morphemic thule: Pay Per Click Success: PPC Ad-Writing Tips

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Pay Per Click Success: PPC Ad-Writing Tips | Business 2 Community

We recently talked about pay per click advertising and ways to make it work for your online marketing efforts. If you missed it, check out 8 Tips for a Successful Pay Per Click Marketing Campaign.

A big part of pay per click success is bidding on the right words and phrases as well as setting the right budget and watching what happens so you can tweak your campaign as you go. Another part of that success is writing short, sweet, and succinct advertisements that will appeal to the people you?re trying to reach. In point #5 of that article linked above, we talked about the importance of writing a great pay per click ad.

It also has to start things off right, piquing their interest so that they could be receptive to whatever it is you?re trying to accomplish on the page you direct them to. Because the web is filled with advertisements, a lot of people tend to be oblivious to them. Our eyes have gotten really good at scanning quickly to weed out the rubbish.

Advertisers need to work harder to get our attention. Remember this in your PPC ad writing efforts and you?ll increase your chances of writing ads that people actually click.

There are many ways to appeal to people, such as:

Writing catchy headlines
Making an irresistible offer of something
Using current events to get their attention
Appealing to them with celebrity interest
And so on?

Catchy Headlines

A catchy headline grabs someone?s attention. It can be funny, shocking, hard to believe? Whatever it is, it needs to compete with a lot of other words and phrases on the page and the right headline could be what gets people to click your advertisement over the other options on the page from organic and other paid advertisements.

Note: Be careful to deliver on your headline or you?ll have wasted money on that ad!

An Irresistible Offer

A great way to get someone?s attention is to make them believe that there?s something in it for them if they click. A freebie, some important info that will benefit them, etc. People want to save time, make money, learn things, get things for free or on sale, etc.

If your ad appeals to the bargain hunter or the person who want the next ?greatest thing?, then you could drive interested buyers to your landing page where you?ll have a chance to woo them into buying from you.

Current Events

Many pay per click advertisements appeal to current events because that?s something that will often get people?s attention. This can be great for social media advertising, such as Facebook.

For example, if you?re selling sports memorabilia in the middle of a playoff season, you can use this to advantage with your Google Adwords ad or Facebook advertising language. If there?s a big current event or news item that has people talking, they will gravitate toward advertisements that relate to that topic.

Note: Keep in mind that you?ll have to be on top of your campaign in this case so that you?re not paying for ads that are no longer current.

Celebrities

You need to be careful not to open yourself up to a lawsuit or something like that with this one but some people capitalize on the fact that people in their target demographic can be celebrity obsessed. You?ll probably see things like, ?As recommended by Dr. Oz? or ?This is one of Oprah?s favorite things? or ?Get lips like Angelina?. If you do this the right way, you can pique interest without subjecting yourself to a lawsuit.

A Major Challenge with Pay Per Click Advertising

Google pay per click ads allow a very small amount of space. You?ve got a tiny little bit of space to grab someone?s attention, squeeze your keywords in, and to do it without violating terms of service. The right mix an increase your Google quality score. The wrong mix will either get rejected by Google or other advertising programs or will get approved but won?t do much for you.

Google Adwords Character Limits

A basic Google Adwords ad allows 25 characters on the headline, 35 characters on the second line, and 35 characters on the third line. This includes spaces. As you can see, you?ll need to be succinct. Think of the 25 character headline as the attention getter and with the second and third line you?ll have a chance to convince someone to click to get to your page. (You can make lines 2 and 3 share one sentence, if you like). After that, people will see your URL.

Example:

The only way around these character limits is if you do a graphic ad that?s larger and that contains your text. These tend to be more expensive, of course.

Additional tips:

Ask a question in your headline and provide info about the fact that people can get an answer by clicking. A common template includes a headline, some persuasion, and a call to action.
Use an offer-based ad that tells people what they will get when they arrive on your site.
Create urgency so they will want to click now.
Think about the context of what people will be searching for based on your keywords.
Do your best to make sure the landing page you direct your traffic to is creative and interesting. Don?t forget to add some sort of opt-in to your landing page so that you can capture someone?s permission to market to them in the future.
Remember that every ad you create will have the ability to boost the credibility of your company or, if handled poorly, could lower the chances of someone wanting to buy from you.