How to write good ads for PPC advertising?
PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising is one of the most effective and most difficult ways to advertise a product or a website. If done right the pay-off can be tremendous. If done wrong the financial loss can be devastating. Writing good adcopy for PPC ads is highly critical for success. The text space for PPC ads is very limited. You will need to pack your sales message into a very small amount of words – usually spread out between a subject line and 2 lines of text. Depending on your domain name, you might get some extra descriptive keywords displayed that way. A descriptive domain name like "webhosting.com" tells you certain things right away.
Your PPC ads need to have keywords in the adcopy. Keywords should be search terms your customers might use to search for "stuff" in the search engine. Your ad will not look appealing and will nont invite many clicks if you keywords are missing. Your ads need to be descriptive. The product has to be clearly identifiable or your customers will be disappointed not finding what they were really looking for. You will be disappointed because you are wasting money on clicks that will not convert. Tricking people into a certain impression of what is behind the ad will not work well for you and cost you money.
Make sure people know upfront that your (example) cool ringtones are not free. You do not want to scare them away with price or not knowing that the offer is low-priced and well worth the money. How to get all this combined into a small ad – that is the art of adcopy writing.
Here are some examples of some PPC ads (taken from Google.com):
Search Term: Cheap Web Hosting
One of the first results of ads returned on a Google search is:
Cheap Web Hosting
Check out Gate.com We Have Windows
Hosting-Test Drive Us For Free!
www.gate.com
The Good:
This ad has the actual search term as the subject or headline.
The Bad:
The remaining part of the ad does not really show if the customer can expect cheap web hosting. All they would see if an offer for a free test account, but is there maybe a big surprise in form of expensive prices waiting?
Search Term: Cheap Web Hosting
The following ad was in 3rd position on Google.com
Cheap Web Hosting $5.95
Free Domain, Free Email, Free Setup
2500MB, Money Back Guarantee!
www.Ez-Web-Hosting.com
The Good:
The ad has the actual search term in the adcopy. It also lists a low price – leaving room for the assumption that this is the low price for web hosting. The ad also lists some features a customer probably can expect as part of the web hosting.
The Bad:
There is not really much in regards to the actual adcopy that would be considered bad. The ad is pretty clear. The only bad thing would be the actual bidding on the keyword "cheap web hosting" as it is very generic and broad. It does not separate between Linux or Windows Web hosting or what features a customer might need. But that is stuff for a different article.
These two examples only scratch the surface of what works and what does not work in PPC marketing. Expect a long learning curve when it comes to being successful with PPC marketing. There is a lot of testing and money losing involved. The nice thing with PPC advertising is the dynamic and the ability to see results almost immediately. It also allows you to compare different campaigns and keywords and to adjust accordingly.
Lots of literature has been written about how make Google Adwords and other program like MSN Adcenter work for you. Adwords Miracle and Beating Adwords are two of these guides that are available online. None of these books offers the key to online succes. BUT – they offer a solid foundation if you are new to PPC advertising. You could find all the information for free on the Internet by reading forums and websites. eBooks like the two mentioned can save you some time. You will find many more books about these topics. How much your time is worth and if you are in need of a shortcut – that is a decision you have to make.
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