Clickbait ads What Are Clickbait Ads: Examples and Use Cases

Sensational headlines, provoking photos, and promising to uncover mystical secrets are typical examples of clickbait content. These tips grab the attention and make readers share the content almost 50 times more often.

Clickbait ads help businesses promote sites and increase interactions. But they should be used accurately, not to mislead and disappoint the audience. In the article we figured out which clickbait is useful and which is distractive and how to make interesting clickbait ads.

Key Takeaways

• Clickbait ads perfectly grab attention with provocative and emotional content and convince readers to click on the title;

• Ads are useful for fast-growing traffic and increasing CTR;

• Clickbait ads can lead to misleading content, offers, or pages and annoys visitors;

• Clickbait guarantees high open rates of the site or clicks on the title, but it doesn't provide buying and regular visits;

• False promises, sensational headlines, misleading thumbnails, etc. are popular forms of clickbait ad;

• Clickbait isn’t always illegal, but it’s associated with gray and black niches, so it should be used accurately.

What Are Clickbait Ads?

Clickbait ads use provoking content to grab the attention of the audience and make them click on the link. The main goal of the ad is to maximize views, clicks, and shares. That’s why it contains phrases that cause curiosity, interest, or panic. Clickbait ads connected with:

• Provocative headlines;

• Hyperbolized content:

• Sensational promises;

• Images of celebrities or politicians;

• Easy steps that guarantee results.

Traffic from clickbait ads is usually higher, but sometimes it reduces brand trust and makes visitors disappointed.

Clickbait ads examples

Pros of Clickbait Ads

• Fast growth of traffic. Attractive headlines and big promises generate a lot of views and visits on the site.

• Increasing CTR. People want to know amazing facts; that's why they click on the link.

• Attracting attention to the brand. In a huge amount of the information, clickbait is the good way to stand out from the competitors.

• Stimulating discussion. Even if clickbait is provocative and mispromising, people can comment or share the links with personal feedback.

Cons of Clickbait Ads

• Declining trust of the auditory. People can be feeling cheated and don't refer to the source anymore.

• High number of refusals. A lot of visits don’t guarantee a lot of buying, and it leads to the bad SEO position and rating of the site.

• Risk of blocking the content. Platforms such as Google or Facebook punish for using mispromising headlines or provocative images.

Examples of Clickbait Ads

Click bait ads play on emotion and grab visitors' attention because they explore themes of threats, intrigues, sales, and others. It’s useful to run a few marketing campaigns in banners or pushes and check the results by a special program, for example, Push.House.

1. Life-Threatening Situations

This type of clickbait ads is based on the danger of death or trauma and provokes strong emotional feedback. People want to know what happened and how not to allow such situations in their lives. It’s a basic instinct for each person, so this type of headline will have a high CTR.

Danger clickbait ads example

2. Sales and Savings Promises

Sales and economy headlines promise readers to spend less and save more. It effectively works because every person wants to make a profit. Also, such ads make them read fast and buy in a hurry because the offer is limited.

Sale clickbait ad example

3. Intrigue and Secrets

Intriguing headlines promise access to something unexpected or mysterious. They cause the desire to know more, solve riddles, and be a part of a closed community. Also, such ads make the reader feel that they will lose something important if they skip the news.

Secret clickbait ad example

4. Sex and 18+ Topics 

Hot topics are always interesting because they promise forbidden and provocative content. Such ads are associated with something sensational and attract people who want to overturn the norms. 

Sex clickbait ad example

5. Unreal Situations

Ads with unreal situations use the surprise effect and amazement. It can be so unbelievable that the headline promises to clarify the sense and tell the details. Such clickbait ads work because people want to check what is reality and what is the fantasy by themselves.

Unreal situation clickbait ad example

6. Scandals and Shocks

Shocking clickbaits work because people want to keep up to date with resonant events. It plays on the desire to know the latest gossip, evaluate the behavior, and make an assessment.

Scandal clickbait ad example

7. Useful Tips

Useful tips in ads promise the reader valuable recommendations about actual topics. Visitors click on the headline because of the offered benefits or closed information, which helps to save money or effort.

Useful tip clickbait ad example

Types of Clickbait Ads

1. Sensational Headlines

Sensational headlines attract the attention of the readers by citing famous people or promising something unbelievable. Usually, they misrepresent facts or exaggerate information. Such big words play on emotion and make the feelings of urgency for making traffic. 

Sensational headlines ad example

2. False Promises

False promises give the reader an unreal or highly unlikable result. For this type of clickbait authors use real facts and distort them beyond recognition or promise instant success with no effort. The core of the false promise headline is the easy recipe or fast checklist.

