Getting your PPC ads right in Google Ads or Bing Ads can be hard even for the most experienced specialists. But these ads can play a crucial role in your wider digital marketing strategy so it’s important that you take the time to craft a great PPC ad that will get you the results you’re after.
Here are 6 tips for creating a great PPC ad.
1. Write specifically for your audience
A crucial part of writing a great PPC ad is ensuring your copy addresses the audience directly by using (or implying) “you” and “your”. For example, an insurance company providing mobile cover would likely get better results from an ad that reads “Protect your phone” compared to an ad saying “We protect phones”.
It’s also a good idea to write your ad copy in your own words rather than copying and pasting lines from your website. This will help you make your message clear and create copy that is more along the lines of what your audience would write themselves. We strongly advise that you mirror the phrases being used by your audience in searches to help you do this – not only will it create a strong connection in the audience’s mind, it can also help you achieve higher ad placements.
2. Highlight the benefits of your business
Next you need to emphasise the benefits of your business to your customer. Be as specific as you can to really stand out. Users will be highly distracted online so it’s important that you’re not too modest or vague about what you can offer your customers. If you sell shoes make sure to create ad copy that includes information about the sizes, prices and types of shoes that will help users identify that you’re the right choice for what they’re searching for.
Numbers can also improve the CTR (Click-Through Rate) of ads so be sure to include these in your ads if they’re relevant – these can be a statistic, price or discount, whatever works for your ad. This can also be a great way to highlight your advantage over competitors – if you offer cheaper prices or higher discounts this will be something you want to make clear to your customers.
You should also look for other ways to encourage users to choose you over competitors. Do you have credentials, awards or performance history that they don’t? Ads are highly competitive, not only with other ads in the space but other with organic results that may be on display so anything you can do to highlight your achievements can make you stand out and gain a customer.
Some advertisers have found that using locations in ad copy can help – particularly for target audiences who like to use local services and products. Even if you operate in multiple locations you can leverage this tactic by creating separate ads for audiences based on their location.
3. Give users every reason to click on your ad
As we’ve already mentioned, the ad space is a highly competitive one so not only do you need to be relevant to what a user is after, you have to convince them to take the time to visit your site by removing any objections or concerns they might have.
A simple way to do this is to include qualifying factors in your ad copy e.g. if you only sell office chairs and not chairs for around the house, your ad copy could say “Office Chairs – Perfect For Professional Spaces”. This not only makes it clear to your target audience that you specialise in the types of chairs they’re after, it also helps to deter irrelevant audiences who are after other chair types and reduce the amount of spend you waste.
Another tactic to try is to include emotional words that trigger powerful responses. Some examples of these are
- “love” and “lucky” to trigger joy
- “Proven” and “guaranteed” to trigger trust
- “Failure” and “steal” to trigger fear
- “Mind-blowing” and “remarkable” to trigger surprise
- “Shame” and “trouble” to trigger shame
- “Junk” and “lousy” to trigger disgust
- “Annoying” and “panic” to trigger anger
- “Little-known” and “forgotten” to trigger anticipation
One of the best ways to alleviate any concerns your audience might have about your business is to address them directly in your ad copy. Think about the questions or reservations a user might have about your business – e.g. if there are concerns about delivery times, include “Guaranteed Next Day Delivery” in your ad.
This is measured through Click-Through Rate (CTR) – what is considered a “good” CTR varies with every campaign so look at your own data for areas to improve.
4. Ensure you have a strong Call-To-Action (CTA)
The aim of a CTA is to get your audience to do something so a great way to make sure you’re encouraging this is to start your CTA with a verb e.g. “Order Now For Next Day Delivery”.
Another thing to bear in mind is the fact that there will be lots of other ads showing up for your audience (often for similar products and services) so you should avoid generic CTAs like “Buy Now” as these will just blend into the background of other ads. Instead try to be as specific as possible – you can use a benefit of your business like “Call Now For Expert Support” or a add a sense of urgency by using time factors like “Order Now For Delivery By The 14th”.
5. Consider every part of the ad experience, not just your copy
Your ad isn’t just made up of your headline and description, depending on where your ad is shown you may have sitelinks and callout extensions promoting more specific elements of your business. While these should all be aligned with the same keywords your audience is using, you should avoid direct repetition as this will look messy and can confuse the user.
Your display URL is also important as this can send a signal to your user about the relevance of your page to what they’re after. Use keywords here that align with your ad and what the user can expect from your landing page.
Consider the keywords you’re targeting with these ads – they should be relevant to your user’s query as well as the results your providing them. Using the same keywords in your ads as you are in your targeting and landing pages can not only improve your relevancy to the user, it can also improve where your ad is shown and reduce how much you pay for ad placements.
6. Keep testing!
One of the most important ways to ensure you create a great ad for PPC is to keep testing different elements. Take a look at the Quality Score of your targeted keywords to identify when you need to make changes to your landing page or ad copy. Research the competition to identify what they’re offering customers and determine whether you can offer them something better. Update your CTAs regularly and make sure you stay on top of what is changing in your audience’s world so that you can better understand their motivations and challenges.
There is a lot that goes into creating a good PPC ad but if you start by knowing your audience, being as clear and specific about your offer as you can and testing new things regularly, you’ll soon get the audience clicking on your ads. For support with your PPC campaign planning, set up or optimisation contact our team.
