Writing PPC Ads
Headline
To start off, you always want to use the keyword you are bidding on in your headline. Since Google will Bold font the keyword, your ad will stand out more and will appear more relevant to the reader.
A short cut you can take in creating your headlines is to take the top 10 competitor’s ads and copy their headlines. This might seem unintuitive because you may be thinking that you want to stand out from the crowd. Well, through my own testing of various types of ads I’ve noticed that readers will sometimes associate the language of your ad to credibility.
So if your ad is kind of gimmicky, that may attract a few clicks from the curious but is likely to result in low quality traffic. This doesn’t mean you can’t test out a few gimmicky headlines, but baseline your testing first with something more professional. Then split test some more original ads (this holds true even in “adwords overture“).
Another reason why you may want to copy competitor headlines is because it’s very likely that they have tested their ads already. You want to benefit as much as possible from any testing they have already done in that market.
Lesson #1:Ensure your keywords are in your headline . Rip off of your top competitor’s headlines |
Descriptions
After the headline, you have 2 description lines available, each with 35 allowable characters. There’s a real art in being able to write a clear and concise message within these 2 lines.
The first thing you need to understand is the difference between benefits and features. A benefit describes the results available for the reader if they click on your ad. A feature would be similar to specifications, characteristics or details about the product or service. For a more in depth description check out Feature vs. Benefit.
For example, features of a desktop computer system are: 2 Gigs of memory, processor speed (3 Giga-hertz), Windows operating system, 250 Gig hardrive, etc. Benefits associated with such a computer system would be: increase in productivity, get work done in half the time, saving time, easy to use, the convenience of having everything stored on your big hardrive, etc.
Once you are clear as to what a benefit and a feature is, you are ready to write your description.
There are a few formulas people use which will help give you a starting point.
Formula #1 – Only Benefits
Your description should only talk about the benefits of what you’re offering. The advantage of this is that it create desire in the reader’s mind. And since you are leaving out the features, it creates a little bit of mystery and the reader will want to figure out how getting the said benefits is possible.
The disadvantage is you might get less qualified visitors to your site, since some people may just be curious.
Example:
Looking for {KeyWord}?
Learn How To Get Your Leads to Pay
For Your Ads, Even If They Don’t Buy
www.AttractionMarketingFormula.com
Formula #2 – Benefits on 1st Line, Features/Offer 2nd Line
This type of ad sets up the expectation of what they will be receiving with a beneficial result in store for them. Usually, you want to start with a stated benefit, then state how they will receive this benefit.
The advantage to this is this type of ad will create higher quality clicks, but may result in a lower CTR.
Looking for {KeyWord}?
Get Your Leads to Pay for Your Ads.
Free Report Shows You How.
www.AttractionMarketingFormula.com
Lesson #2:Some pointers for writing your description are:
|
Display URL
Lesson #3:
Test the display URL with “www” and without (i.e. www.AttractionMarketingFormula.com or AttractionMarketingFormula.com ) |
Destination URL
Not much to discuss here, other than make sure your display URL’s domain is the same as your destination URL’s domain. Discrepancies will result in a Google Slap.
For tracking and testing purposes, you can use ‘insert’ functions to carry important data over to your website.
For example, you can use the {keyword} function at the end of your URL to pass the searched for keyword to your website, where your PHP or Javascript page will be able to grab and store that keyword for tracking.
i.e. http://www.attractionmarketingformula.com?google={keyword}
When the user arrives at your site after clicking on your ad and for the sake of this example was searching for “google adwords”, then the destination URL will read:
http://www.attractionmarketingformula.com?google=google20%adwords
You then have the ability to call the “google” variable using PHP or Javascript and store it however you want.
Lesson #4:There are other insert functions, which are available to you. See the ‘help’ section under Google AdWords for more details. You can use these functions to help you in tracking your campaign. |
There should be plenty of information here to get you started on your first few ads for your campaign. Next time we’ll cover a critical piece of the Google AdWords puzzle that will separate you from AdWords mediocrity - “split testing”.
To Your AdWords Domination,
 |
| Lawrence Talent |
How to Write Killer Ads
How To Write Traffic Sucking PPC Ads
You, like everyone else in this country, are inundated with piles of junk mail everyday - from the small local business to the large corporations - they are all using the US Mail soliciting for your business.
