All right, so awesome. This actually looks very close. Man, this is just insane. So let's just take this one. Just to prove a point, let me just put this right here. It kind of overlaps, so I'm going to flip the colors. A very easy way. Black and white, white on black. It's all the same. You know, if we overlay this, still pretty good. And you can just see basically the difference, right? Of a shot like this and a shot like this. Especially if you have some nasty carbs right there, maybe make them even grazier, more unhealthy. And suddenly people are going to have a reason to stick around and be like, really? What's she doing? How does she do it? I love noodles. Right.
Next one, Stefan from Slovakia. His problem is actually getting reached and I can actually instantly see why. So let's go step by step right here. So first of all, the first thing, the first impression that I have is amazing, great pictures, especially these ones. And you can understand what's going on. Carousels are always better than actual pictures, but here's the thing. Even with carousels, you need, you need a hook in some form. In this case, it's really, there's no hook. There's just a picture, you know, and just a different version of the same picture. Now to kind of come back to the elements of every hook needs to contain is first of all, a, you know, like a setup of something that makes people in your target audience actually care and ideally plants some sort of picture in hindsight. And that gives them a reason to stick around because they want that question to be answered at some point, because that's exactly what they're interested in and something that they ideally identify with. So with that being said, the profile that you have also has to sort of pass this. It's exactly what I'm looking for. It's what I, what's interesting for me, sort of test. And that one is totally off here because this is the first part of the profile, by the way, you're from Slovakia and this is Bratislava. I hang out there quite, quite a lot. Actually, most people who find you through reels actually come to this feed. And if you take a look here, that is totally off, right? There's a big mismatch between the photo feed and actually the reels feed. And here there's basically great pics, but no hooks at all. And here's actually bad reels. If you ask me, if we just take a look at this one right here, honestly, pretty bad reels, even though it's kind of funny. Very, very bad reels, to be honest, and bad hooks, right? And that instantly takes away all the credibility that you have. So let's take a look at this one. Who can relate? Okay. Let's mute this here, but basically talk about the hook. Who can relate? And then this first frame right here, it looks pretty bland, right? What is the need? Ask yourself, what is the need you fulfill for your target audience with this? What is the question that you want to plant in people's head? Who can relate is not a strong question because I'm like, I don't know what this even is about, so I'm gone, right? So to me, this kind of looks like it's trying to farm views, especially with this twist at the end there, but it's not really serving a purpose, not really talking to your actual target audience, which is, I guess, people who are into your photography, right? And the thing is, especially about photography accounts on Instagram, seeing as this was the first big platform for photographers, things have changed quite a bit, right? It's not just about photos anymore, unfortunately, right? And I can kind of understand the frustration here. Lots of photographers have, but these days are over because there's just a million photographers and taking pictures is a skill set, but there's just a lot of people out there, right? So what you actually need to focus on with all these things is thinking about the story within the photo, the emotional connection within a photo, right? Making people relate with either the photo or the photographer, ideally, right? Again, why? Because there's a gazillion photographers out there and you're not special. That is until they get to understand your personality or your why, or the emotions behind it, like I said. So again, just this one, take a look at this picture, like just a bunch of pictures. Unfortunately, I don't understand what's going on right here. Not even a voiceover. So this one looks cool. Let's take a look. I need to mute this. But yeah, pictures, cool pictures, but that's just about it.
Now, let me show you an example from a former client of mine who was going through the career mentorship at basically from zero. And he's doing every, all of these things, obviously that I talked about right now, pretty, pretty well. This is Consti. He's in somewhat of a different photography niche, but also a very, very saturated one, the wildlife photography one. Let's just take a look at some of his examples. Obviously, for example, my photos 10 years ago versus now. Right. And it's also basically just showing pictures, but suddenly we have a connection. First of all, we see where we see him in some crazy gear with a crazy camera and some crazy setting. So a story instantly unfolds. And what is the question in my head? First of all, what is he doing? Is he a very professional photographer and what's going to happen? Because now I'm invested 10 years ago. He's been doing this for a while. He's actually looks pretty young still. So, you know, then continues to go, but we'll just talk about the hooks right here. Not bad photos, but some are kind of bad. And then again, my photos now taught a better or not. And that doesn't matter in this case, actually the quality of the photos doesn't matter that much in this case, because people are ideally people are going to fight anyway in the comments. And that would, that's what makes people go viral, but it's basically people getting brought on the journey, right? It's suddenly you're like with him. He shows some emotion as well, smiling somewhere here, you know, for example. And it's such a different frame if you ask me, right? So people are going to be like, like, how can I create photos? Like you, man? Like why did you, how can you travel? Why, where did you learn all of this and stuff like this. And then, you know, people ask you this, obviously it's the whole monetization avenue because you can teach people that. And suddenly your life is just changing directions and ways you've never basically thought about before. So whereas if we go back to Stefan's videos, zero emotional connection, even with the cool, like these ones are amazing. I love these, but even there, right? The connection is just not there because we don't, we don't even get to the point of looking at the videos more closely because we just don't care. Cause there's so many photos out there, right? So to recap here, think about what major pain points your audience actually cares about, and then make that first frame and hook so compelling that people just need to keep watching, right? Try to figure out whether your hook makes viewers have a question or not. So go back to your hooks and think about what is the question you want people to pop in their head when watching this. And in this case, this is not even about photography. I don't even know what's going on versus right. Something clearly, even one that's not performing. I mean, that's the same kind of example right here, but something totally different. Now I'm anticipating what's the shot and why, why did it get a hundred K look beautiful delivers on the promise right away, actually elevates it. Beautiful. Awesome.
