Facebook is the most popular site on the Internet and sees traffic of more than 1.13 billion users each day. With this incredible amount of traffic, it becomes hard for marketers to ignore Facebook’s importance as a targeted marketing platform. There are a number of targeting options, but all the work beyond that has to be put in by you to make your campaign successful. Research has revealed that the headline which you would generally assume to be only a small piece of the marketing is actually vital to the whole strategy.
Social media ads are always appearing on our timelines particularly, Facebook. You could hardly ever carry on there for even 2 minutes without being bombarded by ads. So, is it a wise move to use Facebook for promoting your company? Yes, of course, it is worth spending money on Facebook ads. Research has revealed that 25 percent of the audience who come across a social ad would actually respond by straightaway visiting the website or store and about 17 percent would convert by buying a product or any service. It is, therefore, clear that Facebook ads are pretty effective marketing tools. Hence, Facebook ads should be created with precision. In any Facebook ad, the headline appears just below the photo. It is vital to have an engaging and interesting photo which is relevant to your ad but it is absolutely essential to have an amazing and gripping headline. Since the decision to click or ignore the ad depends entirely on the headline strength, it is imperative that you make it eye-catching, clear and memorable. Here’s how you go about that.
Customize the Headline
For a much more engaging and personal headline, you must absolutely customize the headline. Instead of having “Subscribe Today” as your headline, give them a reason, like “Subscribe for best articles at $5 a month”.
Go for Clarity
Millions of posts come up every minute on Facebook, which means you need to stand out as much as you can in the short time that your visitors scroll past your advertisement. For product discounts, keep the “what” and the “why” clear, like “shoes- 25% off”. A dental clinic could just as easily put out a clear headline, like “ABCD-certified quality dental treatment”.
Conciseness Is Key
Short and clear is the way to go with any headline, and this is reinforced by Facebook’s recommendation that you use a 25-40 character headline to boost engagement. Show the customer exactly what they get by clicking on your link even before they do, so they know that you aren’t going to be wasting their time. If you are a mental health clinic, don’t write “Solve your mental issues today”, but go for “Consult a qualified mental health professional” instead. If you’re having a sale on your site, say “Fall Sale- 15-18 October”. You use an image to get the rest of the point across, like a banner, but hammer it home with a to the point headline.
Questions and Commands
Recent studies have revealed that ads with questions as headlines generate 150% more visits than ones as statements. These figures go up to 175% if the question has the word “you”. Questions are, in general, a great way to grab anyone’s attention. Ask a question in the headline, and answer it on your landing page. The easy way to do this is to find out likely questions that your target audience would be asking, and use them as headlines. “Where is the perfect ring for you?” shows not only a question most brides think about but also a thinly veiled answer- that the site offers the “perfect” ring, not just a good one. The other way to go would be the authoritative way. Put a clear command forward, like “Get the best blankets”, which is also reinforced with a positive superlative, in “best”.
Incentivize Using Utility
A solid technique of getting someone to click an ad is to show them how it would benefit them. Instead of selling something aggressively, go for offering certain benefits or utilities in the headline, like “Become an Industry-ready Coder in six months.” Show the user how your product or service helps them, and you’ve got an assured sale.
Excite and Interest Them
A number of social media advertising campaigns make the use of the “curiosity gap” to incite curiosity of their consumers. The principle behind this is a person faced with a gap in his knowledge is always going to want to fill that gap by, in this case, clicking your advertisement. So you’ve got to make it catchy, as well as interesting, like “Professionals teach you the three tricks to seal any marketing deal”, or “New CMS revolutionizes website management forever”. This way you aren’t giving away much, but are also keeping them interested. It is worth noting that there is a lot of “clickbait” on the internet today, low-quality content which employs this tactic by using exaggerated, irritating headlines. So, overdoing it on your headline could lead to your site being flagged for clickbait and being removed.
List Away!
Lists are great and are loved by pretty much everyone. One of the most popular content media out there is the listicle- an article featuring a list! This is really popular because, besides the explanations in long paragraphs, you are able to take away the crux of the entire article through the list items or sub-headings, not to mention you being able to process and interpret the data a lot better. Headlines to listicles are great and pretty easy to write, like “Top 10 Horror Movies of the Past Decade”, which is inclusive, curated content targeted towards a particular audience. It doesn’t get better than this.
Conclusion
Remember people only read ads that have both a fascinating picture and also a catchy headline. Experts feel that headlines play a pivotal role in grabbing the attention of your target audience and tempting them to read the content. Follow all the above-mentioned tips to master the art of creating catchy headlines for your Facebook ads.
Author Bio: David Wicks is a professional marketer and social media marketing expert. He has handled a diverse range of clients ranging from dental clinics to sports teams and maintains a blog full of great articles about SEO and SEM.
