What Is Clickbait? Does it Actually Work + 3 Examples

What Is Clickbait?

Clickbait is a marketing and engagement strategy that uses sensationalist, misleading, withholding, or deceptive content to entice clicks and drive page views.

You’ve probably seen clickbait on YouTube in the form of thumbnails or titles. Or as ads on news articles.

Here’s what clickbait usually looks like:

And here’s an example of clickbait content about celebrities:

The problem? Clickbait content is usually far less exciting, accurate, or valuable than what was promised.

Let’s say you click on the article entitled, “Billie Eilish awkwardly ignores a fan who says she idolizes her during Q&A session.” Unfortunately, you’ll see a thin article with so many ads you can hardly read the content.

The story itself? It describes an online Q&A call where singer Billie Eilish wasn’t able to respond to a fan due to technical difficulties.

To better understand clickbait’s meaning, let’s delve into some examples.

3 Examples of Clickbait

Clickbait can appear in many formats. Here are three real-life clickbait examples.

1. Sensationalist Blog Titles

Some sensationalism in blog titles is OK. After all, you want your target audience to want to read your article.

But there’s a limit.

If you search for “insider beauty tips” on Google, one of the articles that might come up is from bellaUMMA entitled, “beauty insider: 101 BEAUTY TIPS YOU’LL REALLY WANT…”

That title is clickbait because:

• It’s in all caps
• There are too many tips
• The phrase “beauty tips you’ll...