Top 10 Shocking Reasons Why Clickbait Works

by Burke Dorman
3 mins read
A woman wearing glasses and a denim shirt with her mouth open.

Wait, you actually thought we were going to write an article like that? If you’re reading this, you just proved that clickbait works. But what impact does it have on particular digital marketing metrics?Everyone is familiar with the term ‘Click-Bait’. Advertisers, bloggers, and even YouTubers lure you into making that click, simply because clicks generate visibility, ad revenue and more. But often, clickbait brings you to an unrelated, faulty or even rather sketchy looking page or article. On the one hand, click-bait increases clicks and traffic, but on the other, it also increases the bounce rate. It’s been proven that the less time your audience spends on your page, the less likely they are to convert.As Digital Marketers, our goal is to make content that is relevant and coherent. We (should) want you to know exactly what kind of page you would be landing on after that click. This is why we design our ads to convey exactly what you will land on before you make the click; this process plays a huge role in reducing the bounce rate for our clients.So what’s Bounce Rate? Bounce rate is a digital marketing metric that represents the percentage of visitors who visited your website and navigated away from the site after viewing only one page. If your bounce rate is high, It’s safe to assume that your audience either didn’t like what they saw, that your ad itself was misleading, or that the content itself simply wasn’t relevant to them. Click-through-rate, on the other hand, represents the percentage of people who visited your web page after clicking on your ad. In the digital marketing world, advertisers often fall for a metric trap by celebrating a high click rate without really looking at the bounce rate. Sure, your ad got the clicks, but did you make any of those clicks stick?It’s a common misconception that a high click-through-rate means that a campaign is performing well. However, a high click-through rate with a high bounce rate means that consumers are really not happy with the page they land on; this translates to a bad “ad-to-landing-page” relationship. Every ad has a call to action and, as marketers, we need to look at our campaign holistically rather than celebrating just one metric. We live in a consumer-centric world and deluding the consumer or trying to trick them is not a sustainable way to get your brand’s name out there or to generate brand clout. First impressions really do last forever. Once we categorize a certain brand as one with spam-like ads, chances are we aren’t really going to be trusting their ads again.In today’s fast-paced world the easiest way to advertise to consumers is by following the rule of three C’s: Consistent, Convenient, and ConciseConsistent: Ensure that all of your ads are relevant to their landing pages. The content needs to match the expectation of the consumer. Your ad copy and content should be coherent and complementary to each other. For example, a specific ‘order now’ call to action should land the consumer on the specific product page with a smooth transition. Ensure that the ad itself, the copy, and the image are all consistent with the content and call to action of the landing page.Take Away Tip:  Don’t trick your audience into a click. Make your clicks stick.Convenient: Followed by consistency, you also want to make sure your landing pages are convenient for the consumer. Remember that you want to make the customer journey easy; as such, you should remove any extra clutter and make sure that the consumer gets to what they want without making them jump through too many hoops. Ensure that your landing page is easy to navigate and keep only relevant links available on your page. Don’t overwhelm your consumer with sudden pop-ups and chatbots. Most importantly don’t forget to optimize your pages and ads for different devices and platforms.Take Away Tip: Consumers want ease and simplicity – this is the essence of convenience.Concise: Don’t flood your consumer with a tsunami of information. Keep your information, copy and even your image concise and to the point. Latest studies have shown that the average attention span of a digital consumer is around 8 seconds. In that window, you must get their attention and potentially translate that into an action for your website or ad. Remember that consumers see hundreds of ads every day – make sure yours stands out.Take Away Tip: Keep it short and engaging!Ultimately, a high bounce rate can convey that you have negatively impacted the trust of an audience – which is not great for your brand overall. If your targeting parameters are well established and you’re reaching the right audience, then the relevancy of your landing page in relation to what you put on your ad may be the reason that your audience is leaving your page so quickly. In order to reduce bounce-rate and keep your audience engaged, it is imperative to have a holistic approach towards ad creation and to definitely avoid clickbait altogether.Looking for someone to help manage your next campaign? Contact us here!

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1 comment

Syed Tariq Ehsan July 27, 2018 - 11:11 am

Very informative article definetly worth referring to while taking a leap into digital marketing . Very well researched and well worded.

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