1) Competitor-based hook replication

The fastest method is to identify direct competitors and reuse their hooks as a base. This is widely used and can accelerate iteration when the goal is to test proven angles quickly.

Just take a look at how Latera managed to copy Roamy, but in Spanish instead, and still went viral:

Roamy: ” i could LITERALLY KISS the flight attendant that showed me this”

9.5M views (Nov 2025)

Latera: “Podría LITERALMENTE casarme con la azafata que me mostró esto”

(“I could literally marry the flight attendant who showed me this.”)

1.7M views (Feb 2026)

2) Mining niche influencer content for recurring problems

A second method is to study non-brand influencer accounts in the same vertical that post heavily in the niche. The process focuses on what they talk about, how audiences react, and what appears in the comments. This reveals clusters of recurring user problems that can be turned into hooks and reused for an app.

This approach is common in areas like personal finance and can be applied similarly in other niches. Searching for a hook and checking whether it repeats across accounts helps validate whether it is a reusable structure.

A strong example of this comes from StudyTok. One recurring frustration in the niche is fake productivity, the feeling of planning the perfect study session instead of actually studying.

A creator turned that tension into a hook that pulled 2M views, and Tomo AI later adapted the same format for the app. That is the playbook: watch niche creators, identify the recurring frustration, then translate it into an app-ready hook.

Recycling also matters. Hooks that went viral months earlier can still perform when reused later, indicating that older viral hooks can be reintroduced successfully.

3) Writing hooks from user pain points, then adapting to audience language

When hook-writing skill is strong, hooks can be built directly from user pain points and then searched for matching inspiration or tested immediately. Adapting to the language of the target audience is critical.

Attempts to automate hook discovery through scanning and harvesting are described as unreliable due to noise. Manual searching within a vertical and saving hooks into a personal gallery of inspiration is presented as more effective.

Let’s use the TLDL case study as an example.

They took a hook from a recurring student pain point, and the comment section validated that it was widely felt.

“when you’re too tired to study but you can’t sleep ’cause you need to study” hit 18.6M views and got 3,668 relatable comments.

Proven viral format -> pain point hook -> caption app promo.

4) Use open prompts to generate new hook variations

When you run out of angles, open-feedback posts can do the work for you. Questions that ask for honest opinions, stories, or experiences often generate comment sections full of phrasing, tensions, and problem statements you can turn into new hooks.

A strong example comes from the college-advice niche. One creator asked for wild freshman-year stories and the post reached 545.9K views with 1,718 comments.

“I’m bored comment ur most INSANE freshman year story. Not just ‘we got caught by the RAs’ like actually unhinged.”

A whole library of genuine stories from the audience, generated from one AI picture and one hook.