Thumb-stop ratio describes the same thing as hook rate from the viewer’s side. The thumb is moving. The video either stops it or it does not. The measurement is Meta’s 3-second video plays, counted once per impression with replay time excluded (Meta), divided by impressions. Different agencies prefer one name or the other; the number is identical.
The name is useful because it says what the first seconds have to do. They do not have to explain the product. They have to stop a thumb.
Example. A pet brand tests three openings for a treat video: the bag, the dog waiting, and the dog’s reaction. On 30,000 impressions each, 3-second plays are 6,300, 8,700 and 11,400, so thumb-stop ratios of 21 %, 29 % and 38 %. The reaction opening wins, and the brand asks its creators to start every video on the dog, not the bag. Example numbers, not a benchmark.
When brands use it. The pain this answers: “We paid $300 a video and nine out of ten never beat our control.” Brands use thumb-stop ratio to brief creators (“start on the result, not the product”), to rank creator videos before spending real budget, and to spot creative fatigue when a video’s ratio falls over time with the same audience.
The creator’s view. A creator’s thumb-stop ratio across videos is a portfolio metric. Creators who consistently score high on it are the ones brands scale under ad spend share deals, because the opening is the part of a video the brand cannot fix in the edit.