Your Persado account team can now enable Readability Scoring for all Variants you generate on your own, along with insights to help adjust content if the reading level doesn’t match the target audience defined in brand or segment guidelines.
This article details how to read these scores and how to get started if you think this functionality will help your team!
Where to Find Readability Scores
Readability scores appear at the bottom of each Variant in a field titled ‘Reading Age.’
Reading scores, grade levels, and average reading age are used to ensure content aligns with the appropriate reading level for your audience. For example, many financial services institutions target an average reading age of 11 to 14 years, while retail brands typically aim for 9 to 12 years.
While the analysis is running, a loading icon will appear. If you edit a Variant, the reading age will be recalculated automatically. If you revert to the original version, the original reading age will be restored.
Note that scores will not be generated for any Variant that does not contain at least one element longer than 10 words.
Understanding a Readability Analysis
When you hover over the reading age, a popover appears showing the reading score, difficulty level, and actionable insights. For U.S. accounts, a grade-level is also displayed by default below the readability score.
If the Variant’s reading age does not match the target reading age defined for the account, insights will highlight which elements contributed to the discrepancy, identify the specific language that caused it, and provide suggestions for how to adjust the content to meet the target level. You can then adjust the content as usual and the scores will automatically update to reflect your changes.
How to Get Started
Let the Persado team know what the target reading age is for your account, and we can configure this in the back end.
FAQs
How are readability scores calculated?
Our analysis uses the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease scoring system, which assigns a score from 0 to 100 based on sentence length and word complexity (measured by syllables per word). Higher scores indicate content that is easier to read. In general, for example, a score of 30 or below would be appropriate for college graduates and is considered difficult to read.
Why don’t I see a readability score for a Variant?
Due to the limitations of the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease system, a score will not be generated for any Variant that does not contain at least one element longer than 10 words.
If you’re not seeing readability scores for any Variants, it’s likely that this feature has not been turned on for your account. Reach out to your Persado team if you’re interested!