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Clickbait is Unreasonably Effective — Transcript

by Veritasium · 3,615 words · 498 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00- Can I tell you something I'm bad at?
0:02I am terrible at making clickbait.
0:05Up until two years ago,
0:06my most popular video was about a basketball
0:09being dropped from a dam with a bit of backspin.
0:12It takes off like a rocket and shoots out
0:14way further than you'd expect.
0:16This video was embedded
0:18on literally hundreds of news websites.
0:20And in its first week, it got 16.3 million views,
0:25but almost none of those views came on the YouTube platform.
0:29Why?
0:30Because I gave it this thumbnail
0:32and I called it "Strange Applications of the Magnus Effect."
0:37This video is sponsored by KiwiCo.
0:39More about them at the end of the show.
0:42Now, I believe within YouTube,
0:43I'm used as an example of how not to package your video.
0:47As if to demonstrate just how bad
0:48a title and thumbnail this is,
0:50someone else re-uploaded the video with the clever title,
0:53"Basketball Dropped From Dam."
0:55And within a few weeks, that video had received
0:58tens of millions of views on YouTube.
1:01This is when YouTube gave me access to ContentID.
1:03That's the system that allows you to earn revenue
1:05when someone else re-uploads your videos, which was good,
1:08but I still wasn't very good at clickbait.
1:11So for this video, I called in an expert.
1:14I wanted to see your reaction face.
1:16Can you give me like a reaction face?
1:17Like what's a good thumbnail face?
1:19- Oh, I got you.
1:20This is a thumbnail face.
1:22(Derek laughs)
1:24I have like 10, I go through the motions of like...
1:28(Derek laughs)
1:30And then we just take the best one,
1:31I probably have like 500 of these just saved
1:33and we can just Photoshop my face on my face.
1:36That way, I don't have to do it anymore.
1:38- When I started on this platform, some 10 years ago,
1:41clickbait was less important.
1:43Subscribers were what mattered,
1:45because most of the views came from the sub feed.
1:47And videos went viral usually
1:49by getting a lot of attention elsewhere,
1:51like on Reddit or Facebook,
1:53not due to the YouTube algorithm.
1:54But once you had a big video and people subscribed,
1:57well, then your next video would likely get a lot of views
2:00from those subscribers.
2:01So YouTube would take that popular video
2:03and share it with more people.
2:04And so you'd get more subscribers
2:06in a positive feedback loop.
2:09But soon, YouTube realized that this did not create
2:12the best experience for the viewer.
2:14They discovered that showing people only videos
2:17from channels they were subscribed to led to fewer clicks,
2:20less watch time and less engagement
2:22with the site as a whole.
2:24Plus, they knew that relying on other platforms
2:26to drive traffic to viral hits was risky,
2:28since those other platforms might disable
2:30the traffic at any time.
2:32So they needed to make YouTube a destination in itself.
2:35They wanted people to come to YouTube,
2:38see videos that interested them,
2:39click on at least one of them and watch it for a while.
2:42Ideally get sucked down the YouTube rabbit hole
2:45and spend hours on the site without even noticing it.
2:48The ultimate resource is people's time
2:50and attention, and every platform
2:52is trying to capture as much of it as possible.
2:56So, to make YouTube this go-to destination,
2:58they had decrease the importance of subscribers,
3:01make it less like a podcast app
3:03where you only get the shows you're subscribed to,
3:05and more like Reddit,
3:06where stuff with the most engagement rises to the top.
3:10But that necessarily meant increasing
3:12the importance of clickbait.
3:14Now, there seems to be a paradox when it comes to clickbait.
3:17People almost universally claim to hate it,
3:21but you also see it everywhere.
3:23So why is this?
3:25Well, one of the problems is we don't all agree
3:27on the definition of clickbait.
3:29When I google it, the top definition is,
3:31on the internet, content whose main purpose
3:34is to attract attention and encourage visitors
3:36to click on a link to a particular webpage.
3:39We could call this type I clickbait,
3:42and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it.
3:44I mean, if you didn't try to attract attention
3:46and get people to click on your links,
3:48then you wouldn't really be doing your job.