3. Misleading Thumbnails

Click bait means pictures or screenshots of videod, which attract attention in the banner. The image doesn’t typically correlate with the content of the article and just causes a desire to click. It can be a shocking graphic or screenshot from a popular film. 

Misleading thumbnails ad example

4. Fake Celebrity Endorsements

Fake celebrity endorsements use images of famous people to associate with them and attract attention. Celebrities are usually connected with luxury life, success, and high quality. That's why their photo or name in the ads can give an idea that the content is good too.

Fake celebrity endorsement ad example

5. Fake News

Fake news contains sensational facts or shocking openings about the latest events or famous people. It gives the illusion that news is fresh and really important for the life of the reader. But actually, fake news plays on the emotion and tries to cause fear, curiosity, or surprise.

Fake news banner example

6. Fear-Based Tactics

This clickbait strategy tries to trigger fear or anxiety in the reader to click on the headline. Tactics focus on potential threats and negative consequences. Also, they provoke a sense of urgency and danger. 

Fear-base ad example

7. Survey Scams

Survey scams include faked questionnaires and promise prizes or awards instead of answers. Promises should be interesting and valuable to the audience, like an iPhone or trial access to a game. Information from the surveys can be used in marketing research.

8. Free Downloads

This clickbait promises required files to download. Free & useful content as books, programs, or databases draw attention, so readers are ready to click.

Free downloading ad example

Industries That Benefit from Clickbait Ads

Clickbait ads generate positive results in routine and everyday topics. The most interesting themes are health, relationships, money, and beauty — so let's analyze them.

Health and wellness

Clickbait ads about health and wellness promise fast results in recovery from illness or being pretty. It’s the main desire of the people, so modern medicine and cosmetology work on it. Ads just support the trend and cause the feelings of:

• Easy result: I lost 10 kg without refusing my favorite sweeties…

• Motivation: Just do the exercise every morning to keep fit…

Click bait easy to spread out in social networks because bloggers integrate it into native ads. Viewers like to watch and react to it because it directly connects with their health problems.

Finance and investment

Finance usually looks boring or hard, and clickbait ads help stimulate the attention. All people want to be not just healthy but rich too. So this topic attracts visitors because it promises to teach how to be rich.

Clickbait ads work because:

• Make the illusion that hard topics are easy to understand;

• Give the feeling of urgency and motivate to read and act fast;

• Promise to help with personal financial and investment aims.

Clickbait financial ads can make even hard topics interesting and available, and this marketing ploy will increase traffic.

Beauty and personal care

People, and especially women, want to look young and beautiful for a long time. That's why ads connected with personal care and beauty life hacks grab the viewers:

• Accent the attention on easy ways of being pretty;

• Give a fast pillow to make you look fresher or thinner;

• Show people who already used the life hack and give a result.

Clickbait ads create the illusion of exclusivity of beauty products and show the best effect of using it.

iGaming and betting

In iGaming and betting, clickbait pop-ups or pushes attract attention to new bets, rules, or discounts. Ads:

• Make the impression of a fast and easy win;

• Give a special bonus;

• Promise a big amount of money.

People always want to earn a lot of money with no effort, so this type of ad will work on a wide audience. 

Dating and relationships

Psychology and relationship topics are important for people because everybody wants to live peacefully and happily with their partner. So a high result will give ads with:

• Tips for ecology family communication;

• Scandal and ways to cope with them;

• Real stories of men's and women’s treasons.

This type of content more likely will give a lot of visits and reactions.

Are Clickbait Ads Legal?

Click bait ads usually used for promoting gray or black niches such as pharma, betting, crypto, and others. That’s why it’s become associated with unfair or illegal topics. Google, for example, checks all ads for misrepresentation and doesn’t allow content connected with:

• Negative life events such as death, accidents, and illness;

• Sensationalist text about scandals or secrets;

• Clickbait messaging such as “Click here to find out,” “You won’t believe what happened,” or something synonymous to it.

A site can use tips from clickbait ads if it contains relevant information and doesn't want to mispromise or scam the reader. On the other hand, the browser can block the source, or it will be lowered in the SERPs because of visitors' refusals.

Summary

Clickbait ads are a useful instrument to grab attention and increase the number of visits or clicks, but they should be used accurately. If irrelevant content doesn’t live up to readers' expectations, the next clickbait wouldn't work.

The key to success is balancing between bright headlines and useful information inside. In that way, clickbait ads can generate new traffic and make regular buyers or visitors from it.

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