Test Your Copywriting Expertise by Taking this Copywriting Test Now
By Don Nicholas • 03/11/2009
Landing Page Optimization: The value of A/B split testing for increasing response
This publisher’s “winning” titles routinely generate 50 percent more sales than the “losing” titles.
It was enough to make an experienced copywriter groan…
I have more than 25 years of experience as a direct response copywriter, but I recently had a rude awakening when the title I wrote for a paid report lost an A/B split test by a wide margin.
Here’s the story, with a few minor details changed to protect the victor’s identity:
My publisher friend is a fervent believer in creating A/B splits for the titles of his paid handbooks. The graphic design of each cover is identical in color, typeface and size. His sales letter landing pages use the exact same persuasive editorial copy except for the title of the book.
All possible steps are taken to ensure a fair test. The architecture of his Mequoda Marketing System website offers up one of the two alternating landing pages equally to thousands of visitors.
The key metric is number of handbooks sold, not arrivals. A potential customer who abandons the order flow is not counted in the “win” column.
The results of these A/B splits are always decisive.
This publisher’s “winning” titles routinely generate 50 percent more sales than the “losing” titles. Occasionally, the winner outsells the loser even more dramatically.
So, I agreed to write one version of a new handbook title and test it against his alternate handbook title.
Discover landing page best practices, free customizable landing page templates and examples of landing pages proven to generate revenue when you download our FREE Million Dollar Landing Page Templates white paper.
Can you guess the results of this scientific copywriting test?
Which handbook title generated more orders?
(A) The Ultimate Alaska Fly Fishing Vacation Handbook: 21 ways to save on the ultimate Alaska fly fishing vacation
versus
(B) Deluxe Fly Fishing Vacations for Less – Alaska Edition: 21 ways to save on the ultimate Alaska fly fishing vacation
Now, before I reveal the winner, please note that it outsold the alternate title by nearly 200 percent — a very wide margin. That means it sold 480 handbooks vs. 160 handbooks. Ca-Ching!
The Winner is B. Deluxe Fly Fishing Vacations for Less – Alaska Edition: 21 ways to save on the ultimate Alaska fly fishing vacation is the winning handbook title, even though The Ultimate Alaska Fly Fishing Vacation Handbook: 21 ways to save on the ultimate Alaska fly fishing vacation, with its rich, contiguous keyword phrases, works better for search engine optimization.
The results of this test are not merely anecdotal. This publisher has repeated his results in other A/B splits. The “cuter,” folksy, more alliterative handbook title has beaten the straight up handbook title every time.
To put it mildly, I was surprised.
The lesson: The customer doesn’t necessarily search for the title phrase. But he often responds better to the “catchy” title.
So, our new best practice, when writing titles for paid products, is to write a title that leads with the main benefit, even if the benefit doesn’t have a keyword phrase in it.
When writing headlines, generally you can use more words. Move the benefit from the subhead; put it in the main headline. Use the popular SEO keyword phrase in the subhead, not the main head.
Or put the benefit before the colon, and place the product name or title after the colon.
For example:
(A) Famous angler reveals little-known rivers, streams and lakes that are teeming with fish: The Ultimate Fly Fishing Vacation Guide
versus
(B) The Ultimate Fly Fishing Vacation Guide: Famous angler reveals little-known rivers, streams and lakes that are teeming with fish
In this example, I now predict the first headline (A) would probably pull better than the second (B). But only an A/B split test will determine for certain if I’m right.
Long headlines work best. Your objective should be to get both the benefit and the keyword phrase in the headline. And this tactic is even more important when promoting a paid product than a free download.
On the Mequoda Daily site, the rapid conversion landing pages for free downloadable white papers convert between 17 and 31 percent.
Five Deadly Membership Website Mistakes is our most successful title.
SEO Copywriting Secrets is our least popular title based on the overall conversion rate.
We think this is because the title Five Deadly Membership Website Mistakes is much more specific in its promise than the more general title SEO Copywriting Secrets. Or perhaps people simply have gotten weary of the word “secrets” because it is overused by direct response copywriters.
A/B split testing is a powerful technique for revealing hidden persuaders and ending needless disagreements among copywriters. Measurement trumps argument.
Our conclusion is that all tested copywriting strategies work some of the time. But none of them works all of the time.
Your thoughts? Does this copywriting technique resonate with you?
Please join the discussion on how to write and test effective titles and headlines.
For more editorial and copywriting strategies, don’t miss the Sixth Annual Mequoda Summit and Internet Marketing Conference, April 1-3, 2009.
Get your hands on dozens of practical, specific, detailed, and realistic ways to build, manage, and get results from your online marketing program. Ten information-packed sessions cover SEO, ad sales, budgeting, staffing, editorial strategy, email marketing, link-building and more.
Related Posts
Posted in Landing Pages
March 11th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Great article.
It’s important to point out that title B (from the first set) included the words, “for Less” which implies the promise of a benefit earlier than the first title. That’s then reinforced by using the word “save”. For me that made it the obvious pick. (I had a 50-50 shot right?)
It’s always surprised by testing though. The challenge is in trying to determine the patterns and repeat/predict future results.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Great online copywriting post. I love the fact that you are sharing your best practice based on conversion rate. Nice work, thanks!
March 11th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
[...] to Setting Up .. Invisible Copy – Why Your Copy Should Have a Small Ego | Copywriter | Web C.. Test Your Copywriting Expertise Web Copywriting Course – Powerful Copywriting Tips Notice: SEO Copywriting eBook Price Change in 24 [...]
March 11th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
[...] Demystifying copywriting: Verbs A Copywriting Lesson from Dr. Seuss : Freelance – Freelancer Test Your Copywriting Expertise The Case of the Disappearing Copywriter | The Total Package Writer’s Paradise » Blog [...]
March 16th, 2009 at 3:53 am
Amanda, I just posted a blogpost discussing your Alaska fly fishing handboek landing page. Warning: it’s in Dutch
) http://www.webanalisten.nl/analyse/seo-copywriting-kost-conversie.htm
One of the readers is wondering whether the landing page was used in an AdWords or e-mail campaign?
Did you also A/B-test organic search engine traffic to this page? If so, what are the conversion results?
By the way: if your client allows it, it would be great if you shared the landingpage URLs!
March 16th, 2009 at 7:11 am
[...] test is gedraaid met 2 verschillende paginatitels. Een titel met daarin 2 keer een [...]
March 17th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
@ Aartjan – The title test was done with an A/B email split to their email subscriber file. Unfortunately I can’t divulge who our client is.
March 19th, 2009 at 7:32 am
[...] The Winner is B. Deluxe Fly Fishing Vacations for Less – Alaska Edition: 21 ways to save on the ultimate Alaska fly fishing vacation is the winning handbook title, even though The Ultimate Alaska Fly Fishing Vacation Handbook: 21 ways … Ice Fishing Equipment [...]
July 20th, 2009 at 9:16 am
[...] SEO koppen met vier trefwoorden het dan ineens af te leggen tegen een ‘echte’ tekst (zie het voorbeeld via [...]
July 24th, 2009 at 2:37 am
[...] met bijvoorbeeld vier trefwoorden het dan ineens af te leggen tegen een ‘echte’ tekst (zie het voorbeeld via [...]
January 11th, 2010 at 7:53 am
I see you’ve never actually worked at a major ad’ agency then judging by what you think about copywriting
November 20th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Thanks to your cpoywrite you return copywritr
January 19th, 2012 at 5:17 am
I will immediately clutch your rss feed as I can not to find your email subscription link or newsletter service. Do you have any? Please let me realize so that I may just subscribe. Thanks.