Pay Per Click Advertising Ad Writing Tips
Ad Writing Tips
There are many subtle hints to doing pay per click advertising correctly. A small change in conversion rate can make a huge difference once scaled out across the entire web. A marginal loss that turns into a marginal profit can become an automated revenue stream if you write and target your ads to convert better.
English to English Conversion
I went to the UK and realized just how different the versions of English are around the world. If you are targeting a specific region or country make sure your ads and website make sense to locals using words and phrases that make sense in their dialect.
Use Specific Words!
Choosing a keyword for pay per click ads is similar to choosing a keyword for search engine optimization. You do not want generic terms. Frequently single word terms bring so many competitor clicks, compulsive clicks, untargeted prospects and fraudulent clicks that it is hard to justify buying them. Single words are usually poorly targeted AND more expensive. If you get into bidding wars over general terms you are playing the game all wrong. Actually, the game is playing you.
Do Not Follow the Crowd:
Bid prices may not be justified where they are. Many times people feel they need to have certain terms. Without tracking them, these people lose money and do not know why they are losing.
Sometimes people chase a few core terms, which give them an inflated artificial value. If you try to do exactly what the other ads are doing you may fail. In many markets the top listed ad is losing money on each and every click.
When Following the Crowd
There are numerous tools which will show you some of the terms competing sites are bidding on. KeyCompete.com allows you to access a list of many of a competitor’s ads for as little as $5, and SpyFu currently offers free trials.
Just because a competitor bids on a term it does not mean that there is traffic or that the term is commercially viable, but competitors can help give you many keyword and content ideas.
Use Creativity to Lower Cost and Increase Conversion Rates:
Keyword Selection:
Think creatively. Try to imagine what your customers may type into the search engine to find what you are selling. You may even want to bid on terms which exist in a question format. Think of your target audience. Maybe these terms are problems that people have. Perhaps these people do not even know your product exists.
Writing Headlines:
Some of the most competitive ads in the world are magazine covers in a checkout isle. You may want to glance through a few magazines covers and table of contents to find ways to write headlines and ads that pull sales.
Place Keywords in Your Ads:
Many search engines highlight the words in ads that match the users query. Placing the search term in the ad will help your ad stick out more and improve your click through rate.
Bid on Current Events & Buzz Words:
My cheapest and highest converting ads are frequently ads for industry buzz words that nobody else bid on. The phrase “Nigritude Ultramarine†(a made up phrase from an S.E.O. competition) has sold multiple copies of this e-book. In addition it has introduced hundreds of visitors to my site at 8 cents per click.
If you are the first person to bid on a popular topic you can get many under-priced leads.
Start with a Verb:
You may be able to significantly increase your clickthrough rate if you start your ad copy with a powerful active verb.
Additional Conversion Tips:
Trying to rank #1 may cause bidding wars with ego bidders. Listing a bit lower may improve the return on investment since you have fewer compulsive clickers and a lower bid price. In addition, as people scroll down the ad list, they do a better job of showing intent. They pre-qualify themselves for the purchase.
If you make the ads sound compelling to the reader, you can improve your click-through rate to where you get more conversions than the #1 ad. Show benefits or offer a unique solution to their problems.
Link to a Landing Page:
Link to the exact page you want visitors to see, not to your home page. You may even consider adding a special page to your site that is made exclusively for that pay-per-click program.
By channeling all your traffic through the home page, you may be telling a person that you do not care about them, and you make it harder for them to buy. In an efficient market the merchants who remove the most friction will be the ones with profit margins and sustainable business models.
Exact vs. Broad Matching (explained further in AdWords section):
Many search engines use different matching levels which to filter ad targeting.
Exact match will only show for search results where the user searched specifically for your keyword phrase, and only your keyword phrase.
Phrase match will show when your exact phrase appears anywhere within the search query with the words in the same order.
Google and Yahoo! may show broad match ads when people search for synonyms of your keywords, or if your broad match keywords appear in the search in any order your ads will display.
If you are new to pay per click you may want to use exact match until you get a feel for pay per click advertising, unless you are using broad match for keyword mining.
Misspelled Words:
Spelling errors are sometimes corrected for by the search matching software, but sometimes they are not. Bidding on keywords ran together, words with missed keys, and other spelling errors can help generate many cheap keyword variations. This free tool makes generating a list of misspelled terms quick and easy.
Make sure you do not place the misspellings in your ad copy as search engines do not want misspelled ads. It is usually best to put misspelled words in their own ad campaign separate from your other ad campaigns.
Search & the Buying Cycle:
Many people perform multiple searches prior to purchase. Typically early searches tend to search for generic phrases, and as people get closer to determining what they want to buy they search for brand names (or brand name + product) more frequently.
It may be harder to determine the ROI on the more generic terms than on well branded terms as the branded clicks typically fall closer to the purchase date.
Editing Ads:
Many search engines will display ads before they have had editorial approval. If you consistently break their rules they may no longer want to do business with you, but sometimes it makes sense to test where the limits are.
Knowing that Google shows some ads before they are reviewed by humans means that Friday evening would be a good time to run aggressive ads since they might be displayed all weekend before they are reviewed.
Once Yahoo! has accepted a keyword you can try to rewrite new ad copy that is a bit more aggressive. If they do not accept your new ad copy your old listing with your old ad copy should typically still remain.
Related Posts
Before You Start - Performance-based marketing
What is Pay Per Click? - An introduction to pay per click marketing
Yahoo! Search Marketing - Sponsored search marketing
Customer Tracking and Bid Management - Track your ads and manage your pay per click bids
Google Adwords - The largest pay per click network
How to Improve Clickthrough Rate and Slash Google AdWords Costs to Maximize Profits
Microsoft AdCenter - Pay per click advertisement from Microsoft
PPC Resources - Pay per click resources, links and free tools.
PPC Notes - Pay per click notes
