What happens when you stop optimizing for click-through rates?
For two quarters our content team chased click-through rates by writing sensational headlines for our weekly email newsletter. Traffic spiked every Tuesday. Our downstream product signups remained completely flat.
We looked at our analytics. Discovered that those catchy headlines were meant to increase click-through rates but actually attracted curious casual readers who bounced within thirty seconds. They were looking for entertainment, not software solutions.
We rewrote our titles to be boringly specific about the technical problem the article solved. Traffic dropped by thirty percent. Our trial signups from those same emails doubled.
Optimizing for attention attracts the audience. Optimize for qualification instead. Let traffic numbers reflect your actual target market.
How do you balance engaging headlines, with setting expectations for your readers?
Replies
The same trap exists one step further down the funnel. In my web funnel the easy number to watch is how many visitors start making something on the site, and that number loves anything that lowers the bar. Right now every visitor gets their result for free, but only inside the app, so the site number is meaningless on purpose and I judge the test only by installs and paid subscriptions. It forces the question your team answered: who is this page for. A specific headline is a filter, and a filter is supposed to throw people away. The only metric worth defending is the one that sits right before money.