Native campaigns commonly show a strong click rate and a bounce rate to match. The two are connected, and the connection is created by the headline rather than by the page.
Curiosity is a gap, not an interest
A headline that withholds a key detail creates a specific discomfort. The reader clicks to close the gap rather than because they want the product.
The motivation therefore lasts exactly as long as the gap does. Once the answer appears, or fails to appear, the reason for being on the page is gone.
That is a different visitor from someone who clicked because the subject matched a need they already had.
The landing page inherits a promise it did not make
Pages are usually written to explain a product. Curiosity traffic arrives expecting the resolution of a question.
When the first screen contains a product proposition instead, the reader concludes they were misled and leaves immediately.
The exit is often fast enough that no further page content was ever loaded into view, which makes the rest of the page irrelevant to the outcome.
Why the auction rewards the mismatch
Ranking depends on click rate, so headlines that maximise clicks win placement regardless of what happens afterwards.
The advertiser pays per click, so the cost of a bounce falls on them rather than on the platform or the publisher.
Nothing in the mechanism corrects for post-click quality unless the advertiser measures it and adjusts their own bidding.
The fix is continuity rather than restraint
The answer is not to write dull headlines, which simply lose the auction. It is to make the page continue the sentence the headline started.
A page whose opening lines directly address the headline's question retains a large share of the visitors a product-first page would lose in seconds.
That usually means a purpose-built page per headline, which is more work than pointing every ad at the same destination and is the difference between the two outcomes.
What to measure instead of click cost
Cost per click describes the auction. It says nothing about whether the traffic was worth buying.
The useful pair is the share of visits that scroll past the first screen and the share that reach a second page, both segmented by headline.
Headlines vary enormously on those measures while looking similar on click cost, which is why the ranking of creative changes once post-click data is added.