How Long-Running Facebook Ads Open: First-Line Hook Data
Questions, numbers, "you", urgency or discounts? How the first lines of 9,839 long-running Meta ads in Europe open, by industry and by country, and what to copy.
adthief.ai · · 5 min read
The first line of an ad does most of the work. On most placements it is all people see before "See more", and it decides whether they read on or scroll past. So how do the ads that keep running for months actually open?
We classified the first line of 9,839 Facebook and Instagram ads from 5,185 brands that each ran for at least 60 days in Europe. Some of the results match the usual advice. Some don't: the hooks that marketing courses love most are among the rarest in ads that last.
How we classified first lines
- Source: Meta's public Ad Library, collected every night by adthief.ai.
- Which ads: ads shown in Europe that had been running for 60 days or more, in six industries (supplements, beauty, fashion, home, pets, food and drink). One record per creative.
- Snapshot: 31 October 2026.
- What we looked for in the first line: an emoji, the reader addressed as "you", a number, a question, urgency (now, today, last chance and similar), a percentage off, free shipping, a guarantee, and reviews or ratings.
A first line can contain several of these at once, so the shares don't add up to 100%. Two caveats: every ad here is a survivor, so we see what winners do, not what makes them win. And pattern matching across many languages is never perfect; some patterns, like addressing the reader, are easier to spot in some languages than in others.
The overall picture
| First line contains | Share of long-running ads |
|---|---|
| An emoji | 47% |
| "You" | 30% |
| A number | 20% |
| A question | 16% |
| Urgency | 10% |
| A percentage off | 4% |
| Reviews or ratings | 1% |
| A guarantee | 0% (rounded) |
| Free shipping | 0% (rounded) |
Three groups appear:
- Common: emoji (nearly half) and talking to the reader (almost a third).
- Regular: numbers (one in five), questions (one in six) and urgency (one in ten).
- Rare: discounts, reviews, guarantees and free shipping. Together they open well under one ad in ten.
The rare group is the surprise. "50% off", "Rated 4.9 by 10,000 customers" and "Free shipping today" are standard hooks in many ad templates. In ads that run for months, they almost never come first.
There is a likely reason. A discount or a deadline gets old. An ad that says "this weekend only" can't run for 90 days. The ads that last open with something that stays true: a problem, a fact, a person. Offers move further down the text, into the headline next to the button, or into separate short campaigns.
By industry
| First line contains | Supplements | Beauty | Fashion | Home | Pets | Food |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| An emoji | 40% | 43% | 50% | 52% | 43% | 44% |
| "You" | 32% | 30% | 31% | 32% | 36% | 32% |
| A number | 23% | 22% | 15% | 19% | 19% | 20% |
| A question | 19% | 17% | 11% | 17% | 13% | 17% |
| Urgency | 10% | 11% | 13% | 10% | 11% | 9% |
| A percentage off | 3% | 4% | 4% | 3% | 2% | 3% |
Each industry has its own lean:
- Supplements use the most numbers (23%) and questions (19%). A dose, a number of days, "tired by 3 pm?": specific facts and named problems.
- Fashion uses the fewest numbers and questions, and the most urgency (13%). Drops, restocks and seasons give real reasons to buy now.
- Home opens with an emoji more than any other industry (52%).
- Pets talks to "you" the most (36%), and uses discounts the least (2%).
If you copy hooks from another industry, you may be copying a style your buyers don't expect.
By country
| Main market | Ads | "You" | Question | Number | Urgency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The UK | 4,519 | 37% | 15% | 21% | 11% |
| Germany | 1,448 | 29% | 20% | 19% | 15% |
| Italy | 498 | 18% | 14% | 22% | 11% |
| Spain | 367 | 26% | 13% | 19% | 10% |
| France | 354 | 30% | 17% | 18% | 8% |
| The Netherlands | 330 | 11% | 19% | 22% | 3% |
| Ireland | 323 | 37% | 14% | 19% | 13% |
| Sweden | 204 | 26% | 18% | 24% | 1% |
| Greece | 183 | 19% | 8% | 15% | 3% |
| Poland | 180 | 7% | 20% | 17% | 13% |
| Austria | 158 | 30% | 15% | 22% | 13% |
Some of these gaps are partly language. Polish often leaves out the pronoun, so "you" is harder to see in Polish text, and the same may apply in other languages. Read the "you" column with that in mind.
The urgency column is more telling. German ads use urgency the most (15%). Dutch, Greek and especially Swedish ads barely use it (3%, 3% and 1%). Greek ads also rarely open with a question (8%). If you run the same "last chance" opening across Europe, it will look normal in Germany and out of place in Sweden.
How to use this in your own ads
- Open with something that stays true. A problem, a fact or the reader's situation. That is what lets an ad keep running.
- Make the number specific. Supplements open with a number more than any other industry for a reason: "in 14 days" or "3 ingredients" says more than "fast" or "simple".
- Ask a question only if the reader would say yes. A question works when it names a situation the reader recognises at once.
- Put the offer second. If you have a discount, use it in the headline next to the button, or later in the text. Very few lasting ads lead with it.
- Use urgency only when it is real, and in the right market. It fits restocks and seasons, and German audiences see it more often. In Sweden or the Netherlands, it is unusual.
- Test hooks, not just images. Run the same visual with two first lines: one question, one specific fact. It is the cheapest test there is.
For ready-to-use structures built on these patterns, see Facebook ad hook formulas. For emoji in particular, see how many long-running ads use emoji.
To plan hooks, angles and offers for your own ads in one place, use the free Paid Ads Workbook.