A hook is the whatever you say or do in the first few seconds of a YouTube video in order to capture the attention and interest of the viewer and make them want to keep watching. In the table below, I list the hooks from 27 high-performing business and finance videos, along with a description of the “hook types” which are reasons why each hook works.
| Hook | Hook Types | Video Performance | Video Title | Channel | |
| 1 | Economists just can’t seem to give a simple answer to the question: “Do we need to have more or less children?” | Curiosity trigger Familiar question Controversy | 22k views after 2 hours | Do We Need More or Less Children? | Economics Explained | Economics Explained |
| 2 | This is Iran. A country that could be one of the most prosperous and powerful economies in the world in less than a decade if it was given the chance. | Visual Controversy | 334k views after 3 days | This Country’s Economy Could Be Huge, But They Don’t Care | Economics Explained | Economics Explained |
| 3 | This is Lebanon. A small country on the Mediterranean coast home to 5.5 million people, according to best available data. | Visual Controversy | 518k views after 10 days | This Country Lost 50% of Its Economy in 2 Years | Economics Explained | Economics Explained |
| 4 | This is Israel. A small Middle Eastern country on the Mediterranean Sea that is home to 9.4 million people and a surprisingly robust economy. | Visual Controversy | 412k views after 3 weeks | How To Get Rich When The World Is Against You | Economics Explained | Economics Explained |
| 5 | Last month, Jerome Powell announced that the Federal Reserve Bank would be moving away from the term “transitory inflation”. | Flip-flopping Controversy Anger | 977k views after 1 year | How is “Transitory” Inflation Going? | Economics Explained | Economics Explained |
| 6 | Alright, it’s time to add another few countries to the list of where I am not welcome. This is the Line. A 170 kilometer long, 500 meter high city in the desert proposed by the Saudi Arabian government as part of their Neom project. | Visual Controversy | 2.6 Million views after 7 months | Why The Gulf States Need To Keep Building Big Dumb Mega Projects | Economics Explained | Economics Explained |
| 7 | At an event in Arizona a few months ago marking the opening of a new Taiwan semiconductor plant, Morris Chang the company’s founder stated that globalization is almost dead and free trade is almost dead, and they are unlikely to come back. | Controversy | 242k views after 4 days | The Death of Globalization! | Patrick Boyle |
| 8 | Last month it was announced that China and Brazil had signed an agreement to trade on trade in mutual currencies, abandoning the use of the U.S. dollar as an intermediary. | Controversy | 380k views after 2 weeks | Would a BRICS Common Currency Work? | Patrick Boyle |
| 9 | Carl Icahn has had a long career in markets, starting out as a stock broker in 1961, later becoming a risk arb and options trader. In the 70s and 80s, he was a notorious corporate raider. He was accused of being an asset stripper, the worst kind of stripper, in his dealings with TWA. | Business Celebrity Gossip Controversy | 228k views after 11 days | Carl Icahn Comes Under Fire! | Patrick Boyle |
| 10 | Do you ever see those Forbes 30 under 30 lists, and they might make you feel a bit down, as there seems to be at least 30 people on the planet who are under the age of 30 and doing a bit better than you are? | Relatable question Articulation of viewer emotion | 1 Million views after 1 month | Forbes Has a Fraud Problem | Patrick Boyle |
| 11 | The period between the end of the American Civil War and the turn of the century, so 1865 through to 1900 in the United States, was a time of rapid economic growth that became known as the Gilded Age. | Resentment Controversy | 1.2 Million views after 6 months | How They Got Rich! | Patrick Boyle |
| 12 | 1 Hyde Park is a luxury apartment building in Nightsbridge, London. It was developed by the Candy brothers, designed by Richard Rogers, and completed in 2009. The luxury apartments come with panic rooms, bulletproof glass, and boller-hatted security guards that were trained by the British special forces. One of the apartments in the building was recently listed for sale at $242 million. | Resentment Controversy | 627k views after 6 months | The Dirty Money Capital of The World? | Patrick Boyle |
| 13 | Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Tiffany — Some of the most popular luxury brands in the world, all housed under one roof: Louis Vutton Moet Hennessy, or LVMH. | Relatable observation Mild surprise or controversy | 245k views after 1 day | How LVMH Became A $500 Billion Luxury Powerhouse | CNBC |
