How many times have you clicked on a video, only to find out that it has nothing to do with its title or thumbnail? Our guess is way too many! For years, the “watchbait” technique has been used by many creators looking to increase their view count and Meta is now finally trying to put an end to this irritating tactic.
To explain things further, watchbait or clickbait consists of withholding key information or sensationalizing content; Meta even takes the thumbnail into consideration as it is also part of the luring strategy. As these methods are leading to more and more negative feedback from viewers’ part, Meta is taking the following measures:
Given users’ preferences and the baity nature of watchbait videos, we use a system that detects watchbait holistically across a video post and, if detected, reduces its distribution. Videos that are considered watchbait may not be recommended to viewers and/or may receive limited ranking. And repeatedly posting watchbait may result in that Page’s overall distribution being reduced.
Influencers surely will not want their content to be labelled as watchbait with Meta’s new procedure as it can cause serious harm to their profile, performance and eventually monetization efforts.
The established platform; however, is lending a hand to creators by providing them with tips and practices to avoid this fate.
We don’t know about you, but we’re excited to say goodbye to titles like “His reaction was priceless” or “You’ll never believe what happened”, at least on Meta!
What do you think about this new detection process? Let us know by sharing the article and tweeting us @itpliveme