🛑 How to Stop the Scroll With Your Hooks: Your New Blueprint

Hey friend,

Let’s be real - if you can’t win the first 3 seconds, you’ve already lost.

It doesn’t matter if your product changes lives, your offer is irresistible, or your copy is conversion gold…

If people don’t stop scrolling to watch, you’ll never get the chance to show them.

The truth?

Most brands burn thousands every month simply because their hooks aren’t built to compete in the feed.

Today I’m giving you the exact Hook Framework System we use at Brick to:

• Stop the scroll (in a sea of addictive content)

• Earn attention long enough to deliver your offer

Let’s break it down 👇

P.S. We’re Hiring: Senior eCommerce Creative Strategist
Can you turn customer insight and data into ads that scale?
Details at the bottom of this week’s newsletter 👇

Before you even think about what to say, you need to understand what your audience desperately wants.

This isn’t a feature or even a surface-level benefit. It’s the deep, persistent motivation they carry everywhere with them.

Examples of mass desires:

• Not: “Our water filter removes 99% of bacteria”

• Yes: “Peace of mind that your family’s drinking water is pure and safe”
  

• Not: “Our running shoes weigh less than 200g”

• Yes: “The feeling of flying past your old personal best”

How to find yours:

• Mine customer reviews for emotional language

• Browse Reddit and Quora for pain points & frustrations

• Analyze competitors’ ads that have high engagement

• Track patterns - when the same desire appears across multiple sources, you’ve hit gold

2. Match Desire to Awareness Level

If your hook doesn’t speak the same language as your audience’s current state of mind, it will miss entirely.

The 5 awareness levels:

1. Unaware – Don’t know they have a problem.

2. Problem Aware – Know the problem, not the solution.

3. Solution Aware – Know solutions exist, but not yours.

4. Product Aware – Know your product, not convinced yet.

5. Most Aware – Ready to buy, just need a nudge.

Example (weight loss supplement):

• Unaware: “This one habit before bed might be sabotaging your metabolism”

• Problem Aware: “Tired of diets that stop working after week two?”

• Solution Aware: “The science-backed formula that reprograms your body’s fat-burning system”

• Product Aware: “Why nutritionists recommend [Product] over traditional diet pills”

• Most Aware: “Final day to join the 30-day transformation challenge”

💡 Quick Tip:
Audit your comments, DMs, and customer questions.
Label them by awareness level. Then, write hooks specifically for each level.

3. Engineer the Visual Hook

Words alone rarely stop the scroll. Your visual must amplify the verbal message.
In 2025’s fast-moving feed, the first frame must be visually impossible to ignore.

Five formats to test immediately:

• Split Screen – Before/after, comparison, or competitor vs. your product

• Handwritten Notes – Adds human connection and breaks the “polished ad” pattern

• TikTok Response Format – Address objections or FAQs in big on-screen text

• Bright Colors – Use contrast (even outside your brand palette) for thumb-stopping impact

• Satisfying Textures – Loops, close-ups, and “oddly satisfying” shots that buy extra watch time

💡 Quick Top:
For every verbal hook you write, brainstorm 3 visual pairings.

4. Test Methodically (No More Guesswork)

Random testing is why ad accounts get clogged with 200+ creatives and no learnings.
Instead:

1. Pick one mass desire

2. Create 3–5 hooks for each awareness level

3. Test across 2–3 visual formats

4. Track Scroll Stop Rate and meaningful engagement (comments, shares, saves)

💡 Quick Tip:
Keep a “Proven Hooks” library with exact wording, visuals, and metrics so you can repurpose them in future campaigns.

5. Move Them to the Next Level

A hook’s job isn’t just to grab attention - it’s to advance your audience’s readiness to buy.

Examples:

• Unaware → Problem Aware: Reveal a hidden problem.

• Problem Aware → Solution Aware: Show there’s a better way.

• Solution Aware → Product Aware: Introduce your unique mechanism.

• Product Aware → Most Aware: Eliminate their last objection.

Bottom Line

Successful hooks aren’t lucky - they’re engineered.

The brands scaling the fastest are:

✅ Starting with validated mass desires
✅ Speaking directly to the right awareness level
✅ Pairing verbal hooks with attention-grabbing visuals
✅ Testing systematically and documenting winners

Do this, and your ads will get cheaper clicks, more engaged viewers, and bigger returns - without spending a dollar more on media.

That’s it for this week.

Back in your inbox soon.

- Toby.

If you’re spending $30K+/month, your creative is either fuelling growth… or quietly holding you back.

We’ll run a full creative audit of your ad account - breaking down what’s working, what’s wasting budget, and where you’re leaving scale on the table.

You’ll walk away with clarity on the exact angles, formats, and creative variety needed to lower costs, improve performance, and unlock growth.

📅 Book your creative audit here → https://form.typeform.com/to/STTysERA

Our 30-Day Pilot lets you test our strategy, creative, and media buying… without locking into a long-term commitment.

We’ll plug into your account, audit what’s holding you back, and deploy new creative built to scale.

Clear improvements. Smarter testing. Zero fluff

 If we don’t move the needle, you walk away. No questions asked.

🤳🏼 We’re Hiring:
Senior eCommerce Creative Strategist

Brick is looking for a Creative Strategist who can turn deep customer research and data into scroll-stopping ads for our 7–8 figure brands.

You’ll:

• Own creative strategy from insight → angles → briefs → tests

• Partner with media buying to scale what works

• Lead structured testing and iteration cycles that move revenue, not just clicks

You’ve done:

• 3–5+ years in DTC creative strategy (Meta/TikTok)

• Proven track record of turning insights into profitable ad campaigns at scale

• Comfortable mining reviews, mapping objections, and engineering hooks

📄 Read the full job description & apply here → https://tall-lift-7d1.notion.site/Creative-Strategist-7b355cdacb1648e1b5dc56ce3f494d53