At Dianomi, we spend a great deal of time analyzing campaign performance data to understand why certain ads perform better. One of the reasons is targeting and the other is creative. Once you have a thorough understanding of who you are targeting, you should optimize your creative for the best performance. (Want more insights? Download our Mastering Native Advertising in Financial Services Report here.)
We evaluate creative variations and make real-time optimizations with placements, so that the advertiser achieves the best performance. Our data shows that the better the headline, the better a native ad performs. The best performing headline that we’ve seen performed at 650 percent more than the average. In native advertising, certainly the headline is the best chance for a quick win to drive more sales. Here are five surefire tips to master your headline creative in your next native ad:
Write for the time poor reader: According to data from Microsoft, people lose concentration after eight seconds. This is why the best headlines are 70 characters or fewer and get straight to the point.
Use High Performance Words: There are 49 words that best perform in headlines. Some of them are:
- Numbers and years: 5, 7, 9, 10, 20XX: The No. 1….
- Questions: What, Why, When, Which, Will, etc.
- Adjectives: Top, Exclusive, Essential and Critical
- Benefit: Ways, Rules, Tips, Facts, Lessons, Reasons and Secrets
- Qualify the Audience: Words like Trader, Investor Financial Advisor, Retiree
A/B Test: There is no reason why you cannot and should not test your native ad content. In one situation, we tested two headlines where one headline generated a 48 percent higher click-through rate than the other.
Get into your customer’s head: The key to any marketing is knowing what is important to your customers. A/B testing will only tell you how one ad performs against another. Spending time with your sales team, and understanding what’s important to your customers, should be key to informing any content strategy.
