We show that many results about holographic conductivities in geometries with hyperscaling violating scaling can be reproduced from simple scaling laws in the dual field theory. We show that the electro-magnetic response of probe branes in these systems require at least one additional scaling parameter Phi beyond the usual dynamical exponent z and hyperscaling violating exponent theta, as also pointed out in earlier work. We show that the scaling exponents can be chosen in such a way that the temperature dependence of DC conductivity and Hall angle in strange metals can be reproduced.