Copywriting Riddle Tests Your Skills

Strictly speaking, the only thing it proves it that Headline #1 beat the other headline in this specific test to that specific audience at this specific time (and whatever other specific test conditions there were).

Did this headline actually win a split-test, or is this a trick/rhetorical question?

I can't imagine the first headline beating the second under almost any circumstances.

They're both headlines from the same famous list, and no I didn't test them. So probably a poorly formed question. It was supposed to be a hypothetical about what knowledge you can obtain from a test.

People always say to test ONE THING. So they may choose to test the headline.

But then... you're still changing more than one variable. The length of the headline, the number of chars, the letters, the words... rarely are you changing just ONE variable.

This isn't a problem as long as you understand what the test means and what it does not mean. That's what I was trying to get at, maybe poorly It didn't help that the ex-cabbie knocked it out of the park on the first pitch.

Cheers,
Stephen

Although there are many variables I think that as long as you keep testing it would prove whether it's length or not. I believe it would always be the message that is what is being tested. So if the shorter one wins and you bring a longer one that wins the next split test I think again you can conclude it's the message and has nothing to do with the length.

Of course I might be over analyzing it as well.

2 Cents,
Fred

It proves that headline #1 wins for that specific market.

I'd be very surprised to see a huge change in response from a 69 character headline to a 39 character headline.

Both are readable within ~3 seconds or less.

When you start talking LOOOONG headlines it's a different story.

As a general rule, specificity is always more powerful.

That's a *general* rule.

From that test, I personally wouldn't take length into consideration.

Although I may test...

Or...

And variations upon that, combine that with tracking software (my headlines aren't great, it's late, thinking fast) and try to understand the psychology of what's working and why.

I'd say the market, the mindset, the psychology and the hook will overwhelmingly be more influential in the success of the ad than the actual length of the headline.

My .02.

-Scott

P.S. Stephen, long time no talk man, let's catch up soon!

Can someone ban this idiot? ^^^

We have plenty of off-topic non-nonsensical posts without him

(J/k, love this forum most of the time. But spam bot troll is obvious).

-Scott

P.S. Just in case his post (dabao) is deleted I'm NOT suggesting banning myself. But if I ever start replying like this guy, please ban me for my own good

Definitely true.

But I'd always try to analyze the reasons why one headline beat another. Once you understand the underlying psychology, motivators, appeal and other factors, it makes that success much easier to duplicate.

I've seen many headline tests, and more times than I can count, I've been completely shocked at the results. It's definitely worth a deeper look, beyond just "A" beat "B".

In one test (can't post the headlines, client) I saw a pretty vague headline, with lots of superlatives and pretty long headline lacking any specifics beat a shorter headline promising very specific results backed up with proof.

I had 2 guesses as to why...

1. The specific promise was true, but the results were too good for the market to believe they could achieve anything similar.

2. The longer headline was sort of a cliffhanger, getting those curiosity glands going.

Test, and go with the winner.

Understand WHY it's a winner, and gain invaluable insights into your market and human psychology in general, which in turn, makes you a much more intuitive (and effective) copywriter.

I get a big kick out of seeing what works and trying to figure out why.

-Scott

I think it has less to do with the length of the headline than with what the headlines actually say. I know that "the shorter the better" is pretty much the rule, but these are words after all and it is words and how we put them together that do the selling.

thats the joy of split testing, when you change headline, body and image its hard to tell which has the greatest effect

Stats 101:

Testing the two headlines is an observational study, not an experiment, which means you can only claim correlation. Correlation is not causation.

In this case, RAGolko is right. The headline is correlated with the niche it's used in, and the conclusions would be as follows. "Title 1 worked well with the niche" vs. "Title 1 did not work well with the niche." Or "Title 2 worked well...you get the idea.

To perform an experiment you need independent variables, or variables you can control and change, and dependent variables, or variables that change as a result of your changes. And remember, nothing is ever 'proven,' it's 'supported.'

It isn't how long or how many words there are in a headline. Its how clear the message of the headline is.