A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about how to set up 2 Factor Authentication. It was one of the most popular articles on my website in the last 90 days. But Google Analytics tells me that most of my traffic was email traffic, not social media traffic. And I know EXACTLY why that was.
It was because I had a bad headline on social media. And a better one for my email.
Here are the 2 Headlines. Can you tell which one was the bad one?
- Extra Security for Your Facebook Ad Account
- The Safest Way to Set Up Facebook 2FA
The second headline was the bad one. For a lot of reasons. But these are the two biggest:
- A lot of people don’t even know what “2FA” is. It’s never a good idea to use “jargon” in social media. You want to use the words that your customer uses. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a client of mine use 2FA in a sentence.
- The first headline is much more clear about how the article will be helpful. People who are reading it know exactly what they will get when they click: An idea for extra security for their Facebook account.
Headlines matter in your Facebook ad because you have very limited space. Most of your ad is consumed by the image or video! For that reason, you want to think carefully about which words you’re going to use to get the result that you want.
Here are some tips for writing a fantastic headline:
- Make sure that your headline packs a punch. It should get to the point and clearly communicate what’s on the other side of the click. Use your headline to share exactly what people will see when they click on your ad.
- Your headline shouldn’t be too long. If it’s longer than Facebook has room for, Facebook will just chop it off! Approximately 40 characters is ideal.
- Make it free of jargon. In high school and college, your teachers cared about your ability to demonstrate your vocabulary with fancy words. In your marketing, you have to unlearn that. In marketing, you want to use clear, easy-to-understand language.
- Don’t stress about the emojis. Digital advertisers have tested emojis at length and the verdict seems to be that they don’t really have an impact on whether or not people click. If you can quickly think of a fun one to add, great! But worry more about the message you are communicating than the emoji.
- If you have a great headline on your landing page, consider using it in your ad. Consistency between what’s on the ad and what is on the landing page is a good thing!
- Highlight the fact that your item is free. (If it is free.)
- Consider using numbers. Research shows that emojis don’t get more clicks, but numbers do! There’s a reason “listicles” are so popular. (Another good headline for this article might have been: 8 Tips for Headlines That Get More Clicks. It’s the one I chose for my website because it’s better for Google. The email and social media headline was “That was a horrible headline!”)
- Test a few options. The Facebook ad platform gives you space to test multiple headlines. One of the reasons why I know what works is because I’ve tested hundreds of headlines over the years.