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“I’ve been reviewing the text for my Google AdWords lately. I find the tiny 25-35-35-character format very restrictive and frustrating. Do you have any tips for writing good ads in that tiny space to draw quality traffic (that is, not just clicks, but buyers)?”
Laura Look – Bitsmith Software
One of the reasons for Google’s success was their approach in creating small, unobtrusive ads that don’t clutter the search results.
For the advertiser, however, getting clicks on their ads requires significantly more skill.
Yet there are plenty of techniques for ensuring that your ads work well.
Start by identifying the goal of the ad.
The obvious answer is “to get clicks“, but bear in mind that your ads are triggered by your keywords. And if your AdWords account is setup correctly, you’ll have groups of keywords tied to relevant ads.
Let’s take a real life example, where I want to buy a new email application for my PC.
I go to Google and enter the phrase “email software”.
The first three ads, featured above the search results are as follows:
None of which are relevant to my search. I’m not looking for email marketing software, I don’t want a web-based email marketing solution, and security isn’t one of my priorities at this stage.
So I look at the next eight ads:
Only one even has a chance of getting close to what I’m looking for; assuming I have customer management as a priority, I might be interested in the Microsoft ad.
[As an aside, I certainly wouldn’t be interested in Clickable.com managing my AdWords account, as they’re throwing away their own budget with poor targeting.]It wasn’t until the third page of results that I saw the following:
Not the greatest ad, but at least it’s relevant.
So far:
Lesson 1 – choose your keywords carefully, and make sure they are relevant to what you’re selling.
Lesson 2 – make sure the ads fit the keywords.
Lesson 3 – if your ads aren’t relevant, you’ll still get clicks. After all, the searcher isn’t paying for the clicks; you are.
Let’s take a look at a competitive market – hotels in London.
I go to Google UK, type in “london hotel”. The top three results, above the search results, are as follows:
And the other results:
Do you notice the common theme? Every single one of the eleven ads is competing on price.
Lesson 4 – make sure you know what your competition are doing. Your ad is going to be displayed right next to theirs.
A very common mistake is to try and include too much information:
Assuming that your ads are relevant and targeted, then having less information will make your ad stand out:
Lesson 5 – less is more.
And finally, make your ad compelling, preferably with a call to action.
If you wanted to buy a new PC, which of these ads would you be more likely to click:
Lesson 6 – keep it clear and compelling.
One bonus tip. Make sure you know how the system works before trying anything too fancy:
