Clickbait isn’t the problem.
Disappointing people is.
After I created clickbait videos like this 👇
With great like:dislike ratios & returning viewers…
There are 5 ways I’ve found to create clickbait videos you’re still proud of:
1) Use your Title to say something that sounds IMPOSSIBLE.
In my experience your title is your KEY asset.
While your thumbnail is there to support the RIDICULOUS claim you made in the title.
And your video is there to give people a net-positive feeling after having watched your video.
Let’s say your video title is: “Every Girl in My City Wants to Date Me (Because of THIS)”
Than “Every” could be the name of 1 girl (who actually wants to date you).
Additionally you give practical valuable dating advice throughout the video.
And you have a video that most people actually enjoyed watching despite being “clickbait”.
Another example could be: “Billionaire Accidentally Sent Me 1M (I Keep It Legally)”
Where the money is in IDR (Indonesian Rupiah) or another currency where everyone can be a billionaire.
If you give insightful advice from wealthy people in the video…
Or entertaining (street) interviews…
You are likely to get a positive like:dislike ratio AND returning viewers like me 👇
2) Test a thumbnail that feels stolen from another era
You can use a different character, like my Studio Ghibli version 👇
Or Minecraft aesthetics for life advice 👇
Or medieval elements for business advice 👇
A slightly fresh perspective on thumbnails that already worked can increase CTR %.
3) Can you make your title break one unspoken rule in your niche?
For example: Finance YouTubers never curse, RIGHT?
Use a title + intro of “Why I’m F*cking Done With Budgeting.”
Food channels always stay positive about their recipe & result.
Try “This Popular Recipe Is Actually Garbage (Here’s Why)”
Travel vloggers rarely hate destinations.
Make a video about your worst experience:
”This ‘Paradise’ Was Actually Hell”
This comes back to the “fresh perspective”.
You’re doing something NEW without the production budgets of MrBeast…
4) A/B test your title/thumbnail combo’s, FAST
I use a tool like this to hourly A/B test my titles & thumbnails.
Additionally I can see the Click Through Rate % of each variant.
Which is far more important than the “Watch Share” YouTube’s tool shows.
The more you test, the more likely you are to get results like this:
Get my Thumbnail Pack here (Free for limited time) 👇
PS: I’m sure you will like THIS too 😉
