If you've spent any time on the internet, you've likely seen articles and images with headlines like the examples above. They are just a small sample of what is known as clickbait.
The clickbait is a tabloid headline that encourages you to click on a link to an article, image, or video. Instead of presenting objective facts, clickbait headlines often appeal to your emotions and your curiosity. Once you click, the website hosting the link earns revenue from advertisers, but the actual content is often of questionable quality and accuracy. Websites use clickbait to attract as many clicks as possible, thus increasing their advertising revenue.
While tabloid headlines and content have been used since the XNUMXth century, they have become widespread in the digital world. Although it is based on an old idea, clickbait still serves the same purpose as its predecessor: to attract attention by any means necessary.
What is Clickbait actually?
Simply put, "clickbait" is content that is intentionally overpromising or misrepresenting to attract users to a particular website. Clickbait generally lures users in with an instant, sensational headline, such as "you won't believe it" or "you'll never guess what happened next," but then fails to meet the user's implicit expectations.
One of the most popular types of "clickbait" content is to produce "listings" that aggregate content from other sites to attract more users to a site.
Every click and view of the source article typically generates ad-based revenue for the post. The more clicks an article receives, the more revenue it will earn. For this reason, clickbait is designed to attract large readership and rarely uses quality guidelines and research sources. Some clickbait articles will use a large number of images or video clips spread over multiple pages to further increase the number of user clicks. Each page in the "clickbait" will contain multiple ads.
But it goes even further in what this innovative concept means. Because in fact, you cannot forget at this precise moment to really know what Clickbait is, which of course is something different from what we have seen so far. So, before we get into how clickbait works, let's define it. I like the Merriam-Webster definition better than the Wikipedia version. MW defines clickbait as: "Something (like a headline) designed to make readers want to click on a hyperlink, especially when the link leads to content of questionable value or interest."
Sometimes the clickbait is more like a bait and a switch. That is, we read a catchy headline or link, click on it, only to find ourselves engulfed in an ad. Most clickbaits are of the "doubtful value" variety. There is content when we click on the link, but it is heavily wrapped in ads. Therefore, the article or video is actually a lure that exposes us to the ad, which is the true purpose of the content. When enough people are exposed to the ads, there will be a percentage of us who become buyers of the products that are being marketed. Again, we know that this "clickbait" model works well enough because if it didn't, it wouldn't exist. It is a product of Darwinian capitalism.
How does Clickbait hook us?
There is no single simple answer to this question, but we are going to cover one of the reasons why we can't seem to resist clickbait. Humans are drawn to seek information in our world because it has survival value. We search for information in the same way that our ancestors searched for food. This is "connected" to us. Clickbait is the promise that incredible, provocative or shocking information will be revealed if we just click on that link.
Our dopamine reward system is involved in our motivation to learn about our world. Dopamine, a hormone, is involved in pleasure, but it has many functions. Although this is certainly nuanced and can be very technical, there is a body of research that suggests that dopamine incentivizes behavior more through desire (called incentive salience) than taste. In effect, dopamine creates an itch that needs to be scratched.
Clickbait works, in part, because the promise of compelling information activates a particular dopamine pathway. Dopamine is released and creates that itch that can only be scratched by getting the promised information. Biting the hook (that is, getting the information) doesn't really give us great pleasure. What it gives us is relief from that "itch" of not clicking the link. In this way, it can be considered as a kind of negative reinforcement.
The "Vegas Effect"
Another way that clickbait attracts us is through a variable rate booster program. This is sometimes known as the "Las Vegas Effect" because variable rate booster programs are involved in gambling. I blogged about the "Vegas Effect" of our screens in a discussion of why screens can be so hard to resist.
Those "clickbait" headlines make us curious to see what's behind the curtain, so to speak. To quote the shrewd Forrest Gump, who quoted his mother, "Life is like a box of chocolates." You never know what you're going to get. We don't know how shocking these responses will be. How bad will my favorite child actor look? Who were the best rock & roll drummers of all time? I have to know why these celebrity marriages ended so abruptly!
Clickbait headlines and content
The headline of a clickbait article is the most important element. Clickbait headlines are often written to manipulate feelings or gain attention. For example, the headline may elicit angry emotions ("You will be outraged by what happened to this girl"). Other types of clickbait are cleverly designed to pique people's curiosity ("This man found a sealed envelope. You won't believe what was inside!").
Often the headline and content of the clickbait is sensational, provocative, or controversial in nature. These types of headlines, along with eye-catching images and social media sharing and commenting, are common elements of clickbait.
The hook to be used by users
If you're like me, the Internet is a minefield of welcome distractions. I will sit down to write a rather dry article on something like the evolution of shirt collars during the XNUMXth century, and in the middle of a perfect page for my research, I will see a link that promises to transport me away from this boring and dusty world of starch and pins. And before I know it, it's been ten hours and I'm watching videos of an otter on a pogo stick. I like to think of it as the "Rabbit Hole" effect.
