Is there such a thing as good lickbait?
Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2025 9:33 am
2023 was the year that X's account rose to fame, which we so desperately needed without even realizing it. Because Ahorrando Clickbaits not only saves the community of this social network precious time, but it does so with irony, elegance, humor, and also a bit of malice, which was sorely needed.
We could say that this account is a kind of “headline-buster” that aims to prevent bahamas whatsapp list readers from clicking on links that, in many cases, do not even provide the content promised in the headline. On other occasions, its objective is to denounce this questionable practice that many portals, publications and digital media have fallen into, which, although they do offer the complete information they claim, play on the hype generated to attract more visits to their website.
The thing is, it seems that social media users were much more fed up with clickbait than they seemed, judging by the 160,000 followers that this account on X got in just three days in December. As we know, time is money, and thanks to Saving Clickbaits, we can avoid wasting it on unnecessary reading.
But is clickbait a technique that should be eradicated (Facebook is considering penalizing digital accounts that practice it) or is there a way to use it appropriately and positively, especially if you are a brand or a company? And yes, this question is a real internal clickbait to encourage you to read the content of this post
What is clickbait or cyber hook?
Although everyone is more than familiar with this term by now, we would like to remind you that clickbait is a technique widely used on social networks that aims to achieve the highest number of clicks on the link shared in a post.
To achieve this, we mainly use an attractive headline that does not reveal the content, but presents it with a great deal of creativity, intrigue and promise of value to encourage the public to visit the link where that content is developed. In this way, a higher CTR ( click through rate ) and better visitor metrics are achieved .
Although digital media and publications are the most popular, we cannot forget that it has become the usual way to title posts on any blog in order to obtain more views by intriguing potential users.
Can you make good clickbait?
Well, it is clear that this technique is not considered honest or well regarded by users. But it is also true that it can be done in a more intelligent way and, above all, avoiding its use being penalized. Without abusing it, there are some cases in which we could speak of a well-made clickbait . When and how?
1.- A clickbait strategy requires knowing the buyer persona well:
If you know that the content you are going to offer a user when they click on your link is not going to disappoint them, they are unlikely to feel like a victim of this practice. But to do this, you must know your community very well, create high-quality content , focus it very well on your audience and use a language similar to theirs that will make them fall for the cyber-hook and not feel cheated by it.
2.- Ask questions that are truly answered in the content:
Although Saving Clickbaits plays a lot with bursting those headlines that make you enter the content to discover a simple fact (which is also usually quite obvious and, therefore, disappointing), these questions can be asked in another way.
For example: “Would you get a 10 on this spelling test?” The headline is a textbook clickbait , but we can say that it is a good clickbait because it is not generating false expectations in readers, but rather encouraging them to enter through this kind of digital challenge that it poses to them.
3.- Uses imperative verbs and qualifies the content of the headline:
It is not the same to headline a digital news story saying “What is the best city to live in Spain” (a headline that would be cannon fodder for Ahorrando Clickbaits), than to say “Discover the reasons why this is the best city to live in Spain”.
It seems the same, but it is not, starting with the chosen verb. Imperatives appeal directly to each reader, inviting them more freely to perform an action (click). And anticipating that the content offers much more substance than the mere name of a city can make this practice less bad. But as we said, it is essential that the reader really finds the expected content, that is, those reasons why city X is the best to live in Spain, since, if not, they will feel that they have been given another clickbait and may refuse to open more future links from that brand, company or digital media.
We could say that this account is a kind of “headline-buster” that aims to prevent bahamas whatsapp list readers from clicking on links that, in many cases, do not even provide the content promised in the headline. On other occasions, its objective is to denounce this questionable practice that many portals, publications and digital media have fallen into, which, although they do offer the complete information they claim, play on the hype generated to attract more visits to their website.
The thing is, it seems that social media users were much more fed up with clickbait than they seemed, judging by the 160,000 followers that this account on X got in just three days in December. As we know, time is money, and thanks to Saving Clickbaits, we can avoid wasting it on unnecessary reading.
But is clickbait a technique that should be eradicated (Facebook is considering penalizing digital accounts that practice it) or is there a way to use it appropriately and positively, especially if you are a brand or a company? And yes, this question is a real internal clickbait to encourage you to read the content of this post
What is clickbait or cyber hook?
Although everyone is more than familiar with this term by now, we would like to remind you that clickbait is a technique widely used on social networks that aims to achieve the highest number of clicks on the link shared in a post.
To achieve this, we mainly use an attractive headline that does not reveal the content, but presents it with a great deal of creativity, intrigue and promise of value to encourage the public to visit the link where that content is developed. In this way, a higher CTR ( click through rate ) and better visitor metrics are achieved .
Although digital media and publications are the most popular, we cannot forget that it has become the usual way to title posts on any blog in order to obtain more views by intriguing potential users.
Can you make good clickbait?
Well, it is clear that this technique is not considered honest or well regarded by users. But it is also true that it can be done in a more intelligent way and, above all, avoiding its use being penalized. Without abusing it, there are some cases in which we could speak of a well-made clickbait . When and how?
1.- A clickbait strategy requires knowing the buyer persona well:
If you know that the content you are going to offer a user when they click on your link is not going to disappoint them, they are unlikely to feel like a victim of this practice. But to do this, you must know your community very well, create high-quality content , focus it very well on your audience and use a language similar to theirs that will make them fall for the cyber-hook and not feel cheated by it.
2.- Ask questions that are truly answered in the content:
Although Saving Clickbaits plays a lot with bursting those headlines that make you enter the content to discover a simple fact (which is also usually quite obvious and, therefore, disappointing), these questions can be asked in another way.
For example: “Would you get a 10 on this spelling test?” The headline is a textbook clickbait , but we can say that it is a good clickbait because it is not generating false expectations in readers, but rather encouraging them to enter through this kind of digital challenge that it poses to them.
3.- Uses imperative verbs and qualifies the content of the headline:
It is not the same to headline a digital news story saying “What is the best city to live in Spain” (a headline that would be cannon fodder for Ahorrando Clickbaits), than to say “Discover the reasons why this is the best city to live in Spain”.
It seems the same, but it is not, starting with the chosen verb. Imperatives appeal directly to each reader, inviting them more freely to perform an action (click). And anticipating that the content offers much more substance than the mere name of a city can make this practice less bad. But as we said, it is essential that the reader really finds the expected content, that is, those reasons why city X is the best to live in Spain, since, if not, they will feel that they have been given another clickbait and may refuse to open more future links from that brand, company or digital media.