What the hook window means, and how to read your own retention there.
Definition
The hook window is the first roughly 15% of a video — the opening stretch viewers use to decide whether to keep watching. Retention in this window often shapes how the rest of the video is watched, so AlgoLens checks it separately from the overall retention curve.
AlgoLens labels this as my hook retention — your video's retention in the first 15% window, compared against your own channel's baseline. Used to see how well your opening holds viewers. Values are shown relative to a 1.0 baseline (1.0 = typical for your own channel), not against other channels or creators.
Why it's checked separately from overall retention
"Retention" is a general term for how long and how completely viewers watch a video — retention rate, segment retention, and hook-window retention all fall under this umbrella. Because the opening minutes set the ceiling for how much of a video can realistically get watched, AlgoLens breaks the hook window out as its own number instead of folding it into one overall retention figure.
What to do
Where AlgoLens helps
AlgoLens's Video Analysis tab shows your hook retention for each video right alongside the full retention curve, so you can see the opening window and the rest of the video together instead of eyeballing the curve for where the first 30 seconds end.
Related terms
FAQ