How to write a killer pay-per-click advert

If your pay per click advert was a lonely hearts listing, what would it say about your business? Would it mention your great sense of humour, your snappy dress sense and caring nature? Or would it describe you as someone who plays it safe, is a leader not a follower and blends with the crowd at all costs? As in dating, first impressions count with pay per click.

A killer pay per click advert stands out from the crowd and drives the right kind of traffic to the web site. It describes the product or service being offered but leaves the reader wanting more information. It isn’t a hard sell but it does make the casual surfer sit up and take notice.

The success of your PPC advert lies with your keywords

The success of your pay per click advert depends on your choice of keywords and where they are positioned within the ad text. Omitting important terms from the advert wording is a common mistake. This has greater implications than a less than memorable advert – if Google AdWords is your platform of choice, it also means you’re missing out on vital quality score points.

Based on your campaign infrastructure and relevance of related groupings, the AdWords quality score demonstrates your campaign’s ability to give search users exactly what they’ve gone online to find. In pay per click terms, this means ensuring the keywords used to trigger the adverts are strategically placed within the advert itself.

Not only does this earn Google brownie points, it can lead to a lower cost per click and better positioning. More importantly, it stands out to the search user, demonstrating the advertiser’s ability to provide what the surfer is looking to acquire.

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PPC ads should be as relevant and specific as possible

If the slew of keywords within the AdWords campaign have been well chosen and arranged into linked groups, the advert text already has strong foundations. Using this correlation of groups and keywords as a starting point, adverts should also be as relevant and specific as possible.

If you stock a particular brand – be it a popular make or a hard to come by line – flag it up as early as possible in your online marketing. Being brazen with the name dropping not only positions the advertising company as a key player, it also helps to attract the right kinds of traffic to the web site.

No matter what industry you operate in, there will always be competition from other pay per click advertisers for the same set of user eyeballs you’re targeting. Whether it’s high technology or low cost flights, be creative with wording to turn reading into clicking.

In order to make the most of your keywords and convince the search user that your business is superior to other ad listings, inject a little but of sparkle into the advert itself. Although fear of Google’s character limit often inhibits creativity it’s worth remembering that several ads can run in rotation. This means more creative offerings can show alongside tried and tested formulas.

Yahoo gives PPC advertisers more space to test advert copy

To take things a stage further, Yahoo offers a much more generous space allowance to pay per click advertisers. Costs are generally cheaper and conversion rates strong so it may even be worth Google users opening a second, complimentary account with Yahoo to try out different keyword and advert combinations.

As with all advertising, whether online or off, killer advert text must always, always be true. Special offers, free postage and packaging or limited edition lines make for great click through rates but if these winning proffers are not actually available on your site, the cost of the initial click has been wasted.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking once there, your unwitting reader will be so impressed with the site they will buy something anyway. They won’t. They will leave and never return.

About the Author
Daniel Jupp is Managing Director of pay per click consultancy, Top Position. For more information about improving your pay per click advertising, visit; www.topposition.co.uk

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