Question hooks: asking one a viewer can't scroll past
A question hook holds a viewer when they can't answer it in their head within the first second. Ask about their situation or an outcome they want rather than something they can settle with yes or no, then hold the answer back until later in the video, where the product earns it.
Why do yes-or-no questions lose viewers?
A closed question lets the viewer answer and leave. “Do you struggle to wake up?” gets a silent yes or no, and either way the question is finished. The viewer who says no has just been told the video isn't for them. The viewer who says yes has confirmed something they already knew, which is not a reason to keep watching.
The shapes in how to write a hook for a short-form video all open a gap that the rest of the video has to close. A question can open the same kind of gap, but only when the gap is still open after the viewer has thought about it for a moment.
How do you turn a closed question into an open one?
Ask for something the viewer doesn't have yet: a reason, a method, a missing step, a difference they haven't noticed. Open questions usually start with why, what or how, and they point at one specific situation instead of a whole topic.
| Closed question | Rewritten as an open hook |
|---|---|
| “Do you hate packing?” | “What's the first thing that should go in a suitcase, and why is it never clothes?” |
| “Is your apartment too small?” | “Where does everything in a studio apartment actually go?” |
| “Are you bad at saving money?” | “What do people who never check their balance do on payday?” |
| “Do you want better photos of your food?” | “Why does the same plate look better on your friend's phone?” |
| “Do you like iced coffee?” | “Why does iced coffee taste like water by the time you're halfway through it?” |
None of the rewrites can be answered with what the viewer already knows. That is the whole test. Read your question aloud and try to answer it honestly in one breath. If you can, so can the viewer, and the question needs rewriting.
Keep it about their life, not yours. “Why did I stop buying paper towels?” is open, but only you can answer it, so the viewer has no stake in the answer. “Why do paper towels run out faster than anything else in your kitchen?” makes the gap theirs.
Where should the answer land?
The answer lands at the turn, not in the first beat. If the second sentence of the video answers the question, the gap has closed and everything after it is an appendix. Use the beats to narrow the question instead: rule out the obvious answers, show what you tried, make the stakes clearer. Then answer it at the turn, which is also where the product comes in.
For a brand video this matters twice over. The answer and the product arrive together, so the product becomes the thing that closes a gap the viewer has been holding open. Put the product in the first beat and it answers a question nobody has had time to care about.
Some questions need a partial answer early to stay believable. That's fine, as long as the partial answer creates a narrower question. “It isn't the ice” is a partial answer that keeps the viewer. “It's this tumbler” is the whole answer, delivered too soon.
What should the viewer see while you ask?
The picture under a question hook should show the problem and withhold the answer. If you ask why your iced coffee turns to water while holding the product up to the lens, the picture has answered the question before your mouth finishes asking it.
Good pictures for a question hook are evidence without explanation: the half-melted ice, the drink abandoned on a desk, a hand pushing the cup away. The viewer sees that something is wrong and hears a question about why, and neither channel gives the answer away. If you write scripts in two columns, check the DO line of the hook row for any sign of the product before you film.
An example question-hook script
Here the question stays open through two beats, gets a partial answer, and closes at the turn. Only say what the product actually did when you used it.
- hooksay: “Why does iced coffee taste like water by the time you're halfway through it?”do: Close on a clear plastic cup on a desk, ice mostly melted, a pale layer on top.
- beat 1say: “I tried less ice. Then it was just warm coffee.”do: Pour a fresh cup with a few cubes, take a sip, make a face.
- beat 2say: “I tried freezing coffee into ice cubes. That lasted about one weekend.”do: Open the freezer on an ice tray with one cube left in it.
- beat 3say: “And then I realised it was never really the ice.”do: Hold the plastic cup up. Condensation runs down your hand.
- turnsay: “It was the cup. Same coffee, same ice, in this.”do: Pour the same coffee over ice into the tumbler and screw the lid on.
- closesay: “That's after my whole commute. The one I use is linked.”do: Back at the desk later, open the lid and tilt it to the lens so the ice is visible.
The close only works if the last shot is real. If the ice had melted by the time you got to your desk, film what actually happened, or pick a different question.
Do it with lynxr
If you have found a video whose question hook stopped you, lynxr keeps that question's shape and rewrites it for the brand you make content for. Paste a public TikTok or Instagram link on the homepage and lynxr works out the format — hook, beats, turn, close — and writes it as a script for the company you make content for. Free to start: 25 scripts, no card.
Keep reading
- How to write a hook for a short-form video — the four hook shapes that sit alongside the question.
- All posts on the lynxr blog — every guide, grouped by topic.