1. The headline has to be unique
Understand the audience you will target before writing a headline. Your headline has to be unique, powerful and clickable. If you fail with your headline everything else will be much less effective too and you will waste a lot of money.
2. Be very specific
People has to know what they will get and if it fixes their problems or answers their questions after seeing the headline. It can be possible that you want to mask your purpose of the content they will get to see. In that case it’s important to use power words and strong adjectives in your headline. That will trigger the reader more to click on the headline.
Emotional adjectives:
* Effortless
* Painstaking
* Fun
* Free
* Incredible
* Essential
* Absolute
* Strange
3. Include a power word
Keep the language simple and easy to read so you get their attention. Use power words to try turning your headline into a call to action. Use words like “Try”, “Click” or addressing the reader directly by using the word “You”.
Some of the rationales that you can include in your headlines:
* Reasons
* Principles
* Facts
* Lessons
* Ideas
* Ways
* Secrets
* Tricks
* Tips
4. Use a sense of urgency
Urgency is not only important for your headlines but also for the products or services you promote. Effective marketing boils down to creating a fear of losing out on an amazing deal.
Some words you can use for urgency:
* Now
* Too late
* Fast
* Quick
* Hurry
* Rapidly
* Never
* Seconds
* Again
* Over
* Instant
5. Your headline has to be useful
When you make your headline useful, people will understand why it’s interesting for them to click. Some keywords to describe “useful”; ractical, helpful, valuable, informative, worthwhile, beneficial, advantageous and so on. In the end it’s important that the readers problems can be solved.
Trigger words you can use:
* Why
* What
* When
* How
6. Leave an air of mystery
You need to give the reader a reason to click on the headline so they will get their answers on your landing page.
Example headlines to leave an air of mystery:
- 17 Facts You Won’t Believe Are True – via Buzzfeed
- Three Job Interview Mistakes You Think You Avoided But Actually Didn’t – via Fast Company
- Earthworms are more important than pandas (if you want to save the planet) – via The Conversation
- 7 Reasons the Best Employees Quit, Even When They Like Their Job – via Inc.
- Here’s Why You Should Never Get Up To Pee In The Middle Of The Night – via Little Things
7. Use a odd number when possible
Several research studies have shown that headlines with numbers tend to generate 73% more social shares and engagement. It’s a “brain candy“ for people to read numbers in headlines. The brain seems to believe odd numbers more than even numbers. Odd numbers also seem to help people digest and recall information more easily.
8. Max 10 words and less than 60 characters:
People scan headlines before clicking them to read more. That’s why you have to make it easy for people to scan your headline and make it powerful so you grab their attention. Try to create headlines with not more than 10 words and less than 60 characters so its easy to read.
9. Your aim is to get people to click
Don’t forget that in the end you need people to click on your ad! With the tips we gave above we hope you will understand how you let them click on your ad without giving too much information. Keep in mind that you need to trigger them to click and give them a reason to read more.
We hope this blog post was helpful and it will generate more revenue for your campaigns. That we gave you the best tips for writing powerful headlines that will convert and giving you the best CTR! As you now know it will improve your advertising campaigns and make you more profitable. Use these tips and split test all kind of headlines to let the data tell you which headline is the best.