3:50But there is a second definition.
3:52One that I think more people ascribe to,
3:54which is something such as a headline designed
3:57to make readers want to click on a hyperlink,
3:59especially when the link leads to content
4:01of dubious value or interest.
4:04Wikipedia says, "A defining characteristic of clickbait
4:07is that it is sensationalized or misleading."
4:09And it also talks about teasers
4:11that intentionally withhold information
4:13to exploit the "curiosity gap."
4:15They give you enough information to make you curious,
4:18but not enough to satisfy that curiosity.
4:21Here are two actual titles from a news website.
4:25Nine out of 10 Americans are completely wrong
4:27about this mind blowing fact.
4:30And someone gave some kids some scissors.
4:32Here's what happened next.
4:34I think we can all agree that these are examples
4:36of bad type II clickbait.
4:39Now, imagine a clickbait space where on one axis,
4:42you have how misleading or sensationalized it is.
4:45And on the other, how much information
4:47is intentionally withheld to create a curiosity gap.
4:50Well, then these two titles fall in the top right corner.
4:54And these are the zones of type II clickbait.
4:57At the other extreme,
4:58you have things that are so unsensationalized as to be dull.
5:02You could call this the dead zone.
5:05Now, here is where you would find
5:07"Strange applications of the Magnus Effect."
5:10I mean, I didn't tell you what the applications were.
5:13Now, in the middle is where you would find type I clickbait.
5:17But honestly, I think type I and type II clickbait
5:20are so different, that we shouldn't even use
5:22the same word for them.
5:23Instead of type I clickbait,
5:25my friend and YouTuber, Brady Heron suggested legitbait.
5:29I mean, it might sound enticing, but it is legit.
5:33Instead of type II clickbait,
5:34we could use clicktrap, clicktrick, linktrap or dupechute.
5:40What's important to recognize is that for any given video,
5:43there is no one true title and thumbnail.
5:47Each video could have hundreds or thousands
5:49of different legitbait titles.
5:51For example, how does a zero-G plane work?
5:55I went on a plane that does parabolic trajectories.
5:58What happens to fire on a zero-G plane?
6:01Now, the most enticing titles and thumbnails
6:04are found close to type II clickbait.
6:07I'm reminded of the infographic by smarter every day,
6:09showing that on social media,
6:11the greatest engagement occurs close to the boundary
6:13of what's allowable.
6:14But remember that everyone's definition of clickbait
6:17is different, and everyone's perceptions
6:19of words and images are different.
6:20So these are not clear boundaries.
6:22They're actually kind of fuzzy.
6:25What for one person might be legitbait,
6:27for someone else, could be a clicktrap.
6:30What's clear is that on a site
6:32where click-through rate is important,
6:33clickbait of all types is inevitable.
6:36How important to a video's success
6:38is the title and thumbnail?
6:40- Very important. Of course.
6:41If they don't click on the video,
6:42they don't watch it.
6:43You can't get 10 million views
6:45unless 10 million people click on the video.
6:48So, I mean, it's literally that simple.
6:50They don't click on it, they don't watch it.
6:52- So, why is clickbait everywhere?
6:55Well, because it works.
6:57More enticing thumbnails get more clicks.
6:59Despite some people's claims
7:01that they won't click or they'll unsub,
7:03it's just like evolution.
7:04Whatever survives, multiplies and traits become amplified.
7:09If you don't begrudge the giraffe its long neck
7:11so it can reach the highest leaves,
7:13can you begrudge a YouTuber the red arrow
7:16that allows them to reach further audiences?
7:18I talked about this in my video two years ago.
7:21To be successful as a YouTuber,
7:22you need to optimize two things,
7:24watch time and the click-through rate of your videos.
7:27That's the number of times
7:28the title and thumbnail are clicked,
7:29divided by the total number of times they're shown.
7:32That's the number of impressions.
7:34Now at the time,
7:34this was something of a revelation for me
7:37because I always thought my job was to make great videos.
7:39And then a title and thumbnail
7:41that adequately represented what the video was about.
