Quick test: open your last faceless Short and watch the first three seconds with the sound off. Did you feel a reason to stay? No? Then your hook is doing nothing, and it’s probably the same bland line every other “viral hook” prompt hands out.
A creator on r/ChatGPTPromptGenius (u/TabbsDigital) runs a small faceless Shorts channel. They shared the three prompts they still use every week after trying a pile of others. Here’s how to run them, and I’ll add a few ways to get more out of each one.
🎯 Step 1: Ask for variety, not “viral”
The word “viral” gets you generic output. Ask for different techniques instead. Paste this and fill in the brackets:
Write 10 different hooks (max 12 words each, spoken in under 3 seconds) for a Short about [TOPIC] for [TARGET VIEWER]. Use a different technique for each: bold claim, question, shocking stat, negative (“stop doing X”), story-in-progress, “you’ve been lied to”, countdown, before/after, direct callout, and visual pattern interrupt. Label each technique.
Here’s a quick example of how to fill it in. Instead of “[TOPIC] = budgeting,” try “[TOPIC] = why your grocery bill jumps every December” and “[TARGET VIEWER] = parents of two on a tight monthly budget.” The more concrete the brackets, the less the AI falls back on filler.
Now read all ten out loud. Pick the most specific one, not the cleverest. Clever sounds good on paper. Specific makes a stranger stop scrolling. If two hooks tie, test the winner against the runner-up on two similar Shorts and keep whichever holds viewers longer.
🔁 Step 2: Close the loop
Take your script and make the last line flow straight into the first line. When someone replays without noticing, watch time goes up.
Rewrite the last line of this Short so it flows grammatically into the first line, creating a seamless loop when replayed. First line: [FIRST LINE]. Script: [SCRIPT]. Give 5 options.
Read the ending and then the opening back to back. If it sounds like one continuous sentence, you’ve got it.
For instance, if your hook is “Nobody tells you this about cold showers,” an ending like “and that’s the part nobody tells you about” slides right back into it. The viewer hears a single thought, and the replay happens before they’ve decided to scroll. Keep the final line short, too. A long ending drags the loop and breaks the illusion.
📊 Step 3: Run a blunt weekly review
Once a week, feed the AI your real numbers: views, average view duration, % viewed vs swiped, CTR, subs per video.
Here are my last 7 days of stats: [views, avg view duration, % viewed vs swiped, CTR, subs per video]. Identify the top 2 performers and why, the bottom 2 and why, one pattern across the winners, one experiment for next week, and one thing to stop doing. Be blunt.
The key part is “be blunt”. Without it, you get polite advice you’ll ignore.
Pick a fixed time for this, like Sunday morning with coffee, so it becomes a habit and not a chore. Paste the actual numbers, even the ugly ones. If you only share the good videos, the AI will happily tell you everything is fine. Then take the single experiment it suggests and put it on your calendar for the week. One experiment, not five.
🧠 What the results tell you
- Your hook batch feels samey: your topic or viewer description is too vague. Add a detail like “night-shift nurses” instead of “people”. Rerun the prompt and watch the variety jump.
- The loop reads awkwardly: your first line is too self-contained. Rewrite it so it can start mid-thought. Openers beginning with “and”, “because”, or “that’s why” make loops much easier.
- The review says “post more consistently”: the AI has nothing to compare against. See the tip below.
💡 Extra tips
- Compare against your own channel average, not other creators’. Their numbers tell you nothing about your audience.
- Generate a batch, then pick. Writing hooks one at a time makes you fall in love with the first idea.
- Label the technique on every hook. After a month you’ll see which one your viewers actually respond to.
- Keep a simple note with your winning hooks and their technique labels. Patterns show up fast once they’re written down.
The original poster asked whether people generate a batch and pick, or write hooks themselves. I’m in the batch camp. Where do you land?
🚀 Your move
Pick one Short from this week, run Step 1 on it, and post the winning hook where your audience can see it. Then come back and tell me how it did! ☠
The 3 prompts that actually moved my faceless Shorts numbers (hooks, loop endings, weekly review)
by u/TabbsDigital in ChatGPTPromptGenius