Long or Short Bullets?
Does It Even Matter?
I love getting wordy and crafting a good sales-boosting bullet point right up to the max of 500 chars, but even the shortest copy can boost conversions too! When I first started in Amazon copywriting back around 2015, I worked for a client who had 35 supplement listings that needed updating. Everyone was going long at the time, so I decided to do the opposite, and I made each bullet one line long, and the titles 80-100 characters. We maxed the plain text description at 250 characters - like a mini ad!
And 70% of those listings experienced a boost in conversion!
So, it certainly works.
Here’s an example. This is a list of the top 6 things reviewers liked about a particular hair gel.
REACTIVATES: With water
GOOD HOLD: But not hard or crunchy. Holds well through the night ready for simple reactivation in the morning.
NO DRY FLAKES: Like gels
GREAT SMELL: Not too overpowering, but not too blah
COST EFFECTIVE: A tub lasts a long time
EASY TO REMOVE: With one wash or brushing. Shoppers don’t want to wash their hair multiple times to remove the product.
Now assuming our hair gel can meet those conditions, we can make some short bullets like this:
Pomps, Fades, Fine Or Curls - the perfect hold and no helmet hair
Woody, fruit and sweet - with a sexy leather scent women love
Advanced Anti-Flaking Formula - holds like a gel and flexes like a pomade
Reactivate with a little water, and remove with one shampoo
Go Easy Tiger! A little of this cost effective gel pomade goes a long way
It says everything the reviewers care about and it gets in and out without boring the reader.
Now, I’ve got some long copy listings that convert at an incredible 60% for clients, so I’m not saying that short copy will make every listing perform better, but I can guarantee you it works for some, and it's worth testing.
But What About SEO?
Yes, of course I have clients who want loooong bullets and LOTS of SEO stacked inside. And SEO is super important. But you need to give it some context. If you don’t need to stuff your listing with SEO (some products don’t) then you can use short, fun bullets with ease! But don’t underestimate how much QUALITY SEO you can get into a listing when you combine your title, short bullets, plain description & backend search terms!
What’s My Preference?
My usual style is 300 chars, but recently I’ve been playing around with the shorter bullets where I can because this boosts your mobile optimization! But at the end of the day, I just let the product, KW and copy flow and land where it needs to. Say what you need to say and then leave with Grace.