| 14 | Every religion has its mysterious. One of the closest guarded secrets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been its wealth. Tonight, you will hear, for the first time, about its remarkable size, from a former manager at the Church’s investment firm. David Nielson says that during his 9 years managing money at the church firm, the value of its investments ballooned past $100 billion. | Curiosity trigger Outrage Controversy | 1.4 Million views after 2 days | Mormon whistleblower: Church’s investment firm masquerades as charity | 60 Minutes | 60 Minutes |
| 15 | When it comes to fast food, McDonalds is unrivaled in scale and success. McDonalds has held onto its crown for decades, selling more fries, burgers, nuggets, and apple pies every year than any other fast food chain by orders of magnitude. | Visual Relatable observation | 78k views after 2 months | Burger Wars: How Wendy’s Toppled Burger King | Modern MBA |
| 16 | Starbucks has been a mainstay in business school literature and management training as a role model for innovation, branding, vertical integration, and corporate social responsibility. | Visual Controversy | 83k views after 3 days | Why Starbucks Must Crush Unions to Survive | Modern MBA |
| 17 | There are few things that sell as well as security. In America, burglaries and home invasions are highly publicized crimes that surface regularly in fiction and media. | Visual Relatable observation | 162k views after 3 weeks | The Shoddy Business of Home Security | Modern MBA |
| 18 | There are few companies that match the fame and notoriety of Uber. As a ride hailing service, Uber is divisive. | Familiarity | 272k views after 3 months | Why Uber Fails to Disrupt Transportation | Modern MBA |
| 19 | <clip of a Masterworks ad> | Clipped third-party video | 675k views after 3 months | The Problem With Masterworks | The Plain Bagel |
| 20 | Passive income: the whole grail of personal finance topics. The ability to earn money without doing anything. And it’s something you’ll see video after video and ad after ad talking about, pushing the idea that millionaires earn 7 different streams of income so, so should you. There’s just one problem: passive income doesn’t exist. Not really anyway. | Relatable observation Controversy | 995k views after 6 months | The Passive Income Scam | The Plain Bagel |
| 21 | Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the Plain Bagel, I’m your host Richard Coffin. If you’ve been on finance youtube long enough, you’ve seen your fair share of burning dollar bills and thumbnails that highlight that this is the end. Well you might have noticed a bit more burning greenbacks than usual lately given recent headlines that spell trouble for the U.S. economy. | Relatable observation | 272k views after 3 weeks | Let’s Talk De-Dollarization – Why the Dollar Isn’t Going Anywhere Anytime Soon | The Plain Bagel |
| 22 | <clip of Linda interviewing Elon Musk> | Clipped third-party video | 46k views after 23 hours | Twitter’s New CEO: Why Elon Musk Chose NBCU’s Linda Yaccarino | WSJ | Wall Street Journal |
| 23 | Sam: Alright so we have Austin here, Austin Rief, founder of Morning Brew. I know how big you guys are, I don’t know what the public numbers are so I’ll let you kinda say, how big is the company now? Austin: Yeah $70, $75 million of revenue this year, double digit profit margin, 250 people or so. | Familiarity Curiosity trigger Big money number | 55k views after 4 months | How To Grow A $75M Newsletter Business | Morning Brew Co-Founder | My First Million |
| 24 | Shaan: What are easy businesses that you’ve started.. like for me, Milk Road was a way easier business, than any business I had ever started. What’s been an easy business for you? Sam: And where does agencies rank on the easy to hard scale? | Strong financial curiosity trigger (I could use the answer to make money!) | 107k views after 5 months | Ranking The Best And Worst Businesses To Start w/ Billionaire Investor Andrew Wilkinson | My First Million |
| 25 | Alright we have more changes unfolding in the U.S. economy, changes that now have triggered massive levels of anxiety in the bond market. | Fear Urgency | 16k views after 20 hours | Bond Market Risk FLASHING RED as Manufacturing Sector CRASH Breaks Record | RJ Talks |
| 26 | Welcome back to another episode of the Modern Mastery Podcast where we help you optimize your human experience through wholistic personal development. Mind, body, spirit, with business as your vessel for freedom. | Familiar intro “Cult speak” | 134k views after 1 year | Justin Welsh Shows You How To Start & Grow A One-Person Business | Dan Koe |
| 27 | In the last video, we went over what limits are and how to find them. So, in this video, we are going to go over a real life application of limits to find when your dad is coming home. Your dad went to the grocery store with $3 to buy some.. milk. It’s been 15 years and he hasn’t come back, so firstly, let’s set up a graph. | Humor (absurd, hilarious, deadpan) | 10 Million views after 1 year | Using Math to Find When Your Dad is Coming Back with the Milk *This is an educational math video, not a business or finance video, but it is a content masterpiece. | Dapz |