Creative Heuristics Glossary
What is the eonik performance marketing glossary?
The vocabulary of Programmatic Creative Architecture. A technical library defining the variables and heuristics used to mathematically outsmart the ad auction.
Hook Rate
3-second video views divided by impressions — whether your opening stops the scroll.
Hold Rate
15-second views divided by 3-second views — whether your ad body retains viewers after the hook.
Creative Velocity
How fast your team ships testable on-brand ad variants without adding headcount.
Ad Fatigue (Auction Decay)
Auction-level performance decay when the same creative footprint is shown too many times.
Creative Hook
The opening 1–3 seconds engineered to interrupt scroll behavior in paid social feeds.
The 3-Second Visual Anchor Hook
The visual element in the first 3 seconds designed to arrest scrolling without relying on audio.
Thumb-Stop Ratio
Colloquial term for the rate at which users pause scrolling on your ad — closely related to Hook Rate.
Pattern Interrupt
A visual or audio element that breaks expected feed patterns to force attention.
Curiosity Gap Hook
An opening that teases incomplete information the viewer wants resolved.
Pain-Point Hook
An opening that states a specific problem the target viewer recognizes immediately.
Social Proof Hook
An opening that leads with credibility signals — numbers, testimonials, or authority.
High-Pacing UGC Grammars
The editing rhythm of UGC ads that maintains visual momentum and prevents drop-off.
Variant Supply
The number of finished, testable ad variants your team can put in market per week.
Creative Testing Stop Rules
Pre-committed thresholds for killing or scaling ad variants before gut-check bias sets in.
Deterministic Creative Testing
Testing where only one structural variable changes at a time to isolate performance drivers.
Modular Creative Assembly
Production workflow where hooks, bodies, and CTAs are separate components assembled into variants.
Algorithmic Evasion Tactics for TikTok
Structural strategies to prevent TikTok from flagging an ad as duplicate or fatigued content.
Auction Decay
Performance degradation as an ad exhausts high-intent audience segments in the auction.
Creative Footprint
The structural metadata an ad auction uses to identify a creative as duplicate or fatigued.
Frequency Signal
How often the same user sees your ad — a leading indicator of fatigue.
Body Retention
Whether viewers stay engaged after the hook — measured by Hold Rate.
CPM Inflation
Rising cost per thousand impressions often preceding CPA spikes during fatigue.
Brand Kit Compliance
Locking fonts, colors, logos, and safe zones so every exported ad stays on brand.
Creative Readout Discipline
Structured process for interpreting test results without gut-check bias.
ROAS Decay Diagnosis
Framework for determining whether ROAS drops are creative, audience, or offer driven.
Deep guides (commercial pillars)
What Is Hold Rate?
15-second views ÷ 3-second views — whether your ad body retains viewers after the hook.
What Is Hook Rate?
3-second views ÷ impressions — whether your opening stops the scroll.
What Is Creative Velocity?
How fast your team ships testable on-brand variants without adding headcount.
What Is a Creative Hook?
The opening seconds engineered to interrupt scroll behavior in paid social feeds.
How Ad Fatigue Actually Works
Why CPA rises when the auction sees the same creative footprint too many times.
Why Is ROAS Dropping?
Diagnostic framework for performance decay — creative, audience, or offer.
Creative Testing Math
Stop rules, variant supply, and readout discipline for paid social teams.