Score your hook across 7 psychological dimensions. Understand why it works — and how to make it stronger.
HookScore uses deterministic psychological scoring — every hook is evaluated against hundreds of documented creator-psychology signals calibrated to the platform you select. There is no AI inference and no randomness. The same hook always receives the same score, which makes improvement measurable and the analysis trustworthy.
Each of the seven platforms — YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook — uses different scoring weights because audience psychology differs by surface. A LinkedIn hook is scored on professional authority signals; a TikTok hook is scored on emotional tension and pattern interrupt.
Your hook is scored out of 100 with a full breakdown showing which of the seven dimensions are strong, which are underdeveloped, and why each score was assigned. Every score has an explanation grounded in a specific psychological mechanism — not a generic suggestion.
HookScore generates three rewrite suggestions, each using a different formula from the 20-category rewrite library. Every rewrite is labelled with its formula name and the psychological mechanism it targets — so you understand the structure, not just the output.
Hook strength is not a single quality. It is the product of seven distinct psychological mechanisms, each of which contributes to whether a viewer stops scrolling, clicks, and stays. HookScore measures all seven independently so you can see exactly where your hook is strong and where it is not.
The curiosity gap is the psychological distance between what the viewer knows and what they want to know. A strong curiosity gap withholds a specific piece of information — a result, a method, a reason — that the viewer must watch or click to resolve. Vague mystery without informational substance does not create a genuine gap.
Emotional tension is the degree to which a hook activates a felt emotional state — fear of a mistake, desire for an outcome, urgency about a deadline, or the discomfort of an unresolved situation. Hooks that score high on emotional tension do not merely describe feelings; they create them in the reader's mind before the content begins.
Specificity is the presence of concrete, verifiable detail — numbers, timeframes, named outcomes, dollar figures, or platform-specific references. Specificity signals credibility. A hook that says "I grew my channel in 90 days" is more credible than one that says "I grew my channel fast" because the specific claim implies real evidence exists behind it.
Pattern interrupt is the degree to which a hook breaks the viewer's expectation of what comes next in a feed. Viewers scroll through hundreds of posts in a session and develop predictive filters that suppress attention for familiar formats. A hook that opens in an unexpected way — a confession, a direct challenge, an unusual claim structure — breaks that filter.
Retention potential measures the structural signals that promise the viewer a payoff worth staying for. Strong retention hooks set up a tension arc — a question, a problem, or a transformation — that can only be resolved by watching to the end. This dimension is especially important for YouTube, where watch-time drives algorithmic distribution.
Authority signal measures whether the hook establishes a credible right to speak on the topic. The most effective authority signals are operational — they name specific evidence of real work: years of experience, a documented outcome, or a research process. Generic claims of expertise ("I know how this works") score poorly; specific evidence of earned expertise scores strongly.
Outcome clarity measures how clearly the hook communicates what the viewer will gain by engaging. A viewer who cannot identify the payoff within five seconds has no reason to continue. Strong outcome clarity does not give away the answer — it makes the value of finding the answer unmistakably clear.
No. HookScore measures the psychological strength of your hook text based on documented creator-psychology principles. It cannot predict platform algorithm behaviour, audience-specific preferences, video quality, posting timing, or any other factor that influences distribution. A stronger hook improves the probability that a viewer who sees your content will stop scrolling — it does not guarantee any particular outcome.
No. All scoring and analysis happens entirely in your browser. HookScore does not send your hook text to any external server, API, or AI service. This makes HookScore safe for ghostwriters, agency teams, and anyone writing under an NDA or confidentiality agreement.
Each platform applies different scoring weights because audience behaviour and psychology differ by surface. LinkedIn audiences respond strongly to authority signals and professional specificity. TikTok audiences respond to emotional tension and pattern interrupt. YouTube rewards retention arc signals because watch-time determines algorithmic reach. Switching platforms recalibrates the weights to reflect how that specific audience processes hook text.
Treat the rewrites as structural formulas, not final copy. Each rewrite is labelled with its formula name — for example, "Curiosity Gap + Specificity Anchor" or "Authority-Led Transformation Arc." Use the label to understand the mechanism, adapt the language to your own voice and niche, and then score the revised version to confirm the improvement. The goal is to understand the formula well enough to apply it without the tool.
A score of 70 or above indicates a structurally strong hook — multiple psychological dimensions are active and the hook is competitive in its platform context. Scores between 55 and 69 indicate a decent hook with one or two underdeveloped dimensions. Below 55, the hook has significant structural weaknesses that will likely reduce engagement. Scores above 85 are uncommon and indicate a hook that activates most of the relevant psychological mechanisms simultaneously.
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