7:43But now I've realized that making the title and thumbnail
7:46is at least half the job.
7:49This is not just because better titles and thumbnails
7:51get you more clicks,
7:52but because better titles and thumbnails
7:54will get you way more impressions.
7:57YouTube has limited real estate
7:59with which to show you virtually infinite content.
8:02And so it's not enough to make a good video
8:04even if people watch all of it,
8:06you also have to make a title and thumbnail
8:08that gets clicked, especially in competition
8:10with other really good titles and thumbnails.
8:12That's the only way you can expect YouTube
8:14to give you more impressions.
8:16Now, the big development since my last video on this
8:19is YouTube introduced real-time metrics
8:21like views, impressions and click-through rate.
8:24Now, I suggested this would create an arms race.
8:26So what you can bet will happen
8:28is that creators will launch a video
8:30and then they'll be sitting there
8:31with all these different variants of thumbnails
8:33and they'll be swapping them out
8:35and looking at what that does to click-through rate
8:38and then going with the one
8:39that leads to the greatest click-through rate.
8:42And this is basically what has happened.
8:45Let me give you my favorite example.
8:47Last year, I made a video about asteroids,
8:50which I thought was really good.
8:51I called it "Asteroids: Earth's Biggest Threat,"
8:54which is something Stephen Hawking said.
8:56And people were very positive about the video.
8:58They thought it was maybe one of my best,
9:01but the performance was well below average.
9:03In its first day, asteroids was ranked ninth
9:06out of my previous 10 videos.
9:09It was probably on target
9:10for about one and a half million views.
9:13So I tried different titles and thumbnails
9:15like, "Asteroid Impact: What Are Our Chances?"
9:18Or "Asteroid Impact: What Could We Do?"
9:20But none of these changes got much traction.
9:23And then on day three after launch,
9:25I changed the title and thumbnail
9:27to "These Are the Asteroids to Worry About."
9:30And immediately the video started doing better.
9:33It quickly shot up from almost my worst performing video
9:36to my best.
9:38It now has 14 million views.
9:42Nothing about the video changed,
9:43just that one image and 38 characters.
9:47But because of that, the video has reached
9:49nearly 10 times as many people as it otherwise would have.
9:52And the title and thumbnail accurately describe
9:55what the video is about.
9:56I mean, sure, there's a curiosity gap,
9:58but you couldn't explain the whole concept
10:00in the length of the title.
10:02So if you see a YouTuber changing titles and thumbnails,
10:05this is why.
10:07Because that effort can be rewarded many times over.
10:10I've seen people objecting to this practice
10:12because they think the creator
10:13is trying to dupe their audience,
10:14get them to click on the same video more than once,
10:16but that's not it.
10:18The whole point is to get YouTube
10:20to show the title and thumbnail to more people.
10:22We're trying to increase the number of impressions,
10:25which is heavily dependent on the click-through rate.
10:28Now, a lot of my recent videos have this typical view curve.
10:32There's an initial spike after I release the video
10:34and then a dip, and then a second bump
10:37after I have figured out a better title and thumbnail.
10:40I change the title and thumbnail
10:41and I watch the real time view graph.
10:44What I'm looking for is a noticeable bump in views.
10:47Sometimes there's no change, sometimes it gets worse,
10:51but on occasions, when you see something like this,
10:53well then, you know you've found a winner.
10:56This is something all the big YouTubers are doing.
10:58Not even Mr. Beast knows exactly
11:00which thumbnail will work best beforehand.
11:02Have you ever changed a title and thumbnail
11:05and then the video did better?
11:06- Oh, of course.
11:07So everybody, I usually make like two or three thumbnails,
11:10and then if it's not doing as well as I want,
11:12we usually just swap 'em out and see if it does better.
11:15'cause the thing is like, you don't really know.
11:17I mean, you could know if you just were an almighty being
11:21that could just predict what people would be interested in,
11:23but you know, usually...
11:25Like, you can do hide and seek.
11:26You don't really know if like you hiding in a tree
11:28and then someone walking below you is a good thumbnail.
