Thumbstop ratio - the same number as hook rate, under a different name
Thumbstop ratio is 3-second video plays over impressions. What it is, why it is identical to hook rate, a calculator, and the vocabulary Admetra uses to compare openings.
Thumbstop ratio is the share of impressions that become 3-second video plays, the same calculation as hook rate, named after the gesture it measures: the thumb stopping on the feed. It is not a Meta Ads Manager metric under that name; it is a derived column agencies add to reporting, which is why two agencies can report different thumbstop ratios for the same ad. Read it as one question only: of everyone the ad was served to, how many stayed long enough for the creative to say anything at all.
Formula
Thumbstop ratio = 3-second video plays ÷ impressions × 100. The 3-second threshold is Meta's, and Meta counts the play at three seconds or at 97% of the video when it runs shorter than that. TikTok's video play metrics list 2-second and 6-second video views and no 3-second column, so a TikTok thumbstop ratio is a different measurement against a different threshold. Before comparing two numbers, check three things: that both use impressions and not reach, that both count 3-second plays rather than ThruPlays, and that both cover the same placement mix. Feed and Reels are separate placements on both Facebook and Instagram, and identical creative is not delivered the same way in each, so a placement-blended number hides the answer you were looking for.
Worked Example
Two creators shoot the same script. Creator A's cut runs 47,000 impressions and 9,400 three-second plays - a 20% thumbstop ratio. Creator B's runs 52,000 impressions and 6,240 plays - 12%. Same script, same offer, same audience: the difference is in the first frame, and the ad account will read it as a creator-quality gap when it is a framing and pacing gap you can fix in a re-shoot.
Hook rate calculator
Paste three numbers from Ads Manager. Nothing is sent anywhere - the maths runs in this page, and there is nothing to sign up for.
Comparing Openings Without a View Count
A thumbstop ratio tells you an opening worked; it does not tell you what the opening did. Admetra classifies openings against a closed vocabulary instead, so a pattern interrupt can be counted against a curiosity gap across thousands of ads, and the visual recipe of the first seconds - frame content, scale, motion, when text lands - is recorded rather than summarized into an adjective.
What Admetra Measures
- Hook-type vocabulary
- Eight values in the opt-in v12 contract (the daily pipeline runs v8) - pattern interrupt, bold claim, question, curiosity gap, problem callout, social proof, texture shock, other - so openings are counted rather than described. The v8 list the pipeline actually runs is the same seven named values, with no texture shock and “none” where v12 has “other”.
- What an opening must record
- Under the opt-in v12 contract (the daily pipeline runs v8), the analysis requires the visual recipe of the first seconds - frame content, scale, motion and text timing - rather than a label
- Cut-alignment tolerance
- 250 milliseconds, under the opt-in v12 contract (the daily pipeline runs v8). A beat boundary further than that from a real cut is treated as a boundary that does not exist, unless the analysis claims a content change without a cut.
- Default mechanic for an opening
- Under the opt-in v12 contract (the daily pipeline runs v8), every hook beat lands on pattern interrupt unless the analysis names a better mechanic for it
Sources And Verification
- Meta Business Help Centre - 3-second video playsChecked August 11, 2026
- Meta Business Help Centre - ThruPlaysChecked August 11, 2026
- TikTok Ads Manager - Video play metricsChecked August 11, 2026
- Meta Business Help Centre - ad placements across Meta technologiesChecked August 11, 2026