For the most part, this is a nuisance and only serves to kill off the rain forest. But once in a while, a particular mail piece will catch your attention and cause you to take action.
This action could be any or all of the following:
- Opening the envelope
- Reading the content of the envelope
- Visiting a website to learn more about the offer
- Calling a 800 number
- If the piece is a coupon, visiting the business to take advantage of the offer
- Purchasing a product
… among many other possibilities.
Have you ever wondered why certain mail pieces compel people to take any of the above actions, while others are thrown in the trash unopened? Why do they even bother sending you stuff if they are only going to waste money?
Did you ever find yourself being pulled in by a Real Estate piece offering an irresistible refinance deal so you can pay off your debt and lower your mortgage payment at the same time?
What about the cheap postcards with the JC Penny picture of a real estate agent you’ve never met? Why are you so quick to dump those?
Well, the answer lies in the copywriting – this includes what’s written on the envelope, as well as the content of the letter inside. You can view Google AdWords copy as analogous to the writing on the outside of the envelope.
With an envelope, what you write on the outside will be the difference between someone dumping the envelope unopened and that person taking a step towards the sale.
Lesson #1:In AdWords, having good ad copy is the difference between your ideal customer clicking on your ad, to be taken to your website, and completely missing out on your offer and lowering your Click-Through-Rate (CTR). |
How High Click-Through-Rates Lower Your Advertising Expenses
Like any other business and contrary to the beliefs of many of its loyal socialist followers, Google’s primary goal is to make money – lots of money! And they’ve been very successful at taking over a good chunk of the internet real estate market.
And one way they did it is by giving the public what they want, which includes relevant listings – both organic and sponsored. Naturally when your AdWords copy is relevant to the keyword you are bidding on, your CTR will go up.
If your CTR is high, Google wants you to beat out the rest of the ads because more clicks translates to more money for them. So what they will do is lower your Cost-per-Click (CPC) and raise your rankings on the listings so you can be more prominent on the sponsored listings.
It is actually possible for someone ranked at #1 of the sponsored links results, to be paying less per click than someone ranked at #6. Why you ask?
Well, because 100 clicks at $0.15 cents per click, is better than 50 clicks at $0.25 cents per click over the same volume of searches.
Lesson #2:You can’t simply buy your way to the top of Google AdWords – or at least not without going broke. You have to make a real effort at serving the best interest of the searcher, which will translate to more conversions at a lower cost per sale for you and more money for Google. Win-Win! |
Discover the Power of Relevancy in Your Ads
As we discussed in the previous newsletter, Google prefers tightly organized Ad Groups, because it demonstrates to them that you are making a real effort at being relevant and organized with your campaigns.
Methods we discussed were: a) one-keyword per ad group, b) the 3 match-types of one keyword per ad group c) campaigns organized by match-type & d) simply limiting the number of relevant keywords under one ad group to less than 9.
Another technique, which will help boost your CTR and quality score with Google is using the actual keyword you are bidding on within your actual ad. Google will use bold font on the keyword, which was searched for in both organic and sponsored listings. The bold will attract more clicks, therefore increasing your CTR. Always try to include the keyword you are bidding on, in your ad if possible.
Lesson #3:Include your keyword in your ad. |
Auto-Insert {KeyWord:}
If you use the auto-insert code {KeyWord:<default keyword>} within your ad, Google will automatically insert the keyword which was searched in that part of your ad. However, Google will not reward you for performance if you do this, so your CPC will probably not go down.
The advantage to using this would be for testing purposes. Using auto-insert, you can see which keywords in your list perform well then use the “peel and stick” method for that keyword – meaning create a custom ad group and ad for that keyword, using the practices described in this article, without using auto-insert. This will result in Google rewarding your for performance and lowering your CPC.
Lesson #4:Use KeyWord:<default keyword> sparingly and to split test. |
Secret Google Ninja Tool
A great tool to make this organization job a bit easier is to use AdWords Editor. AdWords Editor is a NOT widely known piece of desktop software, which Google created to make AdWords management easier. The power in this tool lies in your ability to quickly modify and upload campaigns in BULK.
Lesson #4:You can download AdWords Editor for free at: http://www.google.com/adwordseditor |
This is it for now, next time, we’ll get down to the nitty gritty details of creating an ad that will stand out from the rest of the crowd! See you next time.
To Your AdWords Domination,
|
| Lawrence Talent |