11:30Or if you hiding a trash can and them walking in front of you.
11:33So, you know, just do both
11:34and then see which one interests people a little bit more.
11:37- I feel the same way,
11:38but I do feel like you have a better sense
11:40of this than like most people.
11:42- Of course.
11:42I mean, no one gets 40 million views a video.
11:45(both laughing)
11:47- But what is the point in getting more views?
11:50If you're cynical,
11:51you might say it's all about money and fame.
11:53And while there are certainly financial incentives
11:56to getting more views, that's not why I do it.
11:58As an educational YouTuber,
12:00I think there are two very good reasons
12:02for using excellent type I clickbait
12:04over more straightforward packaging.
12:07To understand the first reason,
12:08let's consider two different possible titles
12:10for my most recent video.
12:12I called it "The Simplest Math Problem No One Can Solve,"
12:16but it's a video about the Collatz conjecture.
12:18So perhaps a more straightforward title
12:20would have been simply to call it that.
12:22The problem is, if I publish a video
12:24called the Collatz conjecture,
12:26the most likely people to click on it
12:28are those who already know what the Collatz conjecture is.
12:31And the vast majority of people will never have heard of it.
12:34So for them, the title is meaningless
12:37and only the very curious
12:39or those who really like Veritasium would click.
12:41In contrast, calling it "The Simplest Math Problem
12:44No One Can Solve," conveys more information
12:46about the video to everyone.
12:48And this means more people can click on it,
12:50most of whom will never have heard
12:52of the Collatz conjecture.
12:53So I get to teach them something new.
12:55And since the video has a higher click-through rate,
12:58YouTube shows it to even more people.
13:01So if my aim is to increase the level of knowledge
13:04in the world by the maximum amount possible,
13:06this is the way to do it.
13:09The second reason we need to optimize titles and thumbnails
13:12is to support the major goal of this channel.
13:14We are trying to make the best science films
13:17on every topic we tackle.
13:19That means traveling to meet experts in film experiments,
13:22hiring people to build props,
13:24make spectacular animations, research and fact check.
13:28We hire expert consultants
13:30to double and triple check our work.
13:32I don't wanna make vlogs.
13:34I wanna make science documentaries on YouTube
13:36that put broadcast to shame.
13:38And to make this possible and sustainable,
13:40the videos have to get views and lots of them.
13:43And to do that, we have to make
13:44the best titles and thumbnails we can.
13:47YouTuber and Patreon CEO, Jack Conte
13:49has talked about adjusting your packaging.
13:52The idea is know what you're passionate about,
13:54what you won't compromise on
13:56and that stuff goes in the box.
13:58All the rest, like what paper it's wrapped in,
14:00that's the packaging.
14:02So the video is my focus and the title and thumbnail
14:04are the packaging that I'm happy to adjust,
14:07so I can make the type of videos that are important to me.
14:10Now, is it ironic that a channel whose whole purpose
14:12is to promote a true seeking mindset
14:14has to experiment at the edge of what is truthful
14:17in order to fulfill that purpose?
14:18It is something that I often worry about.
14:21You know, when I did like risking my life to do X,
14:24it's like, well, what probability of death
14:26does there have to be for you to risk your life?
14:28Like 50%?
14:29- I love how he always overthinks things.
14:32(laughs) That's funny.
14:33He's like, is my life risked enough
14:36where I can put I risked my life?
14:38I only had a 9% chance of dying
14:40and I need at least a 13% chance.
14:42You're so funny.
14:43He was the same way two years ago
14:44when he asked me all this stuff.
14:46I was like, "Dude, just do whatever makes the most sense.
14:49- Yeah, I mean, obviously I feel like my instincts
14:52are not good.
14:53But what I realized
14:54is that I don't have to trust my instincts.
14:57This problem of getting the best title and thumbnail,
15:01well, it's a scientific problem.
15:03We're just asking which accurate representation of the video
15:06will get the most clicks from a general audience.
15:09And that's a problem we can use
15:10the scientific method to solve.
15:12So I've hired a couple of really bright people
15:14and we spend a lot of time brainstorming
15:16and making titles and thumbnails and testing them out.
