Use the Inverted Pyramid Approach for TikToks and Reels

TikTokIn journalism, the inverted pyramid approach to writing stories calls for putting the most important information in the first paragraph (the “lede”). Other details then follow this paragraph in descending order of importance.

If you want your audiences to watch your videos on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, then you need to follow this approach by putting the most captivating part, which is called the hook (usually the end of the video), at the beginning.

You can see this in action in the following video, which shows the finished recipe first (the hook), followed by the cooking and then another shot of the finished recipe.

@chefmaxmariola Croissant con mozzarella, carpaccio di zucchine e salsa d’acciughe 🥐😋 #ChefMaxMariola #MaxMariola #maxmariolacucinapervoi #Cooking #Ricette ♬ Sunroof – Nicky Youre & dazy

The hook is meant to stop people on your video while they are scrolling through their feeds in TikTok and Instagram. If those first couple of seconds in your video are not attention-grabbing enough, then your video will be skipped.

(Also, it’s not worth putting “Wait til end” on your video, because your audiences likely won’t believe there’s a payoff at the end.)

The consequence of having a low completion percentage (how long your audiences watch) and low engagement  levels is that TikTok and Instagram are less likely to show your videos to a wider audience. That in turn slows your account growth and hurts your branding and marketing efforts.