The effectiveness of selling texts may depend not only on their content and design, but even on the simple order of words in sentences. People subconsciously pay closer attention to materials that can surprise. If the structure of each offer is formed correctly, then, according to research, the total clickability of an advertising placement can increase by 127.5%.
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- Unexpected, but not too much
- How to increase the KPI of your texts
- Why unexpected messages work better
- Restrictions
Unexpected, but not too much
In order to impress the target audience, you should use unusual words and change their usual order. But you should not abuse this tool. Because excessive confusion will inevitably lead to the loss of the main message and the overall credibility of the materials. If it is simply difficult for readers to understand the key idea contained in the advertisement, then something went wrong.
Let’s analyze a small visual example:
- You no longer need to worry that your eyebrow liner will wear off in the pool, at training or anywhere else!
- When visiting the gym or swimming pool – forget about those days when the eyeliner was erased at the most inopportune moment!
Both messages contain the same message. But the second one is clearly more convincing. It is better structured, divided into two distinct parts, and forces you to finish reading it to the end. But the first, in most cases, will remain without the attention of the target audience. Accordingly, its clickability will be significantly lower.
How to increase the KPI of your texts
I will give practical recommendations for copywriters who create advertising materials:
- Learn to create sentences that not only contain the necessary meaning, but also surprise readers with unexpected twists and a variety of verbal forms.
- It is important to keep a balance between readability and creativity. Because texts with a “low level of surprise” are too boring and predictable, whereas overly unusual materials are banally difficult to understand.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment with different versions of the structure and content of texts. Such tools are best learned in practice. Create several variants of selling creatives and test them on a similar audience.
- Even small cosmetic edits of proposals can bring results. For example, you can use more expressive punctuation marks, replacing conjunctions and interjections. This allows you to visually divide messages into several parts, each of which will be perceived as independent.
Why unexpected messages work better
People subconsciously analyze the messages they read, breaking them into parts and forming certain expectations that affect not only the structure of the text, but also the further development of events.
No less important is the user’s previous experience. If he has some kind of education or work experience, then in professional materials the probability of waiting for a specific structure and content increases significantly.
If such expectations are not met, then a person experiences a certain surprise, which is used to promote the marketing offer contained in the selling text.
During 6 experiments and an analysis of 15,000 reviews on Amazon, the researchers found the following:
- The CTR of a Facebook ad for a fashion brand was 74% higher (1.6% vs. 0.92%) when an unexpected passive voice option was used in the advertising creative.
- Beauty salon ads on Instagram showed a more than twofold increase in CTR (1.82% vs. 0.80%) when the creative of the ad was set up for a more unexpected result.
For a better understanding of which texts were used:
Low level of surprise:
…since we clean the seas and eliminate pollution to produce our fibers.
Approximate translation:
…as we clean the seas and eliminate pollution for the production of our fabrics.
High level of surprise:
…since the seas are cleaned and pollution is eliminated by [Brand]…
Approximate translation:
…as the seas are cleaned and pollution is eliminated by [brand]…
Restrictions
Facebook Instagram, Amazon product reviews) – it is unclear whether this effect will manifest itself offline, for example, in print publications or on billboards, but most likely it takes place.
The study did not study audio messages. We do not know whether this technique will have a positive effect in oral sentences, or whether it will lead to the opposite effect, causing confusion.
Link to the research – Marketing Magazine (January 2023): journals.sagepub.com .