🚨 Your first 3 seconds are costing you $$$

Author

Toby Waller
April 25, 2025

Hey friend!

I’ve spent the last few weeks obsessing over one thing:

Why do some brands scale effortlessly… while others keep stalling, even with a great product and offer?

Here's one pattern we keep seeing:

🔥 Their hooks aren’t doing the heavy lifting.

You can have the perfect ad script, the best offer, even beautiful creative -
But if the first 3 seconds don’t stop the scroll, none of that matters.

This week’s deep dive breaks down how to fix that. Properly.

Here’s what you’ll get:

âś… A full breakdown of our 3-step hook creation framework
âś… How to build scroll-stopping visuals
âś… The biggest mistake 90% of brands make with their creative strategy
âś… Tactical takeaways you can implement this week

Let’s go 👇

🧠 The Hook Framework We Use With 7-8 Figure Brands

Most brands treat hooks like a headline exercise.

They’re not.

A high-performing hook is a system of 3 elements working in sync:

1. Mass Desire

You’re not selling a product, you’re tapping into something people already crave.
Most brands default to features or generic benefits (think: “longer battery life” or “healthier skin”).

We go deeper:

âś… What does your customer really want?
âś… What pain or transformation are they chasing?
âś… What language do they actually use to describe that desire?

Tactical Tip: Mine 100+ customer reviews, Reddit threads, Quora Qs, and social comments. Look for emotiovnal phrases that repeat. That’s your hook fuel

2. Awareness Level

There’s no such thing as a universal hook.

The same desire needs to be framed differently depending on where the viewer is:

Awareness Level

Hook Focus

Unaware

Disrupt their worldview with a pattern interrupt

Problem-Aware

Name the pain and hint at a better way

Solution-Aware

Highlight your unique mechanism or angle

Product-Aware

Address objections, show proof

Most Aware

Push urgency or offer

Tactical Tip: 
Comment sections tell you where your audience sits on this spectrum.

Track phrases like:
“Does this really work?” → Product-aware
“Tired of trying everything” → Problem-aware
“Never thought of it like that” → Unaware

3. Visual Hook

Your visuals should do as much heavy lifting as your headline or VO.

If they don’t stop the scroll or add clarity → you’re leaking performance.

Here are 5 visual formats we deploy with clients:

  • Split Screen: Perfect for before/after, comparison, or contrast

  • Handwritten Notes / Post-Its: Raw, personal, lo-fi pattern breaker

  • TikTok Response Format: Build trust by answering real user Qs

  • Bright Colours & Bold Text: Helps make static ads pop in the feed

  • Satisfying Visual Loops: Works insanely well for health/beauty/wellness

Tactical Tip: Open with your most unusual visual moment, not the safest.

🛠️ What You Can Implement This Week

Here’s how to take this from theory to action:

  1. Run a review mining session

    • Pick your top 2 competitors + your own brand

    • Pull 100+ reviews/comments across platforms

    • Categorise: desires, objections, transformations, language

  2. Create hook variants for each awareness level

    • Use the same core desire, but adjust framing for each stage

  3. Match each hook to a visual style

    • Start simple: test split screen vs bold text vs UGC selfie

  4. Track stop rates + hold rates religiously

    • Scroll Stop Rate: 20%+ = solid

    • Hold Rate: 40%+ = gold

    • If you’re under that? Your hook’s not strong enough.

🧪 Final Thought

If you’re spending money on media, the hook is the highest-leverage variable in your ad account.

Don’t wing it. Don’t guess. Don’t let your intern write it.

Engineer it like the rest of your growth strategy.

You can read the full guide (with visuals + examples) here →

Talk soon,
Toby.

P.S. If you're scaling and want a second pair of eyes on your hooks, I'm happy to do a quick audit - just hit reply.

How We Can Help You

1. Apply to work with Brick:

Spending $50k+ per month on ads?
If you're ready to scale to $1M+ per month and beyond, consider working with our team at Brick. We keep our client roster small, and when brands join, they rarely leave:

»Book a call with Toby here«

2. Follow us:

If you’re not already following me, now’s the time!

I share free resources, in-depth case studies, and daily e-com insights to help you scale your brand, follow along and level up your game:

»LinkedIn / Twitter«

That’s all for now, folks!