By Alan Dixon
If this job comes across your desk, view it as a challenge. The trick is to get your reader interested in your product or service using only 70 characters or less. That’s right, I’m talking about Pay Per Click advertising. To be more specific, I’m talking about writing ad copy for PPC advertising.
It can be confusing. With so many books and tools out there offering you the “best” way to run your PPC campaign, it can be a bit over whelming. I’m not the guy to write about setting up your account, but I do know something about writing your ads. I have been writing and testing ad copy for a financial services company for the past year. It’s a huge campaign and an ongoing project. Here are some tips that helped us significantly increase our Conversion and Click Thru Rates (CTR).
It starts with the headline. Search engines usually only give you 25 character spaces to grab the reader and make them move on to the body copy. Many companies use Dynamic Keyword Insertion for both their headlines and body. This allows you to automatically add specific keywords that the reader is searching for to your ad. When the ad appears, the search term will be bolded. This makes the keyword pop off the page and grab the reader’s eye.
The problem with this is it only allows for a blunt term (“Car Stereo”). This may catch the viewer’s eye, but does it lead them to read the body copy? Does this make them click? Well…sometimes I guess it does. But I found that if you can insert the keywords into a short sentence or phrase, it does more to lead the reader. From there they continue to read the body copy.
The body copy sets up some of the same challenges as the headline. You’re only allowed 70 characters. Google makes you break it up into 35 per line, but Yahoo allows you to write it out as a straight 70. Many companies try to throw as many features and benefits in the body copy as they can. I know this seems like a good strategy on the surface, but it’s not a method that connects with the searcher. When you create ad copy that is more engaging to the reader, it has a tendency to lure them in. Writing out a full sentence makes the searcher want to finish reading the copy. They end up getting a full message instead of just scanning over broken up text. This allows you to set a tone and communicate more effectively.
Now that you know to write in full sentence structure and not broken sales slogans, here are a few other elements to keep in mind when writing:
• Personalize the message. Writing copy with terms like “You” and “Your” will work better than “We” and “Us.” People generally approach purchases or products in a selfish way. Telling them that “We do this” is not going to be as effective copy as telling people “You can benefit this way.”
• Don’t waste precious space with company branding. Most likely you will have your company name in the URL on the 4th line anyway. Adding the company brand in your ad copy is a waste of character space. It also creates a missed opportunity to connect with the reader.
• Remember copywriting 101. Write for your audience. Write towards getting the reader to perform a desired action. In this case, that action is clicking through to the next page. Make sure you are playing up the benefits and not the features (ex.-Thick tires are great, but tell them how those tires are going to make their family safer and save them money).
This is far from the final word in PPC ad copy writing. There are many techniques, but these are some of the ones that have worked for me. I’m pretty confident these will give your campaign the CTR lift that you are looking for. Good luck and happy writing!
