Hello my nerdy friends,
You’ll love this insight, because it’s proven to get a +10% increase in CTR.
Let’s get into it!
The study:
Researchers from the University of Mannheim ran a real-world experiment on a cleaning service website.
They tested 3 combinations of a headline and button text:
1. The button copy repeated the same keywords used in the headline exactly
2. The button copy had the “gist“ of the headline, using synonyms
3. The button copy had a different text than the headline (Kutzner et al., 2024)
Here are the exact headlines and CTA’s they tested:
Header 1: “Dreaming instead of cleaning”
Button (Verbatim repetition): “At last, time for dreaming”
Button (Gist repetition): “Relax now”
Button (New message): “No more cleaning duties” or “A clean apartment without any stress”
Header 2: “No stress with cleaning”
Button (Verbatim repetition): “A clean apartment without any stress”
Button (Gist repetition): “No more cleaning duties”
Button (New message): “Relax now” or “At last, time for dreaming”
🧪What they found:
Verbatim repetition of the header words on the button led to the highest click-through rate (58-59%), compared to gist repetitions (48-51%) and new messages (42-45%).
Why?
Our brains don’t like to think.
Reading the same words twice, takes much less effort, than reading and processing new words.
This is called high processing fluency.
The brain mistakes that ease for a good feeling and acts on it.
That’s why “gist” repetition worked as well, but not as great, likely because the words weren’t identical, so they required slightly more cognitive effort to connect.
💡Takeaway
Try repeating your headline key words in the button. Email me if you test it out, I’d be curious to see your results!
Go make something cool,
Ksenia, the chief nerd
P.S. Thank you to today’s awesome sponsor, Roku!
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