All right. Last one is Ella, a morning coffee creator. And she says she struggles with views and a stagnant following. So let's take a look at one video from her. I'm going to put some different music in there because YouTube's going to flag it, but remember this video, by the way, we've kind of pulled her through the hook generator already at some point in one of our recent videos, probably you don't remember because nobody seems to watch this thing, but essentially I have a free hook generator that where you can screenshot this whole thing, pull it in. And here's what the hook generator actually set. It gave this whole thing a hook score of three out of 10 said that I would say this hook sucks. And I actually agree because there's zero curiosity and no emotional trigger in there. Remember very similar to the things we talked about before. And if we look here, first of all, everything looks kind of cluttered. So we don't even know like it's even so, so cluttered here that there's no real focus on this latte and it doesn't kind of stand out. And this just clutters it too much. Plus the text overlays with all the other things, as well as honestly, this even makes me more confused here just because it's all like a mash of a lot of things coming together based off of all the principles that we talked about before, planning a picture, planning a question, actually, and making a first frame decluttered and, um, actually opening some sort of curiosity loop, curiosity gap. Here's what I would do right here. And for this case, let's go back to her old friend, Chachabitty, because I don't want to go downstairs and create a coffee. I can't do that. Obviously. Otherwise I would have a coffee account. Let's just pull this in there. And I say, create me an aesthetic Instagram, real first frame shot of a vanilla blueberry ice latte and a glass. I give some context, blah, blah, blah. It doesn't matter, but let's see what it comes up with. Here's what it came up with. Looks pretty good. Actually, honestly, it looks pretty, pretty good, man. It looks so real, but let's just pull this in to Photoshop and let's just compare the two examples right there. As you can see right here, it's a total difference. It's like night and day. And honestly, you might be like, this is way harder to create. I need like cameras and stuff like this. You actually don't. With your phone, if your phone is less than, let's say four years old, you can recreate this shot basically without having any extra equipment apart from maybe a light. But then again, if you have a window in your kitchen, easy to do, right? Just notice that here, like all the shadows coming together and the wall, no depth in the image and stuff like this. Total difference, right? Now, with that being said, this looks actually pretty cool. Looks actually a little similar here as well. One thing I can see is that this blueberry thing, don't ask me if it really looks like this. But let's just say. The first thing I would add here is a visual hook, a text hook. Sorry, text hook. This in and of itself is a visual hook already. We don't want to give away like she does here, vanilla blueberry iced latte. Because maybe people in her target audience might be like, okay, this is something weird. But I would see this, I'd be like, it's nothing weird. I just don't feel like it right now. I'm going to swipe away. Whereas you want people even like me who are remotely interested in interesting coffees to think, oh, that is interesting. I wonder what that is. I wonder how it tastes, right? Thinking about the question. So the first thing I would do is basically open the curiosity gap here and say something like this coffee should not taste good, for example. Not, and then, you know, same old spiel. We're just going to create some background overlay that Instagram is going to do anyway for you. Let's make it white, for example. Should not taste good. Instantly better. One thing from before, instead of playing around with the font weight, we can play around with the color picker. Notice how if I use red, it instantly looks a little off and cheapish. It still looks cool, but honestly, honestly, see, in this case to make things cool, just play around with it, but not, I mean, why not? Let's just use the red one. Why not? Put a bunch of dots here just to open it more. There you go. Look at this. But now my friends, we're getting even deeper because that in itself is already a strong hook, way better to this. Let's open the loops even more. Cause if you look, this coffee should not taste good. Cool. Opens a loop, but instantly we kind of see, okay, has something to do with blueberries. So I'm like, I already kind of get half the answer. So I solved it myself. So there's no need for me to keep watching. So here's what I would actually do. Sneaky little trick that I would do here to make this even crazier. First of all, take the blueberries, blur them. Look at this. Maybe blur them even more just so people kind of get a sense of what's going on. And then what I want is something like this. Honestly, I think yellow is better, but again, a lot of the times I would actually recommend you to do it with any, with Photoshop or with whatever you have until you kind of get a feel for what looks good and how to kind of edit elements in there. You just play around with it and you can see this one is actually, see, I would have never thought about this color. I'd be like yellow, red, but like just doing that with the whole composition here. Now I lost that. This looks actually pretty, pretty cool. Now let's do some outer glow because I'm a nerd. There you go. And suddenly you have a first frame where you're like, what is this? And then you basically show what to do and don't give away this thing until all the way at the end. But this is all part of another video, but you could just see night and day difference.
So if you want to get your accounts and content reviewed for free, link is in the description. And if you implement these things and you're still stuck, obviously it's because your whole content strategy is off and the rest of your video is off. So watch this video next and I'll walk you through a process that will make you go grow better than ever before.