I get exposed to a lot of low-brow native advertising as I puruse the web. If this is the result of intentional, personalized targeting — yikes — I shudder to imagine the profile that these advertisers have concocted for me. I’m constantly being tempted to learn surprising secrets of weight loss, the one trick my bank really doesn’t want me to know about my mortgage, and shocking revelations of aging actors from the 80’s.
Every day, these Sirens of the Internet beckon me to click to their seductive songs.
But I resist. Not because I know that what lies on the other side of that click is crap. The beauty of these native ads is that we all know there’s crap on the other side of that click-through by now. But still we’re drawn to the crap, like moths to the flame.
No, I resist because, well, I’m not really that intrigued about diets, mortgages, or actors from the 80’s. I’m a red-blooded marketing geek. So if you really want to stir my curiosity, these are the kind of irresistible native ad headlines that I would be absolutely compelled to click on:
Marketers Stunned by Incredible Find in Latest Salesforce Update
You Won’t Believe This Really Gross Call-to-Action Works So Well
When She Ran a Simple A/B Test, She Didn’t Expect THIS Outcome
It Looks Like a Regular Ad, But When People Click It — WOW!
One Amazing Trick to Instantly Double Your Email Open Rate
Dreading a Social Media Crisis? Then Don’t Watch THIS!
OMG! Did This Marketer Actually Say THAT to the Board?!
CMO Reveals Bizarre Bathtub Ritual for Boosting Lead Scores
5 Tell-Tale Signs That Your Agency Is Getting Adtech Kickbacks
Terrified CMO Never Expected Predictive Analytics to Predict THIS
35 Bi-Coastal Marketing Tech VCs: #17 Will Shock You
Marketers Feel Foolish For Not Knowing This HubSpot Secret
Forget the Marketing Cloud. Next Oracle Sensation Leaked
How This Adorable Puppy Is Disrupting a $1 Billion Ad Campaign
1 Dirty Little Secret to Reduce Marketing Operations Costs by 15%
This Quirky App Is Quickly Replacing Human Social Media Managers
The 5 Best No-Interest Credit Cards for Martech SaaS Subscriptions
The Worst-Kept Secret Among Demand Generation Marketers
6 Scientifically-Proven Features to Make Your Ebook Irresistible
Marketers Are Totally Obsessed with This Crazy Webinar Technique
7 Shocking Color Palettes That Will Transform Your Infographics
Admit it — you’d click on these too.
Okay, okay, just to clarify, the above list was written tongue-in-cheek. (I learned from my April Fool’s Joke that my sense of humor can be a little too dry.) Although I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these were actual headlines on some blog, somewhere.
However, while I’ve got your attention — watch while I demonstrate redirection from a link-baity article before your very eyes — if you want to see some intriguing headlines that are not jokes, check out the session titles for the upcoming MarTech Europe conference this fall.
The best rates on tickets expires this Friday, July 31.
It’s so funny but true – you would think in this day and age, marketers would look to really drive to the value of whatever they’re trying to sell versus the low-brow, cheap shocks to get clicks, but with the ever increasing competition in the eyeball attention department, many will rely on the demons of behavioral marketing. What I hope many of these marketers will realize is that though they may get many clicks, only a very small percentage of the leads will actually translate into qualified sales and they should focus on what the consumer needs to get to the right people.
I find myself severely disappointed that your martech clickbait articles are not actually real. Well done!
These are great Scott. I challenge you to provide me the most outrageous headline to use as a native ad for this post 😉
Jeff, you may have missed your calling – Viralnova look out!
I’m always available for that next right opportunity conversation (and I appreciate the positivity) 🙂
This is by far the most amusing yet compelling marketing blog so far! We know those linkbaits when we see one despite knowing content behind the click is crap. Very well done!