November 6th, 2012
short url: http://beeseen.com/s/2p
Tips for Writing PPC Text Ads
For Search Engine Marketing to be successful, specifically Pay-per-Click (PPC) Advertising, it is crucial to have people click on your ad so that they will ultimately land on your website. Writing compelling PPC text ads is important because great ads lead to visitors and better quality leads and conversions.
Following are some tricks gathered from WordStream to writing stronger, more clickable ads:
- The most effective ads should always include Features, Benefits and a Call to Action for the product or service being advertised.
- For Description Line 1 of the ad, make sure to insert a punctuation. This is because if your average position is in the top 3 spots, you will get a single elongated headline that has a lot of pulling power. The punctuation will allow for the ad to have more clarity, should the description have to move to the next line under the display URL.
- Make full use of the Display URL by making it a call to action or benefit statement. Ads that make good use of the display URL tend to have an increased CTR and/or conversion rate.
- Conclude your testing with ad texts and enable the strongest ad(s). Ad testing with 1-2 new ads to optimize best performing ads is great, but you must make a decision eventually on which ad text to keep and which ad text to pause to lift performance. If you forget to turn off underperforming ads, you will waste money on underperforming ads, thus missing out on potential leads and/or sales from top performing ads.
- Don’t state the same information twice. Since there is limited space available for the ad copy, it is recommended to instead use the valuable space you have to show relevance to the keyword you are bidding on. Take advantage of the space restrictions to provide additional information to help guide the user’s decision.
- Strong action verbs (increase, improve) make for good ad copy and improved ad performance. Try to always work an active verb into your headline or use one in your call to action.
- Using symbols (asterisks, numbers, ampersands, exclamation points) in PPC ads can increase click through and conversions. Registered ®, Trademark ™and Copyright ©symbols are great too, especially in highly competitive industries because they lend authority to your product and/or service.
- Don’t forget to include a Call to Action (CTA). An effective call to action will tell searchers what you want them to do. Every ad should have a call to action. Also, try an unexpected or unusual call to action to make your ad stand out from the crowd of other advertisements who are just asking for a sale.
- Work direct, provocative language into your ad copy to grab people’s attention. Make your ads stand out from generic language by giving your ads attitude and personality.
- Try Countdown Ads to count down to a specific date to improve CTR and conversion rates. These type of ads that are “time-sensitive” create a sense of urgency for readers.
Consider the above best practices the next time you are writing your PPC text ads. Crafting stronger ad copy for your paid search campaigns can lead to more effective ads that can drive more qualified leads to your website.
