How to Design the First Slide of a TikTok Slideshow
Updated · By the ViralSlides team
The first slide of a TikTok slideshow does two jobs: it is the hook people see in the feed before they swipe, and the cover on your profile. Give it one short line that names the viewer's situation or makes a specific promise, set it as the biggest text in the whole slideshow, and place it between 10% and 40% of the height, inside the left 78% of the width, clear of TikTok's buttons and caption. Use one photo that shows the situation rather than your logo or app screen, make sure the line reads in about a second on a phone, and let slide two pay off the promise straight away.
Every other slide only gets seen if the first one works. That makes it the slide worth the most time, and the one most often designed like the rest of the deck. Here is how to build it, step by step, and what to check before posting.
Steps
- 1Write the line before you designDecide what the slide says first. Name a moment the viewer recognises (“staring into the fridge at 7pm”) or a specific promise (“5 apps that run my week”). If the line needs your product's name to make sense, rewrite it.
- 2Choose one image that shows the situationA person, a place or an object from the viewer's day carries a hook better than a logo, an app screen or a collage. The image sets the mood; the words carry the meaning, so the photo should support the line, not compete with it.
- 3Make the hook the biggest text in the deckSet it larger and bolder than anything on the later slides, in no more than two or three short lines. Break lines at natural pauses so each line reads as a phrase.
- 4Place it in the safe areaKeep the line between 10% and 40% of the height, inside the left 78% of the width. TikTok's action buttons sit on the right and the caption and username cover the bottom, so a hook placed low is the first thing to disappear.
- 5Give the text contrastOn a busy photo, put the line on a solid or semi-transparent band, add a soft shadow, or move it over a calm part of the image. White text on a bright sky is the classic unreadable cover.
- 6Check it at thumbnail sizeShrink the slide to the size of a profile thumbnail. If you can still read the line, it will work in the feed and on your profile. If you have to squint, cut words or make them bigger.
- 7Make slide two pay it offThe second slide should deliver the first item, the first step or the answer straight away. A cover that promises more than the deck delivers trains viewers to skip your next one.
What the first slide has to do
In the feed, the first slide has about a second to tell the viewer three things: what this is about, who it is for, and why it is worth a swipe. On your profile it does a second job, as the cover that tells a visitor what your account posts. A first slide that is pretty but vague fails both. One that is plain but specific usually wins.
Words that work on slide one
The strongest openers are specific: a number with a topic (“7 meal-prep mistakes”), a moment the viewer is living (“POV: it's Sunday night and nothing is planned”), a belief worth arguing with, or the start of a story. Avoid openers that only make sense after slide three, puns that need a second read, and anything that sounds like an ad. The hook patterns post and the free hook generator give you ready-made shapes to start from.
The image
Pick the photo after the line, and pick it to make the line feel true: a messy desk for a focus hook, a half-empty fridge for a dinner hook. Faces and hands draw the eye, which helps as long as they don't sit where the text goes. App screenshots are better saved for the middle of the deck, where they act as proof once the viewer cares about the problem.
Type
Use a heavy weight, a plain typeface and sentence case or all caps for a few words, not long lines of capitals. Two or three lines is plenty. Thin and decorative fonts blur first when the image is compressed, and they are harder to read in a second. Design on the full 1080x1920 canvas so the text is never scaled up after the fact.
Placement and the profile grid
TikTok draws its interface over the slide. In our measurements on a real iPhone, its buttons cover the right 20% of the screen between 44% and 84% of its height and the caption covers the bottom 14%. Your profile grid shows a shorter crop of the cover than the full slide, so text pressed against the very top or bottom edge can be cut there as well. The upper-middle band is the one place that stays clear in the feed, in the grid and on Instagram Reels.
Keep it in the same family as the rest
The first slide can be louder than the others, but it should look like the same post. If slide one is a polished poster and slide two is a plain screenshot, the swipe feels like a different post and people drop off. Keep the colors, typeface and photo treatment consistent and let size and position make slide one stand out.
Mistakes that sink the first slide
The app's name or logo as the hook. The line placed at the bottom, under the caption. Ten words in small type. A collage of four photos with no clear subject. A clickbait promise the deck never pays off. A first slide that changes style for every post, so your profile grid looks like five different accounts.
Testing first slides
Because the first slide decides so much, it is the cheapest thing to test. Post the same deck with two different first slides on different days, change nothing else, and compare how many viewers reached the last slide and how many saved it. Keep the winner as the template for that format and test the next variable.
How ViralSlides builds slide one
ViralSlides writes the hook first, from a library of hooks for your app's niche that paid plans refresh daily, and lays it out as the cover in the visual style you pick. The same bounds the safe zone checker uses drive a check on every rendered slide, so the hook stays clear of TikTok's interface. If you paste a slideshow that is doing well in your niche, it reads the hook off that post's first slide and remixes it into versions for your own app.
FAQ
Should the first slide show my app?
Usually not. Lead with the viewer's problem or the promise, and show the app in the middle of the deck once they care. A first slide that looks like an ad gets swiped past.
How much text should the first slide have?
One line of a few words, two or three at most. If it doesn't read in about a second on a phone, cut it down.
Is the first slide the cover on my profile?
By default, yes. That is why it should look like the rest of your account and why text at the very edges is risky: the profile grid shows a cropped version of the cover.
Where should the hook go on the slide?
In the upper middle: between 10% and 40% of the height, inside the left 78% of the width. That area stays clear of TikTok's buttons, its caption and the Instagram Reels interface.
Can I use the same first-slide design every time?
Yes, and for a series you should. A recognisable cover style helps returning viewers spot your posts. Change the words, not the layout.