Clickbait

The word gets used for any bold title or expressive thumbnail, which muddies a useful idea. Packaging can promise a great deal and still be honest, and the test is whether the video follows through on what the title and thumbnail claimed. The problem is the gap: a viewer clicks expecting one thing, gets another, and leaves. YouTube's own thumbnail testing tool picks its winner on watch time rather than clicks alone, precisely because packaging optimised for the click can pull in people who were never going to stay. So write the promise you can defend after someone has watched, then make the opening pay it off.