Anyone can write and ad – but creating an effective ad that translates into high converting clicks can be much more difficult. One of the most challenging aspects of writing PPC (pay-per-click) ads is that it’s so few words – it’s much simpler to get your message across when you’ve got a whole web page devoted to it – but to reach a customer and drive them to action with only 10-15 words is much harder.
These ten tips are designed to help you make the most of every aspect of your ad – from copy to capitals, from language to links – to help you get a click and then convert that click to a sale.
Here are some strategies to try:
#1 Include Your PriceWhether it’s your standard price, or a special deal you’re offering, include it! This will both encourage clicks you want and discourage clicks you don’t want. If the price you’re featuring is cheaper than competitive products, you’ll win clicks from people who’ve shopped around and want to buy at the lowest price point and will likely convert to a sale. If your price is higher, bargain hunters will tend to not click on your link, which is preferable, because when they click through, but don’t buy, it will throw off your conversion rate
#2 Aggressive Call to ActionWhether you want them to click on a link, download a free report or buy something, you must motivate them to act – and act now! Actions later today, tomorrow or at some vague point in the future are not what you want. Some great strategies to motivate your future customer to do what you want, when you want include: (1) Telling them the special price is for today only- or for the next 2 hours only – can encourage them to buy now. No one wants to miss out on a deal! (2) Offering something for free immediately in exchange for the action – whether it’s a free report for signing up for your newsletter or a free preview of your ebook or software package. People love free! (3) Scaring them with scarcity! If you tell the potential buyer that there’s only 3 items left and they’re on the fence about buying, the idea that they won’t be able to get it later can spur action. In addition to not missing out on a deal, the idea they might get something and deprive someone else of it is enticing!
#3 Feature Your Keyword ProminentlyThe first thing people read is the title and it should stand out significantly from the rest of the text – larger font, different color, italics or underlines. Call attention to your title and be sure to feature the keyword you’re targeting. Potential customers will react to the same keyword they’re Googling. Repeat it in the text of your ad as well to reinforce that you have what they’re searching for. Don’t try to generalize and capture a wider audience. Instead, create tight, focused ads that are aimed at one specific type of customer. Then use that ad as a template and change out the keyword for variations on a product. If it’s vitamin supplements, one ad could focus on male virility, another on weight loss, etc.
#4 Use Caps to Make Your Ad PopDon’t think about ads in the sense of typical rules of grammar. Sentence fragments are okay – bolding certain words is okay – creative punctuation is also fine. Using capital letters in the url you list in your ad can also be helpful, particularly if the url has several words in it and the caps will break it up better.
www.therightstuffforme.com – the f’s run together and looks odd.
www.TheRightStuffForMe.com is much easier to read. Capital letters in the title and ad copy draw the eye and encourage the potential customer to keep reading. But don’t get crazy and use all caps – this is visually exhausting and keeps your reader from picking out what’s important. Instead, capitalize the first letter of each word in both your title and ad text – except for words such as if, and, but, or, of, in, a, the or an. The exception for this exception is if these words are at the beginning of a sentence.
#5 Make Them an Offer They Can’t RefuseWhether it’s a discount of some sort, reduced shipping fees, multiple purchase offers or some other sort of promotion, it will encourage action. People like a deal! Free items are especially enticing – whether it’s a free bonus report with purchase or sign-up or free shipping for a tangible product, or buy one, get one free -- free is great! Discounts can be dollars off or percent off and can be offered to first-time buyers, or to recurring customers or to encourage a continuity sign-up. Coupons are a good marketing tool as well – you can offer a coupon for a free item with a future purchase, dollars of percent off on a future purchase, or free shipping on the next purchase. Whatever offer you are extending, make it clear in no uncertain terms what you are offering to your customer. Don’t make a vague promise of a “huge discount” or “exciting bonuses.” Be specific and you will get more clicks.
#6 Use a Keyword Targeted URLGet the keyword into the URL that you use in your ad. For instance, if it’s a weight loss supplement and have the URL we mentioned above, you could use
www.TheRightStuffForMe/SkinnyGirl or
www.TheRightStuffForMe.com/GetThin. These are catchy, but you can be even more specific. If the keyword search was Lose Weight, you can add those words to the URL.
www.TheRightStuffForMe.com/LoseWeight. If it is not in your control though and you are given a link that is less legible, you can try masking the URL to make it more presentable.
#7 Split Test, Then Split Test Again (and maybe one more time)It is important to know not just that your group of ads is performing well, but specifically which ads are the stand-outs and which could be tweaked. You should have several variations in your ad rotation. After they have run for awhile, enough to establish observable trends, study the conversion rates and click-thru rates for each individual ad. Figure out which ads perform best and look at the similarities between those ads and how your underperformers differ from them. It may be your ad copy that needs tweaking or your title. Don’t change both at once though. Even if the ad performs better after the change, you won’t know which change (or if both) improved it. By changing just one aspect of an ad at a time – color, URL tweaks, capitals, copy, title, special offers, more or less keywords - you should be able to tweak each of your ads to maximum performance. Also, don’t be afraid to throw out a dog that’s not good and not getting better. If there’s an ad you just can’t improve conversions and click-thrus on, take it out of the rotation altogether. Also, don’t rest on your past success. Just because an ad is doing well now, doesn’t mean that it always will. Keep an eye on your conversion rates each month to spot a dip before it becomes a disaster.
#8 Get RegionalMany people like to be American – simple fact-other countries feel that way too. It gives you a certain sense of comfort to shop ”in country.” These days, URL extensions exist for nearly every country. For instance, France is .fr, Germany is .de and Canada.ca. It’s a simple matter to secure an international version of your domain. If you know that you potential customers in a certain region or country, snap up the domains and use them. In our example above, if you have customers in France, you could buy
www.TheRightStuffForMe.fr and you could get a better conversion rate from French searchers. You may also want to consider language and terminology differences across international lines. Even though English is predominant throughout the world, certain keywords make be English language specific and another phrase may be more common elsewhere, even in English speaking nations such as the U.K. and Australia. After all, over there a boot is the back of a car, so boot repair can mean something totally different across the pond!
#9 Know Your DifferentiatorsWhy is your product better than all the other ones out there on the market? This is critical to breaking you away from the herd and converting clicks to sales. How will your product help them? Whether it’s weight loss or a new skill, you need to let them know what need you are filling. Perhaps you offer a wider variety of options than your competitors or lower price or different colors. Is your product of a higher quality or more thorough than others on the market? Are you offering something that no one else has? A different angle or a proven methodology? Have you won awards? Will you offer a money-back guarantee? Study your competition and understand the differences between you and them and how you can make those differences into selling points. This will also give you a chance to fine tune your pricing or tweak your product to make it stand out more.
#10 Know What’s TrendingYou need to know your customers – what they like, what they don’t, how they talk and where they are in life. Different language, phrases and attitude in advertising will appeal to different demographics. If your target customer is a younger male, stiff or formal language will not appeal. Be a little more hip and try to speak their language. Conversely, if you are trying to sell to senior citizens, trendy is the last thing you want to be. You want to write more formal ad copy that is easy to understand and with no technological terms that are out of their comfort zone. Getting clicks and converting those to sales will happen more easily if the potential customer feels good about your ad – if it speaks to them – and to do that, you must know their language and use it. Beyond age, your demographics will be split into areas of interest –if you are marketing supplements, you may be speaking to those needing to lose weight or those needing more virility or more muscle mass. Each market segment needs to be addressed differently – you must find the language to entice them. Split testing (see tip # 7) can confirm that you’re speaking in the right voice to your customers.
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