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.
The Scary, Growing Ad Group, It’s the Attack of the Adblob!
We participated in the Greater Lansing Business Monthly Fall Showcase yesterday, and I was a presenter at the Lansing IT Council’s Google 101 event. Both went very well. At the Showcase, we had lots of interested companies stop by, and we also saw a lot of old friends and colleagues. At the Google 101 presentation, it was myself, Bill Hamilton of TechSmith, Ryan Vartoogian of Spartan Internet Consulting, and Travis Stoliker of Liquid Web. It was a very exciting honor to be on this panel with such respected and successful individuals, and their companies.
The areas I spoke on within the presentation were:
Search Engine Result basics - explaining the difference between paid and organic results.
Ad Group Development and Ad Construction - a real favorite topic of mine.
Key takeaways - I got to wrap up the presentation with key points of emphasis, and well as some tangible takeaways, such as setting up a Google Webmaster Tools account, and registering with the Google Local Business Center, and some resources available at Google.
Getting back to Ad Groups, I discussed the importance of setting up very tightly constructed ad groups, with with specific and ultra-relevant keywords. I have seen too many companies group several keywords and keyword variations into too few ad groups. The result are ad groups which generate low click through rates, or worse yet, ads that show up for keywords that are too broad, and attract clicks that result in poor visits to your site. Now that is expensive! In the spirit of Halloween, I like to call it the Attack of the the Adblob!!!
You may start with good intentions and a few keywords centered around your service or product, and then over time the temptation to keep adding keywords to it that you think users may type in. Or maybe you are passive in your approach, grouping in a lot of keywords into just 2-3 ad groups thinking it will just magically work.
While it is good to add relevant keywords that your target audience may type in, you need to establish ad texts in different ad groups that address the diverese keyword variations. And I am not talking about just the color of your product either. Be thinking about those keyword variations for ad texts. ”Halloween costume” should be not in the same ad group as “Halloween masks”. Is there a rule of thumb on the number of keyphrases? Well no, but anything more than 8 should have you concerned.
A fundamental driver to any good Adwords venture is small ad groups. This approach enables specific ad creation, which allows for the usage of keyword variations in ad text, which allows for higher click through rates, which means a better Quality Score, which means lower cost per click. Whew! But seriously, that is the cycle, and that is why that approach is important.
Enjoy your Halloween,,, and don’t let the Adblob massacre your AdWords budget!
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