“On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy” stated David Ogilvy. A compelling statistic, but how does this translate to your web site?

Ogilvy continues; “unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 per cent of your money.”

Ogilvy may have been writing about print ads from the 1960’s but he could be talking about paid search landing pages. I’ve often found that the quickest way to slash a bounce rate on a keyword that isn’t performing as you’d like is to craft a better headline.

So as paid search marketers what should we look for in a headline?

Best-selling author and copywriter Andy Maslen suggests that a headline should ‘make the reader want to read the body copy’ and encapsulate the ‘sales pitch in 10-16 words or fewer.’ But when drafting a headline it’s important to remember that users make a very quick judgement about whether they are in the right place, and in order to keep that Quality Score as high as possible you should try to get that user’s search keyword in either the headline or an immediate subheading.

Here are some quick tips which might help…

Split test your headlines

You’ll never know what works until you test! Claude Hopkins spent ‘far more time on headlines than on writing’ and Ogilvy never wrote ‘fewer than sixteen headlines for a single advertisement’. Both copywriters would split test headline effectiveness by measuring coupon redemption. Thankfully, we can split test testing is now easier than ever with Google Content Experiments.

Write a series of headlines, split test them to see which generates the most conversions. It’s easy (and free)!

Find the right tone of voice

Different products require a different approach. I’ve tried what I thought was a compelling headline that grabbed attention and found that a dry and boring one actually achieved a better conversion rate.

An attention grabbing headline might undermine trust if it’s applied to a product that calls for a more subtle or formal tone. Test your ideas.

Read the news

Try and spot good headlines.  Journalists are experts at summarizing an article in as few words as possible. Some write headlines that grab your attention and compel you to read on. It’s worth reading Jakob Nielsen’s opinion of the headlines used on BBC News.