When creating your listing you have to remember that this is an advertisement and the title of your listing is the first thing potential bidders will see, thus its importance cannot be understated. While it is imperative that the title you give your listing clearly and concisely details what it is you are selling, you also want to get potential bidders excited about your listing. Choose descriptive keywords based on relevancy and enticement; draw bidders into your auction and make them want to spend money!
Writing Titles For Auctions
When constructing a title, pay attention to any branding or labeling your item might have and use that to your advantage e.g if you are selling clothing, you should include the brand/label and sizing in your headline. Likewise if you were selling a car, you would want to include make/model and year. Play to the strengths and selling points of the item and leave any possible defects and flaws for the description.
Finally, pay attention to the character limit when creating your title. While WP Auctions does not have a character limit, it is worth setting your own creative limit so that headlines do not become convoluted and unnecessarily bloated. The good example below is 71 characters, for reference.
Example of a good title:
“2002 Ford Fiesta, low mileage, taxed until October, excellent condition”
This title gives the make, model and year and puts the main selling points of the car right in the headline. You could perhaps swap ‘low mileage‘ with ‘4 new tires‘ if appropriate, or ‘taxed until October‘ with ‘brand new clutch‘. Always make the strengths a focal point.
Example of a bad title:
“Wow video games bundle super cheap”
Why is the example bad, well it doesn’t tell us anything about the auction. How many games are in the bundle? What games are they? What gaming platform are they for? Plus, words like ‘wow‘ and ‘super‘ are redundant as nobody would ever search for that. There may be a few people who click through out of curiosity, but the majority of potential bidders simply won’t be interested.
So to recap, here are a few quick tips for creating a perfect title:
- Make your title clear and concise, and relevant to what you are selling
- Include brand names and labels where appropriate
- Ensure you use correct spelling
- Include descriptive words that are relevant to your listing
- Play to the strengths of the item and instill excitement into potential bidders
And here are a few things to avoid:
- Short and uninformative headlines
- Using redundant keywords
- False or misleading information
- Information unrelated to the listing
- Swear words or terms likely to cause offense
Hopefully the above information will guide you towards writing captivating, creative and focused headlines which will drive more bidders to your auctions and increase your sales.