Drop everything you ever learned about writing long sales copy or blog headlines – Facebook ad headlines are different, yet again.

For one thing, you only have a rigid 25-characters for your Facebook ad headlines (no exceptions), so they must be short, punchy and eye-catching.

The best format is either something so off-the-wall your reader just has to click, to see what on earth you’re talking about… or that old standby, the question format.

Some examples…

“Ready to Make Six Figures?”
“Which Type are You?”
“Want a Virtual Horse?”

The advantage of a question format is that the “you” is implicit. You’re already speaking directly to the reader, just by adding that question mark. (Every time you eliminate the “you” that’s 3 whole characters you don’t have to include.)

Keep It Simple

Another way is to go for simplicity – and use action verbs such as.

- Play
- Avoid
- Try
- Fight
- Love

“Play Farm Wars” – accompanied by your signature branding graphic or a screen shot from the game, and your 125 character body text – does the trick nicely. Your reader will either play (and the chances are the ad’s being served to her because she already plays several games)… or not play. All the eloquence and clever keywords in the world aren’t going to change that.

Condense, Condense, Condense

Another way to make the most of your headlines? See where you can  eliminate unnecessary words. (This will make your writing feel “tighter”, anyway.)  “Do You Love Chocolate?” can easily be shortened to “Love Chocolate?”

Finally, there’s a difference between being enigmatic and being vague.  “Love Chocolate?” – accompanied by an appropriate photo and a brief explanation (“Learn to make your own gourmet truffles!” and a link) – gets your message across much better than “Try this” (accompanied by no graphic and “For a thrilling experience click here” and a link).

In other words, the latter example didn’t pique curiosity, gave not even a hint about the subject… and appealed to no one.

Most inexperienced marketers dash through creating their Facebook headlines, but this is your most important component – the one that makes people either click… or not.  Take your time, and really pay attention to the message you want to send.

And don’t forget that split-testing!

Read More:  Facebook Ads Exposed

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