Small Business Resource: Top 6 Ad Writing Tips

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July 16, 2007

Top 6 Ad Writing Tips

Test this out for yourself by doing a search on “dog toilet training”. When people scan search results, the very first thing they do is to look for the keywords they entered. Searched keywords highlighted in bold grab their attention. Because of this, ads with searched keywords usually do better than ones without.

write emotional ads that really grab people – admittedly, this gets tricky. This is what the big boys get the big bucks for. But you can do it. First, start your headline with an attention-grabbing word. Then use loaded words or phrases that make people want to get up and take action. Make them laugh, make ‘em cry, make ‘em mad…but make ‘em feel something.

But don’t get carried away—if your ad isn’t specific to the site you’re promoting, Google may reject that ad. (That is, don’t scream, “XXX!” if you’re selling shoes, OK?) Google has strict guidelines about unacceptable language and punctuation, so some attention-grabbing ideas you have may be outside Google guidelines and therefore disallowed.

2. Set whatever you sell apart – this is called a ‘differentiator’. What’s special about what you sell? Does it do something unique? Come in an unusual color? Is it rare? Or are you offering a discount? You need something to set it apart.

3. Make sure to link to relevant landing pages – if your ad is for a specific product review of affilorama, take time to create a unique landing page for the ad. Include relevant and useful information to really sell the item or service. Garner the user’s e-mail for further marketing. A good landing page will almost always convert more visitors than if you simply sent them over to the home page. Remember: There’s no point having a great “selling” Google ad leading to a mundane, uninspiring landing page. And vice versa, there’s no point having a riveting, energetic landing page that will never be viewed because of a non-inspiring search engine ad.

4. Qualify visitors – you don’t want a bunch of freebie hunters clicking on your ad in the hopes of getting something for nothing. You can deter freebie seekers by including the price of the product or service at the end of the ad. Doing this beefs up your overall conversion ratio and lowers your average customer acquisition cost. Sure, you reduce your CTR, but they weren’t going to buy anything anyway! Another valuable technique is using negative keywords. If I add “-free” to my “mark ling” keyword list, and someone searches for “free dog training guide” my ad will never appear.

5. Carry out simultaneous split testing - always test 2 (or more) ads at the same time. This is called “split testing”. Determine which one has the best CTR then redo the other ad with new copy. After a week or so, see which ad has been most profitable, or generates the most clicks. Delete the inferior ad and create a new ad to test against the successful ad.

6. Track ROI Constantly – “it ain’t worth a thing if it don’t make the cash register sing.” Google offers a conversion tracking option to see which keywords are making you money and which bid prices are most valuable. To set up conversion tracking, go to the “affilorama ” tool in your Adwords account. Adwords will generate a unique tracking code. Contact the vendor you are affiliating to and request that they insert your tracking code on their “after purchase” page. Whenever a sale is made through your Adwords affiliate link, conversion stats will show up in your Adwords account.

Posted by David at July 16, 2007 8:23 AM