How To Create Simple, Yet Effective, Customer-generated Headlines [19 examples]

12 min readSep 24, 2020

In this article, I want to show you a simple yet effective method that you can use to create headlines starting from your customer stories.

For each example I will go through:

The actual headline of a running Ad, the pros and cons
The UGC they can profit from
The simple headline they can use

Why am I doing this?

Primarily for two reasons:

To help tech companies craft better headlines using UGC
To highlight my expertise to potential tech companies I’d like to work for

If you want to know precisely why I want to work in tech space and more precisely in startup environments, I recently published this article about my decision and where I come from as well.

Every example will follow this structure:

Company name
Ad screenshot
Headline Analysis
UGC screenshot
Headline

Summary

If you want to jump straight away to your company, here’s a list:

BigCommerce
Brex
Clearbit
Falcon.io
Hootsuite
Keap
Landingi
LeadIQ
Lumen5
Marketo
Outreach.io
Privy
Revealbot
Segment
SEMRush
Sendgrid
Sendoso
SnowFlake
Switfly

1. BigCommerce

Headline Analysis

Pros:

It’s short and straight to the point.
It conveys a benefit for the reader, emphasized with ‘your’.

Cons:

The headline is way too generic. You want to focus on a specific yet appealing benefit. What about “Build an online store in less than X at half the cost of X?”
Since you’re talking with a highly aware prospect, you may want to emphasize a specific mechanism or system of your product that helps potential customers achieve a certain result better or faster. This is directly correlated with the five stages of awareness by Eugene Schwartz.

UGC Screenshot

Above we have one of your success stories that helps highlight how you benefit SMBs and E-commerce. These are all great numbers that you can reuse to elicit curiosity in the reader’s mind.

Below the headline made using the results above. It’s highly specific, related to a specific customer, and enticing.

New Headline

“Learn how Toolsaver increased their orders by 400% in a short year.” — Tweet

2. Brex

Headline Analysis

Pros:

There’s continuity between the image and headline. This may help to create cognitive resonance and make the ad more trustworthy.
It’s based on just one action. It’s not scattered.

Cons:

It’s way too generic and it doesn’t offer any specific reasons why I should open an account with Brex, if not in the caption.
There’s no use of social proof, neither it’s highlighted a hidden benefit.
There’s no use of power words, such as quick, free, or any use of incentives.

UGC Screenshot

You’ve got all the possible outcomes on the left of this page. You can reuse them in different formats, focusing on the pain (avoid X) or desire (Get X).

New Headline

“Open a free account in 10 minutes with a $3M limit.” — Tweet

3. Clearbit

Headline Analysis

Pros:

It’s more specific than others I’ve seen so far. It’s composed by a What — increase conversion rates — and a Where — across your entire funnel.
It’s not in the headline, but you actually used a UGC in the image. Well done.

Cons:

You’re being generic about your process. Nowadays many tools claim to help you increase conversion rates. This headline is blind, as even CRO helps you increase conversion rates, and copywriting as well.
The headline comes before the body copy. Therefore, highlight your hidden benefit coming from using your product for data enrichment.

UGC Screenshot

Here we have the case study of one of your customers, Livestorm. You can highlight the upside of using Clearbit (the completion rate increased) or the downside of not using Clearbit (missing 150 to 200 leads each month).

In this way, you’re either creating desire or eliciting pain.

If your customer is completely oblivious, choose the latter. If your prospect is product-aware but he needs to make a decision, choose the former.

New Headline

“Enriching data helped Livestorm improve form completion rates by half. Learn how.” — Tweet

4. Falcon.io

Headline Analysis

Pros:

The brand name is present in the headline. It’s a small pro, but one worth mentioning.

Cons:

Even if you’ve got a distinct picture, it doesn’t mean your headline needs to be blind. Clickup helps you stay organized, and even Asana. It’s hard to stand out if your outcome is similar to the ones promised in a different market.

UGC Screenshot

These are the results you got for Flying Tiger, one of your customers.

You can be more specific when targeting an audience:

If your potential reader is focused on audience growth, you’ll use the ones on the left.
If he’s focused on managing a tight-knit community effectively, you’ll use the ones on the right.

New Headline

“Keep response time on social below 24 hours, without losing your mind.” — Tweet

5. Hootsuite

Headline Analysis

Pros:

A power word has been used (free) and the brand name compares in the headline.

