Misleading Mobile Marketing
Have You Ever Been Tricked by Mobile Clickbait?
Yeah, me too. Clickbait is a “sensationalized headline that encourages you to click…appeal[ing] to your emotions and curiosity” (What Is Clickbait?). It is used as a mobile marketing strategy to get viewers to click on a link, video, or even to purchase something. Clickbait is used on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Blogs, various articles and more. Mobile marketing can become untrustworthy and rather misleading when clickbait is used. In order for consumers to feel a sense of trust clear messaging must be present! Some even believe that “It’s capitalism at its finest — producing the lowest form of news to make an easy profit. These websites are going for quantity over quality. It’s a brilliant, albeit horrible, business model. It’s much easier to commission twenty bad articles than it is to write one or two good articles (You Won't Believe How Clickbait is Ruining Society). While clickbaiting may be a way to gain advertising revenue and web traffic, it eliminates the sources credibility.
You’re headlines should be succinct, specific and reflect your visitors’ expectations and should focus on one desirable outcome that your customer cares about
Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion, Nahai, 81
Here are Some Ways Mobile Marketing May Have Mislead You:
YouTube Titles
Instagram Cover Photos
Advertisements
One of the first examples that comes to mind when thinking of clickbait, is YouTube. YouTube is one of the common media platform’s in which creators use an appealing or shocking title to bait the viewer into watching. YouTube creators get a lot of backlash from viewers because of their exaggerated use of clickbait.
2. Have you ever been scrolling on your “Instagram Explore” page and click on a video or real because its cover photo looks interesting… only to find out that it has no relation to the cover photo? This is a form of misleading mobile marketing which is used for more engagement. “Not only is this an inconvenience to the viewer, but this also creates a sense of distrust between the viewer and the uploader” (Why Social Media Companies Should Ban Clickbait)
3. Often times when using a free mobile app advertisements like the one pictured here are used. Usually these ads are displayed for a minimum amount if time before you can exit them. They are portrayed as interactive, “swipe to complete,” “tap to start,” “Play,” “Draw,” yet when you try to do any of those things, you get sent to a link to download the app. There are even fake “X’s” displayed which when you click them take you right to a link to download. “When it comes to effective interface design, motion (whether in video, animation or any moving element) is one of the key components that can either elevate or undermine your viewers’ overall experience” (Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion). In this case, the user experience is undermined by the annoyance of the advertisement and fake interactivity.
