Very often PPC ads are the first contact potential customers have with your site. They do a (Google) search for something related to your business or product, and your ad shows up in the results. Other than relevancy, the determining factor of whether searchers click on your ad and get to you site or moves passed it, largely depends on how powerful and enticing your message is.
Since PPC text ads present this “first touch point”, it’s important to get them right, and send out the right message. Some of the most important, and most obvious benefits of well-written PPC ads are:
- Improved click-through-rate
- Lower CPA (Cost Per Action).
An important update that came out in July of 2016 was Google AdWords rolling out ETAs (Extended Text Ads) and new character limits that change the way in which text ads display content. The old character count consisted of one 25-character headline, two 35-character description lines and a manually entered display URL. As of that update, it changed to two 30-character headlines, one consolidated 80-character description line and a domain automatically extracted from your final URL.
The simplest version of a PPC ad consists of a headline, display URL, and two lines of description text, this hasn’t changed. But if we take into account the new ad structure and break it down into ad component, ideally it would be structured like this:
Headline 1 (30-characters): contains the relevant keyword or phrase at least once, attracts attention and is RELEVANT
Headline 2 (30-characters): communicates a unique value proposition and call to action that generates interest and makes your offer USEFUL
Description line (80-characters): write a clear precise description of your product/service that clearly communicates its benefits and confirms the VALUE
So now that you have a vast landscape of 45 additional characters you need to think about what to fill it with. There’s extra space in the description, yes, but the biggest advantage is that extra space in the headlines, which means you need to find a way to get the most of them. After all, big blue headlines are more noticeable than description text.
Let’s explore a few tips and tactics that will help you create better ads with more enticing headlines and more precise descriptions to help you reap out the benefits!
- Reflect your visitor’s end goal – your headlines should clearly state that you have the solution to what the user wants to accomplish, and that solution should be depicted in your product/service.
- Use a countdown timer to trigger fear of missing out – people more are motivated by fear of losing out than the idea of gaining something so create a sense of urgency when creating ads by setting Google’s simple countdown timer within your text ad.
- Keep the ads current – recent happenings get more attention and interest than events from the past three months. Try using time identifiers such as “this week”, “in March”, or referencing holidays and events to emphasize you are talking about current offers and situations.
- Be super-specific – number driver ads may greatly improve performance because people tend to consider them to be more accurate and credible, especially when you use specific numbers like 1,489 rather than round numbers like 1,500.
- Make ads appear more personal – the ad should be about your customer, so instead of words like “we”, “us, “me”, use power words that focus on the customer’s need, like “you” and “your” to create a sense of personalization and enhance ad performance.
- Make ads hyper-local –whether you sell in one location or world wide, it is important to target customers based on their location. That is why geo-specific ads with call extensions specific to that area show users you are right around the corner have better CTR.
Another important change added by AdWords that rolled out recently is the IF functions which is used to add another layer of ad customization. This means that advertisers can create two different ad messages, and which would be shown, depends on the user’s device. For example, if a user is searching from a mobile device, the message can say “Buy from your phone”, and if a user is searching from desktop the message will be changed to “Choose from our selection”. This allows you to write mobile-friendly ads without using ad customizers or creating a separate mobile-only campaign, making your AdWords campaigns friendlier to your budget. It’s up to you to decide whether you need to use it.
Whatever trick or tactic you choose, it is very important to test your ads. Don’t just add a second headline to your existing ads. Start from the beginning and rethink your entire ad creative. Use the extra space to provide consumers with relevant information and insight into your offering. When your ad is relevant to the searcher, you will receive higher CRTs. Even Google suggest you out emphasis on headline testing since the headline makes a huge difference to performance. And constructive testing will also help you determine where to place your CTA – in the first or second headline, or leave it on the body.
If after reading our guide on writing better PPC ads you still have difficulties getting the most out of your PPC campaigns, you can always contact us and let us help you. We’ve created many highly profitable campaigns for other companies just like yours!