Cons:

The headline is pushy and too common. A free trial is something that everyone offers, so you have no positioning.
You won’t get qualified buyers, as everyone is interested in something free. You may want to highlight the hidden benefit your real potential customers crave.

UGC Screenshot

These are great results, and you’re not leveraging them. Since it’s the most important and prominent, we’ll choose the last one.

New Headline

“How we helped British Museum add 2M+ followers to their community.” — Tweet

6. Keap

Headline Analysis

Pros:

There’s the brand name and that’s it.

Cons:

It’s even worse than Hootsuite’s headline. The trial here is not free, and if it is, it’s not specified.
Think of your Ad as a salesman. Would you ever buy from someone telling you “try X today!”. Now you know which effect your Ad makes on people.
It’s pushy and there’s no benefit. On top of that, the caption is about “features”, not “outcomes”.

UGC Screenshot

New Headline

“Learn how Iron Tribe has grown to over 60 Franchises, using Keap.” — Tweet

7. Landingi

Headline Analysis

Pros:

No pros at all here.

Cons:

This is the worst headline I’ve seen so far. There’s no outcome, no power words, no branding or positioning.
How many landing page platforms are available on the market today? Countless.
Why should yours be different? Show me.
Does this headline elicit curiosity? Not at all.

UGC Screenshot

Since you don’t have any case studies, I chose to go reading your G2 reviews, and this seems to be a great piece of UGC.

You may want to get in touch with this guy for a case study.

It highlights a journey and why people should avoid other alternatives:

Clickfunnel and Unbounce are too expensive.
You’ll always have “fixes” down the line with Bootstrap.

On top of that, there’s a specific outcome: “producing a complete landing page takes three hours now.”

New Headline

“Produce a responsive landing page in three hours, without any coding.” — Tweet

8. LeadIQ

Headline Analysis

Pros:

There’s just the brand name, and nothing else.

Cons:

I guess they believe the headline is not important at all. Just the video is worth the effort.
Like the other examples, there’s no outcome here. The body copy is good, but you may want to highlight something specific starting with your headline.

UGC Screenshot

These results are striking, but you’re not utilizing them.

New Headline

“Cien tripled her pipeline in less than X time. Learn how.” — Tweet

9. Lumen5

Headline Analysis

Pros:

It defines a clear action and avoidance of pain — effortlessly.

Cons:

You may be even more specific. How much time will it take?
Which kind of content and how

UGC Screenshot

Here we have your CMS case study, and I highlighted the results you helped them achieve.

You can come up with different outcomes, but the one I like the most is a 2nd order outcome.

Less than 10 videos per year to 29 videos per month is around 3600% increase, something really impressive.

New Headline

“Produce 36 times more videos using a single tool.” — Tweet

10. Marketo

Headline Analysis

Pros:

It’s based on a clear action — measuring the ROI of your campaigns.

Cons:

It’s not an outcome. Which is the direct consequence of measuring my ROI?
I can measure the ROI even with Hootsuite I believe, but you’re not a social media management tool. In this way, you won’t have any positioning. Highlight the hidden benefit of using Marketo instead.

UGC Screenshot

As the companies above, you have results worth mentioning. They’re even more specific and trustworthy though. Every one of these is way more enticing than the headline you’ve written.

New Headline

“How Vidyard Doubled his Customers in 14 months.” — Tweet

11. Outreach

Headline Analysis

Pros:

The headline may benefit your ad only if the body copy is read before, but that’s rarely the case. Copyblogger reports that only 20% of first-time readers read your body copy, while 80% read your headline.

Cons:

You are seen as pushy in this way. You’re not explaining why you’ve been named a leader. People prefer coming to conclusions themselves because they feel more in control. Support this outlining the value you bring instead of the nominations.
Focus on a clear promise for your potential customers that they can’t but clicking the ad.

UGC Screenshot

Again, other results worth using in the headline below.

New Headline

“Onboard new sales hires in 15 minutes like Showpad does.” — Tweet

12. Privy

Headline Analysis

Pros:

The headline is good in the entire context of the ad: outcomes are highlighted in the body copy and in the image (before-after model).
If this is a retargeting ad and people are already product-aware, it may be an incentive to buy knowing you’re the #1 App on Shopify, as it builds credibility.

