clickable headlines Archives - Fortress Consulting Group

Earlier this week, Google hosted a live web broadcast announcing their new ad service rebrand. AdWords has become Google Ads, DoubleClick has become Google Analytics 360 and they all fall under Google Marketing Platform. A lot seems to have changed but, being a copywriter, I don’t interact much with the backend of advertising and most of the broadcast went right over my head. I sat down with our Director of Digital Strategy, Eric Lucas, for a simplified breakdown of Google’s new services.

What exactly is the update?

Google’s new “Google Marketing Platform” will act as an umbrella service to house: Google Ads, Google Analytics 360, and Google Ad Manager. This is a one-stop-shop for all the front-end and back-end marketing services that Google already had in place including: the research, setup, measurement and optimization of a campaign. Now, marketers won’t have to integrate the separate features to make them work together, but, instead, Google Marketing Platform will allow them to easily toggle between features and allow the features to “talk to each other.” In addition to the bundling of their services, Google Ads will now have “smart campaigns” which use machine learning to optimize ad headlines and descriptions (which are getting a character boost too).

What does this mean for marketers?

Marketers like Eric will now be able to do their job better and faster. With all of Google’s suite of marketing tools in one place, the research, set up, measurement, and optimization will all be in one place. Google Marketing Platform will cut down on set-up time so that marketers can start delivering reports faster and be able to see how effectively your ad budget is being used. There will be better visibility of where the budget is going and what returns on investment are coming back to you.

What does this mean for brands?

Ad campaigns will be much more effective. The new platform will cut down on set up time which and reduce errors that could have occurred before from integrating separate platforms. Measuring and attribution will be easier because the services are better connected. The clarity of results will also improve significantly. For smaller businesses who don’t have a huge ad budget, they may require less long-term professional help. If you don’t have a marketing background, you still might want to consult an agency like Fortress. Business owners will be able to more clearly see what the results are saying about the success of their campaign. The responsive ads that use machine learning will help you to optimize your budget by more quickly assessing which campaigns are working and which ones aren’t. While the platform is more streamlined, if you don’t have a marketing background, you still might want to consult an agency like Fortress.

Will consumers see any change in their ad experience?

The biggest change will be the ability to turn targeted ads on and off. Google will still show you ads, but your data won’t be used to decide which ones you see. Eventually, search ads will become more relevant to you (if you allow targeted ads). Google is allowing marketers to use more characters in the headlines and descriptions which will give you a clearer idea of what the ad will lead you to. This may result in search ads giving you more relevant results than before.

Overall, Google’s marketing rebrand will make life much easier for marketers by integrating all their services into one platform. And, although Google has streamlined the process of paid ad marketing, you should still consult an agency. We’ve taken over several campaigns where the client started it themselves and couldn’t clearly see their results or wasted their budget trying to figure it out. In either scenario, we could quickly overhaul and revamp the campaigns to run more efficiently and maximize their budgets. Google has been the leader in paid digital advertising for a long time and is only getting stronger. Check out the recording of the broadcast here if you want to learn more in-depth about the changes happening in the world of Google Ads.

Not necessarily true (although we think so), but you must have believed it if you’re reading this.

Whether you’re looking to come up with an awesome blog post title or email marketing subject line, you need to be able to write headlines that get clicked (draw people in) and shared (spread the word) or your content marketing won’t go anywhere.

Bad headlines unfortunately mean irrelevant and unshareable content, even if you’ve written a great article. And irrelevant and unshareable content means lower web traffic. In order to avoid all of this, it’s important to know the three keys to writing a clickable headline that result in shareability and higher web traffic. Luckily they all start with the letter C to benefit your memory.

Clear – Whatever the subject matter, make sure the headline isn’t misleading or manipulated. The last thing a reader wants is to be redirected. People don’t like to click on one subject only to find out the piece of content is really about a different topic. Doing this not only angers your audience, but the chance of them sharing your content goes down to zero percent.

Candid – Be straightforward in your headline. Let your audience know what you intend to talk about. Or if you’re purposely being mysterious, make sure the headline reels the reader and correlates with the subject matter. Honesty is always appreciated and that’s especially true when people are searching for interesting information on a particular subject.

Concise – Shorter isn’t always sweeter, but in the case of a headline, it is. According to some experts, writing headlines that are six words are most successful. With headlines, less is more.

For example, a better headline for this article that incorporates the 3 C’s would have been “Clickable Headlines Are Clear, Candid, And…” It’s straightforward, honest, short and draws the reader in.

Have you seen a clickbait headline? If you’re not sure then look at our blog post headline. The short explanation about clickbait headlines is they go against the 3 C’s. The clickbait concept uses overly catchy and sensational headlines to get a reader to click on the article, but often enough, the actual article content underwhelms or misleads a reader.

Here’s an example:

Once you click on the headline what do you learn? “If you drive less than 50 miles/day and live in a qualified zip code you can get an extremely high discount.” Not the most stunning information, but maybe you didn’t know that so you let it go. (Be forewarned, it only goes downhill from here.) What else do you learn? “If you have no DUI’s, you can get even more discounts.” Well duh, drunk driving is against the law and safe driving equals better rates. Anything else? “NEVER buy insurance without comparing all of the discounts online first.” Wow. That is NOT groundbreaking information in any way, shape or form. See the continuous disappointment with a clickbait headline? Don’t do it.

But on a more positive note, a couple good techniques to consider when creating a clickable headline include:

Using a question
•“What should the average length of a blog post be?”

Focusing on the benefits
•“Three ways to improve your blog”

Brainstorming multiple headlines
•“How can blogging benefit my small business?” or “5 reasons why blogging is essential to small businesses”

Whatever headline you come up with, it should engage readers right off the bat.

Tag: clickable headlines

What is Google’s New Marketing Platform and What can it Do for You?

If You Don’t Read This Post On Writing Headlines, You Will Regret It

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