We analyze some parameter choice strategies in regularization of inverse problems, in particular the (modified) L-curve method and a variant of the Hanke-Raus rule. These are heuristic rules, free of the noise level, and they are based on minimization of some functional. We analyze these functionals, and we prove some optimality results under general smoothness conditions. We also devise some numerical approach for finding the minimizers, which uses model functions. Numerical experiments indicate that this is an efficient numerical procedure