Cons:

The flip side: What if people read your headline first? In this case, they may go away, as anyone tries to position themselves as the #1 in the market, but never taking the time to explain how and why.
Focus on a clear outcome and then expand in the body copy about that outcome. In the image, you may show a customer achieving that result.

UGC Screenshot

New Headline

“How Cart Savers helped Peejamas convert 15% of cart Abandoners.” — Tweet

13. RevealBot

Headline Analysis

Pros:

It’s specific enough to focus on one single topic.

Cons:

This is not an Ad for acquisition, and that’s fine. However, there’s no value proposition around the guide itself. Which is the outcome the readers will be more likely to achieve with this piece of content?
Did you get any results or specific research in the guide that you can use? It’ll elicit way more curiosity than just a generic guide like everyone’s doing out there.

UGC Screenshot

Scentbird & Revealbot Facebook Ads Case Study

Facebook’s case study about the partnership between your product and Scentbird.

You can add these results to your guide and then use one of these to promote it.

New Headline

“Learn how Scentbird perform almost twice the split tests at page X.” — Tweet

14. Segment

Headline Analysis

Pros:

The headline is made of three clear steps, which makes it easy to understand what the goal is.

Cons:

You should be more specific: how is your process different? How fast is your process?
You may want to use results from a past customer, as we’ll see below.

UGC Screenshot

New Headline

“Reduce the time to resolve support tickets by 80% like Frame.io” — Tweet

15. SEMRush

Headline Analysis

Pros:

We’ve got the brand name, and an outcome, even though way too generic.

Cons:

“Build success” makes it difficult to understand what you really mean. It’s more similar to a metaphor than a specific outcome.
Use a past example where Persona-based marketing helped one of your customers.

UGC Screenshot

New Headline

“Adding 1M visits every year, for five years: The story of Simply Recipes.” — Tweet

16. Sendgrid

Headline Analysis

Pros:

It’s composed of a precise outcome (enhance) and a mean(SMS). The goal of this ad is clear.

Cons:

As outlined above, the headline may be good in the context of the ad, but not alone. Do not take for granted that people will always read your body copy. Instead, they always read your headline.
Be more specific and factual: how do SMS help email campaigns? Which are some stats or results that you can use?

UGC Screenshot

New Headline

“How Hustle Increased His List Size by 525% Switching to SendGrid” — Tweet

17. Sendoso

Headline Analysis

Pros:

The best headline I’ve seen so far. It’s result-oriented, specific, and straight to the point.

Cons:

You may want to add pain avoidance (without X) or a specific mechanism (with X tool)

UGC Screenshot

Great results to talk about here. A 15x campaign’s ROI is likely to be noticed by readers.

New Headline

“Learn How Siteimprove Drove 15x ROI From One Single Campaign.” — Tweet

18. SnowFlake

Headline Analysis

Pros:

There’s the brand name, but this headline is all about content.

Cons:

This ad may be clicked by loyal customers or a highly targeted audience.
To improve the CTR, focus on the hidden benefit they get watching your series. It may be an improved understanding of the subject, the ability to perform X without PAIN, or anything else, but make sure to do that.

UGC Screenshot

SnowFlake’s Funding Societies Case Study

This screenshot is about your Funding Societies case study. Here results are different, as they’re not directly related to business, but more to the technical side of things, something your customers are more interested in.

New Headline

“Learn how Funding Societies 10x their query speeds in this Case Study.” — Tweet

19. Swiftly

Headline Analysis

Pros:

It elicits curiosity in the reader’s mind.

Cons:

There’s no caption which you can dive more into your promise with.
You may want to highlight how much time and/or resources transit agencies saved by switching to Swiftly.

UGC Screenshot

Last but not least, these results can be found in your VTA case study, and your results are all about time, not money.

You may want to focus at least one campaign entirely on your “time-saving” outcome.

New Headline

“Learn how VTA reduced map delays by 1200%.” — Tweet

Let’s connect

Awesome, this is it.

If your company was on the list and you got inspired, that’s great.

if you were not on the list but you got a new perspective on things, that’ll be helpful as well.

Don’t hesitate to comment on this post or reach me out for anything at @SirMarcoBasile on Twitter.

For now, Enjoy your day.

Marco