You’ll never guess what Facebook has done to Clickbait: Shocking!

Sorry for the headline, but I needed to be absolutely certain that you would read this article and as everyone seems to accept that clickbait is effective, well, here you are..

What is clickbait?

For those unsure what clickbait is, it is the broad term to refer to highly emotive and leading headlines that typically fail to deliver on their promise - possibly like this article.

Inevitably you will have encountered such headlines on sites like Buzzfeed, The Lad Bible, The Sports Bible and other entertainment/procrastination sites because this is how they gained and continue to gain their popularity. They rely on prodding our curiosity and dare us not to click, promising surprises, insider revelations and (often) shock value.

With Facebook and also Google (ironically) rewarding sites and links that receive a high volume of clicks, it has become the go to method for content marketers and as such is part of a much longer tradition.

As 1960s marketing icon and Mad Men inspiration David Ogilvy wrote:

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar”

David Ogilvy never used Facebook

So - if your headline is dull and boring, no one is going to bother clicking on the link let alone consider reading your 500 word think-piece.

Why is clickbait effective?

Why clickbait is so effective is that it exploits very well our innate craving for knowledge. An article by Hubspot points out that by reading a leading headline that we don’t immediately know the answer to, we feel an extremely strong urge to click on the link to find the answer out.

They conducted extensive research and found that question headlines using juicy buzzwords words like “obsessed” and “intoxicated” got an increase of 150% in article clicks, with headlines using the second-person pronoun (for instance, You, You’ll) faring even better by achieving an increase in article clicks by a staggering 175%.

Clearly effective (by some metrics) but now the party is over. As on the 4th of August 2016, Facebook officially declared war on clickbait - again.

Facebook’s war on clickbait

In an article posted to the newsroom, they acknowledge the growing frustration of users who are sick of seeing clickbait in their news feed: “He Put Garlic In His Shoes Before Going To Bed And What Happens Next Is Hard To Believe” and as such will implement algorithmic changes to further reduce the number of these posts.

It’s important to note that while on a surface level clickbait tactics are effective, often the result is not happier users and a positive visitor experience - particularly when brands are incapable of providing content that satisfied the initial interest created by their headlines.

Why is Facebook against clickbait?

Facebook wishes to maintain and increase profitable user engagement, mindful of how previous generations of social network giants failed.

They are seldom discussed these days but networks like Friendster and Myspace experienced rapid downturns in a large part due to the platforms becoming bogged down with aggressively attention-grabbing marketing and customisation that soiled the user experience.

The method Facebook have come up with to confine clickbait to the history books is based on two conditions:

• Does an article headline withhold the information required to understand what the content of the article is?
• Does an article headline exaggerate the article body copy to create misleading expectations for the reader?

If the answer to both those questions is yes, and the domain the article is linking to is a frequent user of clickbait, they are getting the equivalent of a Google Penguin slapdown. In other words, they will feature a lot lower in the news feed or not at all.

If over time the site reduces it’s clickbaiting, then the punishment will be rescinded.

Time will have to tell on whether or not Facebook’s renewed war on clickbait will produce significant enough changes to eliminate the practice, but until the day comes when the mighty clickbait is defeated, keep an eye out for the White Knights of the Internet in the comment section who, ‘click so you don’t have to’. Keep it up @ClickBaitExpose, we are counting on you.