How does text in content influence performance in January?

Advertisers might wonder how much text should be included in content for optimal performance.

The amount of text inside the creative impacts the effectiveness – but not in a universal way. Some categories benefit from more text, and some from less.

The same for different time periods and occasions.

In this article, we’ll look at specifically how to improve the performance of January ads using text in content - how much to write, and what to write.

Let’s start getting savvy about text now! 

During Boxing Day & January, content with a high text amount performs best

Across all message types during this period, a high amount of text in content performs 53% better than the average, and 131% better than no text at all.

Using more text, without overcrowding the creative and keeping it visually pleasing, gives the opportunity to grab attention. 

When you use more text to communicate details about your offer, users will not be forced to go to different websites to research your product. The text saves them time, and keeps them focused on your product only.

High text amount works best during Boxing Day and January. Other text levels, in order of effectiveness are: medium, low and no text.

Now that you know high text amount is best, how exactly does this change with different messages? ? 

When running January SALES, high text amount performs 208% better than low

Sales perform best of all messages during January. Pay attention to your text amount. It is your number 1 revenue driver. 

So get the text amount right to keep sales going.

How important could it be? Sale content with a high text amount performs 208% better than a low text amount!

Compare this to the previous insight, and you will see it in black and white: When it comes to sales, buyers want to see more information and text inside the creative. 

And sure, there are many other influences pushing for consumers to buy, such as discounts, different products and length of the sale. But, information really helps them decide to purchase.

Read about making the best possible sale campaign, and the best practices for eCommerce sales.

During January, high text amount performs 208% better than low in sale content; medium text performs 121% better than low.  

With these percentages in mind, what if you're not running sales, but instead launching new products? 

When advertising NEWS in January, low text amount is best

On the other side of the spectrum is News. This could be new products or entire collections.

News is the second-best performing message in January.  

Increasing the text doesn’t help. High text amount news performs 63% worse than low text amount news. Clearly, a low-text amount works best!

Why? What does our brain have to do with it? Ah, the reason is the chemical dopamine. 

Dopamine makes people feel curious. When buyers see something new and original, dopamine is released in the brain. It is responsible for stimulating curiosity and exploration. 

When reading news, buyers want to explore the new options for themselves, instead of being told all the details right away.

Being curious and exploring releases this chemical which makes buyers feel good. Giving away too much information in the creative ruins the mystery and fun!

Low text amount is the best way to go when advertising News in January. 

For more News tips, click here.

Now we know how much text to use, but what about the actual substance of the text? 

Content mentioning "January" performs twice as well during the period

Let’s move away from the numbers side, the amount of text, to the actual contents of the text.

Content mentioning the word January performs 99% better than the rest.

Buyers want to see content specific to their time period. Seeing this increases urgency and relevance, which makes them more likely to convert.

This trick works until the end of January.

So, it’s better to run a specific, January-only sale or January collection. Doing so works much better than just a random sale or product release that happens to be in January.

Mentioning “January” in content gives twice as much performance as ads that don’t.

So now that January is high on your list of go-to words, what about using a call to action? 

A call-to-action in the content during January hurts your performance by 44%

The final tip for January ad text is to leave out the call to action (CTA).

If you put in a call to action such as buy now, click here or swipe up, it is likely to perform 44% worse than content without a CTA.

When it comes to conversions, this pattern is rather universal.

Buyers see CTAs as overly pushy or salesy. Buyers want to make their own decision to purchase, instead of being told to do so.

Nearly all users know that clicking on the ad will bring them to your landing page. Including this in your ad might be unnecessary and distracting.

Putting a call-to-action in January content hurts performance by 44%

Conclusion:

Try incorporating these text-savvy tips:

• In general, your content will benefit from including a bit more text than you might think–of course without making it difficult to read. The one exception is the news category.

• When introducing a new collection, only include a little text. Let the buyer explore the new products out of curiosity.

• Including January-specific text such as “January sale” or “January collection” adds urgency to decide faster. Doing so boosts performance nearly twice as much as other content.

• Finally, a CTA will likely hurt your performance. The customers will purchase when they decide themselves. Telling them “buy now” makes them less willing to buy from you.

With these January text guides in mind, use them as a guide to improve your advertising performance during the first month of the year.

More to read

This article focuses purely on the text of January ads. Keep optimizing with the following insights:

• When should you include a logo in January content?
• Which content messages to focus on during January?
• Why do faces in content improve performance in January?
• How are January ads performing?

Data section

The dataset from this article is based on 308M+ impressions and 3.1K pieces of individual content on Meta (Facebook) platforms. It takes into account data from all countries and industries, with the campaign objective of Conversions. The period is from 26. December 2021 - 31. January 2022.

Numbers are looking at correlation only, not causation. Remember to check your own data: numbers for different brands, industries, and contexts will vary.

If you were intrigued about a specific insight, you can go in-depth into the various dimensions and how data can be segmented in Confect, here.