Tips and Tactics for your AdWords Ad Text Part 3
Time to finally wrap this series of posts up. (AKA, time to put the egg nog away and get back to work, but more on that in my next post)
So far, in our review of AdWords ad text tips and tactics, we have discussed the following points:
- Utilizing tight ad groups with small amounts of keywords in order to incorporate keywords into ad text.
- The tactic of using keywords in your Display URLs : www.example.com/giftbasket
- The importance of qualifying and providing incentive for your prospective users to click through with strong content writing in your headlines and text lines, given the challenge of the character limits.
- Setting up tangible business goals that are aligned with your keyword campaign.
- Evaluating your target audience’s mindset when searching and structuring your ads around that persona.
- Using the various keyword tools out there to select the right keyword variations, and then utilizing that as a guide for your ad writing.
- Evaluating your competiton and their ad text.
- Putting strong analytics into place for the measurement of your campaign success based on the different ads that your employ. (My business partner Adam Henige has some great posts on that subject)
Tips and Tactics for your AdWords Ad Text Part 2
In today’s post, I will continue to discuss tips and tactics for ad writing pay per click marketing campaigns. Now, keep in mind that there are several great resources on the web for this, and some fantastic articles written by experts. Last post we discussed creating small ad groups to enable the ability to use keywords in ad text, and the tactic of using keywords in the “/” of Display URLs.
The next tips center around the body of the ad itself. Here is where the two campaigns - holiday gift baskets, and plastics manufacturing, bring examples to bear as to where campaign goals have an impact on writing.
Headlines: Don’t forget about headlines. From a usability standpoint, this is what gets your searcher’s attention. We have 25 characters in the headline to stay within. Again, based on my previous posts, using keywords in your headlines is an important tactic to qualify and motivate a user to click. However, sometimes due your competitors, it isn’t that easy when it comes to improving your click through rate. In light of this, use motivational headlines that stand out from our competitors. For gift baskets, “Act Now, Save $20″ can appeal to a consumer. For the plastics manufacturer, “Plastics Molding Experience” may appeal to the purchase engineer or plant manager looking for a trusted partner.
Lines 1 and 2: In our ad lines, we have 35 characters to work with on each, which of course makes the challenge fun. For holiday baskets, ads are crafted against a heavy amount of direct competition. In this environment, where most players are using keywords in their ad text, it is important to differentiate to get a qualified click. Ways to do this in an consumer driven environment would be:
- Including cost
- Phone number
- Any sales or offers: “Holiday Gift Baskets, Act Now to Save %20″
Another way to differentiate in this case is to try to be specific on the details of the product.
“Comany X Gift Baskets”
“Holiday Gift Baskets, wine,
cheese, and tasty chocolate”
The key to this approach to do searches and study your competitor’s ads. (And don’t be malicious and click on them, of course) Just like any advertising, be thinking what will make your “billboard” on the Google highway stand out.
For the plastics manufacturer, it is important to differentiate against your competitors. The goal is entirely different, we are not selling online we are trying to generate a lead. In this case, less energy in the ad is needed, but we still need to stand out. Again, relying in keywords in ad text is very important here, so that we may best resonate with the user. Focusing on your experience, your location, sub segements you reach:
Plastic Molding Company
80 years of plastics exp.
Focused on Medical Suppliers
Some very broad key points before I wrap this post up:
Keywords in your ad text. The most important point that I am driving home and have talked about before on this blog is to use keywords in your ad headline and text. Nothing helps out better qualify and motivate your users to click, as well having a positive impact on Quality Score. If you do nothing else, do this. And in order to do this, you must craft small ad groups with focused sets of keywords. It is very hard to write a relevant ad for a keyphrase “holiday gift baskets” if your ad text is focused on Wine gift baskets.
Writing ads for search engines is challenging, and requires creativity! You must qualify the searcher, motivate them to click, and tell your message all in about 90 characters. And, many times you must do this with competing ads all around you.
Which is why my final point is important: Research and test. These two items are coming up on my next post.
A Visit from Google
I attended the Lansing Economic Club Luncheon at the Kellogg Center yesterday, and we were able to hear John Kelley, of Google Adwords to speak. Aside from the surprisingly good chicken lunch, it was very good. John primarily heads up the Google AdWords division, I believe the official title is Manager, Online Sales and Operations, and works in the Google office in Ann Arbor. John dida very good job of laying out Google’s history, direction, and current opportunities for advertising.
And he did it in a way that resonated with a group of business people that really don’t have an understanding of tech, yet of course use Google every day. The event had around 200 people in attendance. I am not sure who on the Economic Club was responsible for bringing John in, but it was a good move, and a great move for our new company.
Having him in front of that audience was a great way to heighten awareness to the advertising potential, and accountability, that Google and search marketing can deliver. My hope of course is that those in the audience may turn to Netvantage for assistance in setting up and/or managing their campaign. And again, my hats off to the foresight of the the Lansing Economic Club to bring in a top-line speaker on an important and innovative subject. (well, of course I am biased in how important it is 