15:19For example, on Twitter and Patreon.
15:21Varitasium titles and thumbnails have gotten better,
15:24not because I'm better at it,
15:25but because of my team and our testing.
15:28If you have ideas about how we could do it better,
15:30please get in touch.
15:32The results have often contradicted what I expected.
15:34I mean, this video seemed to perform 10% better
15:37when we excluded the word surprising from the title.
15:40So it became simply The Secret of Synchronization.
15:44I thought these two titles were basically a toss up,
15:47but Patreon had a strong preference for one over the other.
15:51What's interesting about this research
15:52is that the more clickable titles and thumbnails
15:55often better represent the content of the video.
15:57Let me give you some examples.
15:59One thing I didn't expect when YouTube brought in
16:01the real time analytics tools
16:03and allowed title and thumbnail changes
16:04to affect impressions,
16:06was that it would also work for older videos.
16:09So here is an old video that I originally entitled,
16:12"Why the Neutron is the Hero of Nuclear Physics."
16:15In hindsight, it's a weird, kinda meaningless title.
16:18So I changed it to, "Why Einstein Thought
16:21Nuclear Weapons Impossible."
16:23It's clearer, more accurate.
16:25And this is what happened to views after the change.
16:30I changed "Strange Applications of the Magnus Effect"
16:33to "Backspin Basketball Flies Off Dam."
16:36Again, more accurate.
16:37And the video is now being watched on YouTube.
16:40Probably 10 million more views
16:42than it otherwise would have had.
16:44Even anti-clickbait has proven effective.
16:47Here's a video I originally titled,
16:49"Are Negative Ions Good For You?"
16:51Which is a question nobody asked ever.
16:55Now, I changed it to, "Do Salt Lamps Work?"
17:00Seriously.
17:01And here's the result:
17:04One and a half million more views.
17:07I think looking at these examples,
17:09you could easily make the case
17:10that YouTube has made me better at what I do.
17:13It has improved the clarity and accuracy
17:16of my titles and thumbnails. It's helped me figure out
17:18what is interesting to my audience
17:19and how to encapsulate that in a single image
17:22and fewer than 50 characters.
17:24For those of you who worry that a focus
17:26on titles and thumbnails will prevent me
17:27from picking challenging science topics,
17:30well, I simply ask you to look at the videos
17:33from the last year or two,
17:34like the ones on Gödel's incompleteness theorem,
17:36general relativity, Penrose tilings,
17:38the logistic map, Newton's method of calculating Pi,
17:41the one way speed of light.
17:43Good titles and thumbnails make it possible
17:45to tackle these topics and to reach more people
17:48who have heard of them before.
17:50There is a symbiotic relationship
17:52between views and video quality.
17:55The more views we get, the more people,
17:56locations, props and equipment
17:59and research we can invest in.
18:01This makes the next video better than the last.
18:04If we can be good at titles and thumbnails,
18:06the ultimate outcome is better videos.
18:09That is something I think you and I both want.
18:17Hey, this video is sponsored by KiwiCo,
18:20a long time supporter of the channel.
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18:24including big kids like me.
18:26They have eight subscription lines
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18:31What I love about KiwiCo crates
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18:35I mean, when I pull out a crate,
18:36my kids just jump at the chance to make it with me.
18:39And all the materials you need come right in the box.
18:42So there's no need to run to the store.
18:43You just open it up and go.
18:45My kids and I just built this domino machine,
18:48which, who knows, might be inspiration for a viral video.
18:52Now, the big idea is that while playing and having fun,
18:55kids learn about STEAM concepts.
18:57That is science, technology, engineering, art and math.
19:00And in addition to the project,
19:02there's a magazine with a lot of additional information.
19:04So I think this is the best way to learn.
19:06By doing something yourself and having fun,
19:09it's how education should be.
19:11So if you wanna try it out,
19:12go to Kiwico.com/veritasium50,
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19:17I will put that link down in the description.
19:19So I wanna thank KiwiCo for sponsoring Veritasium,
19:22and I wanna thank you for watching.

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