Your ad is the face of your business. When investing in paid search ads become the main source to drive traffic to your website. In order to make the most out of this channel, using the right ad copy to reach out to your audience becomes a must. So, what are the things you need to keep in mind while creating your ad’s messaging?
[ Updated as on 13th August 2020: This post has been updated with new tips for PPC Ad Copy practices]
1. Keyword Insertion
Ensuring the keyword is prominently mentioned in the ad copy would make your ad copy stand out from the competition. But too much of keyword stuffing isn’t recommended. Appropriately inserting the right keyword at the right place will increase its chances of catching the customer’s eyeballs. Prefer not to have a standard ad copy for all your ad groups. Whatever your ad group is targeting (a specific keyword or objective) should reflect in your ad copy as well, so opt for different versions of your ad copy.
2. Appropriate Call-to-action
A call-to-action indicates what the user is intended to do on viewing the ad or the benefit they can expect after clicking on the ad. Action words such as Hurry, Save, Book Now, or the special offering such as up to 50% OFF, etc. gives a clear hint of what the user can expect to receive on clicking the ad.
3. Using ad extensions
Ad extensions are the key to offering additional information that has otherwise been missed out in the ad copy. Also, the many ad extensions available allow you to segregate the information accordingly such as review extension to show user reviews, call extension to drive calls to your business, etc. Here is an article detailing the ad extensions.
4. A/B Test
A/b testing is a good practice to follow as it helps you shortlist the best version of your ad. The one that earns the best performance and the others can be discontinued. You can run this as part of an experiment too. Alternately if you want to find which of your ads have been performing use our free script to find that out.
5. Keywords in the Path Fields
The new ad format (Expanded Text Ads) offers 2 path fields of 15 characters each and are shown as part of the Display URL. Though they are optional, they offer optimal space to again insert the keyword. Also, just having the domain name in the URL might not be that catchy, however, using the right phrase with the path fields makes it more informed and shares details of what users can expect from the resulting landing page.
6. Lay more emphasis on Headline 1
With the current ad format, there are 2 headlines offered with 30 character limit each. The one drawback with Headline 2 is the possibility of the message getting truncated.
This is what might happen:
Hence, it is recommended to put the best in your Headline 1 and the remaining information can be added in the 80 characters long description.
7. Use Intellectual Approach
The communication you use in ad copy can be your selling point. If you see that your ad copies are flooded with the same type of messaging, you can use the intellectual approach to stand out from the crowd. Some of the major ad copy approaches are as below:
Problem: Relate to customer’s problems which will boost their trust on your services/products.
Solution: Focus on the solutions customers are facing. It saves time and increases visibility.
Features: Try to focus on the important features of your products/services
Benefits: Mentioning the benefits of your products/services will attract audiences.
8. Landing Page Should Tell the Truth
Information on the ad copy should match the information on the landing page. For example, if your ad mentions 20% off on your product, and customers find that this offer shows expired on your landing page, that will be quite frustrating. So it is important to give the right information to gain trust and visibility.
With these quick best practices, you can move a step ahead in coming with the ad copy that not only delivers the right message but also is able to give you the results.
Related Links:
Stop the wasted ad spend. Get more conversions from the same ad budget.
Our customers save over $16 Million per year on Google and Amazon Ads.