Certain websites are well aware that people "like me" are easily distracted, that people are curious, and that people will click on just about anything to avoid doing "real" work, and they capitalize on this fact.
Some links that we click on are informative, fun and relevant ... Although they are still distracting, but there are other tempting links that have little or no value and that are exclusively designed to take you to a page and keep you there forever, clicking Tempting headlines one after another… That brings us to more tempting headlines to click on, and this is clickbait.
Clickbait is just another distraction in a world that is already a distraction. Every day we are bombarded with information, instructions to click here, or buy this and calculate what is really useful or has some value is increasingly difficult. To add to this noisy digital existence, there are clickbait, short, intriguing headlines that are designed to distract you and make you read page after page of irrelevant and misinformative nonsense.
Clickbait works on a simple principle, fill the void of curiosity. This is as simple as presenting something curious and promising of satisfaction. In other words, so that you understand it better from this moment on. Clickbait is a well-known (and overused) copywriting tactic that seeks to generate clicks or income through overly sensational titles. The user, curious by nature, falls into the nets of this tactic over and over again, hence the name, which has been translated many times as "click bait" or "cyber bait".
Clickbait more than a complex definition for everyone
Upselling is a sales technique that encourages consumers to increase their average purchase via impulse. Where the key to its development. Content marketing is about generating traffic. If you can't attract visitors to your site, your chances of success online are practically non-existent.
However, in the last two years, there has been a wave of marketers and small business owners trying to find an easier route to boost traffic by producing and promoting so-called 'clickbait'.
When used wisely and sparingly, clickbait can be an effective marketing tool, but you have to be careful. In most cases, clickbait is a recipe for disaster.
Simply put, "clickbait" is content that is intentionally overpromising or misrepresenting to attract users to a particular website. Clickbait generally lures users in with an instant, sensational headline, such as "you won't believe it" or "you'll never guess what happened next," but then fails to meet the user's implicit expectations.
One of the most popular types of "clickbait" content is to produce "listings" that aggregate content from other sites to attract more users to a site.
Clickbait articles tend to be less than 300 words long, and typically do not include original ideas or content. Instead, they are longer story summaries or embedded videos that might be found elsewhere, and upon inspection do not necessarily match their corresponding headline or precedent.
Many small business owners and marketing agencies like to use clickbait because it is a super fast way to generate traffic on the web - and it can generate results. Industry-specific listings in particular can save users a lot of time and energy trying to add information for themselves. The subsequent increase in traffic that this content creates can improve a site's presence in search engines phenomenally. Generally speaking, that's a win-win.
It's harder to tell if that traffic translates directly to higher conversion rates and increased sales. But if companies rely too heavily on clickbaiting, it can often come back to bite them hard.
The problem is over-promising and under-delivery, so most potential clients will likely try to avoid this whenever possible. After all, no one likes to feel like they've been misled or wasted time, so if you start posting or promoting clickbait too often, your brand could become a toxic synonym for questionable information or lost money. weather.
And more importantly, you could blow yourself up in terms of SEO.
Search engines like Google include many criteria in their algorithms to produce results pages for users, and one of those factors is the quality of the web content. Every two months, Google releases a series of updates designed to examine clicks, duplicate content, and fake news, and subsequently punishes the pages and websites associated with that low-quality content by pushing them lower in the results pages.
Another factor that search engines take into account when ranking various sites is the bounce rate of a web page. If users click on a page, identify the content as useless, and immediately "bounce" off the site without clicking another page, Google generally classifies that site as less valuable from the user's point of view. The more users bounce off useless content, the more the website will suffer.
Facebook has also taken its own measures against clickbait. Last summer, the social media giant released a new algorithm update that identifies the clickbait that businesses are posting, and which subsequently prevents those posts from appearing in users' News Feeds.
With this in mind, it's worth a second thought before hosting the clickbait on your business website or sharing it on social media. When used sparingly and creatively, it can generate positive traffic that could ultimately bolster your online presence. This increased profile comes hand in hand with a series of indirect benefits.
But relying too much on clickbait is also a surefire way to hurt your SEO, lose followers on social media, and tarnish trust in your brand. Therefore, you should be careful. Sometimes it's good not to jump on the bandwagon, and unless you're a confident salesperson, it means you should avoid clickbaiting.
Where do you find the clickbait?
You can find it almost anywhere on the Internet, which makes it difficult to avoid. Clickbait headlines are common in places like social media and blogs, while many big-name sites like weather reports and news agencies offer ad space for clickbait content. This means that you need to be careful before clicking on a link, even when you're on a quality website.
How can I recognize it?
You can usually recognize clickbait through a scandalous headline or image, but it's not always that easy. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between click bait and a legitimate headline. After all, all the news wants to get your attention.
There are some common elements used in clickbait content, such as vague headlines and images that let your imagination run wild. The clickbait also uses shock and outrage to get your attention, as well as numbered lists. Many links use a combination of these elements to attract your attention.
Here's an easy way to tell if you're viewing a clickbait article: If the headline tells you how to feel instead of letting you have your own reaction, it's probably a clickbait.