What are Scroll Stoppers?

Scroll stoppers are a component at the beginning of a video that captures attention.  They come in various forms such as visuals, taglines, and sounds.  Scroll stoppers can also be images, but this term is most commonly used in reference to short-form video platforms like TikTok.

Social media platforms strongly use video engagement metrics for their recommendation algorithms.  If other users with similar interests engage positively with a piece of content, the algorithm will likely recommend it to you.

Watch-time is the strongest form of engagement.  You might notice that algorithms know what content to recommend even if you never press like or leave a positive comment.  This is because the algorithms pay close attention to how much time your spend watching a particular type of video.  If you quickly scroll past a video, the algorithm will be less likely to show you similar videos in the future.  Scroll stoppers are a great way to generate watch-time.

Hooks are short messages in the form of text or audio meant to catch the user’s attention in the first second of a video.  It’s very similar to click bait, except videos are autplayed on tiktok.  I guess you could wall it “watch bait”.  The goal is to trigger curiosity and make the viewer watch the rest of your video.

To trigger curiosity, try applying hooks like these in your videos

1. Here’s how I went from ____ to ____ in [time]
   Example (fitness): Here’s how I went from benching 135 to 185 in 6 weeks
2. This hack helped me _____
   Example: (finance): This budgeting hack helped me save $355 per month
3. Three easy ways to _____
   Example (nutrition): Three easy ways to get more protein in your diet
4. I can’t believe how _____
   Example (money): I can’t believe how much money I made flipping couches
5. The best advice I received for ____
   Example (school): The best advice I received for studying more efficiently
6. Want more ____ sales? Follow these steps
   Example (ecommerce): Want more etsy sales? Follow these steps
7. If you have problems with ____, watch this
   Example (pets): If you have problems with dog fur, watch this
8. The most important lesson I learned from ____
   Example (food/business): The most important lesson I learned from starting my own food truck
9. Three signs you  _____
   Example (automotive): Three signs you need new tires
10. This is my day as  _____
    Example (van life): This is my day as someone living in a van traveling across the country

As you can see, hooks can be applied to any industry/content type.  The goal is to give the viewer a peak of what they’ll see in the video, without completely giving it away and losing engagement.

This is an instagram reel, but same concepts still apply to tiktok and any other short form video.  This ad for rocketmoney has 2 scroll stoppers on the first frame: the hook of “how to cancel subscriptions the easy way” and the visual of an egg with “netflix” written on it.  The netflix subscription is strategically chosen because its massive user base is very likely to resonate with the person seeing this ad.  It also immediately catches your eye.  Why is netflix written on an egg? What will the hand do to the egg?  What does this have to do with cancelling subscriptions?  Those questions can be answered by watching the remainder of the advertisement.

Whether or you’re creating videos for organic exposure or to use as paid advertisements, utilizing scroll stoppers will greatly increase effectiveness.  Scroll stoppers are key for increasing engagement.  Engagement can increase reach organically in social media, while also reducing CPMs of paid ads.  Mastering scroll stoppers can be a game changer for your company.