All About PPC Advertising Ads

So you want to learn about PPC advertising? You have come to the right place my friend! Lets skip the formalities and just jump right in! This page is about PPC advertising ad copy. You can learn about other aspects of PPC advertising elsewhere on this site.

There are four components of a Google AdWords ad. They are:

Headline

Your headline must grab the reader's attention. It may be useful to use words like: new, exclusive, special, now, save, etc. in your headline. I'm sure you can think of many others on your own. One thing to remember is that AdWords has rules about what you can put in your headline and in the rest of your ad. You cannot use all caps or exclamation points; for example. If you try to break the rules, your ad will be stopped. Check with Google help to get all the information about the rules of advertising in AdWords.

Description lines 1 and 2

This is where you put your offer. It is always a good idea to put benefits first and features second. Your readers will always want to know what's in it for them; you will tell them by giving the best benefits of your offer. Focus on benefits. The more detail you put in your ad, the better. Include things like the price (if that is a selling point) or a giveaway if you are having one. Use an active voice and say things like "you this and you that", not "we this or that". Most importantly, do not forget your call to action. Say things like: enjoy, savor, relax, play, indulge, earn, etc. You have to be sure to capture your reader's attention in just a few words. This can take some practice.

Display URL

Usually, you should put your home page URL in this box. This is for visual purposes only so that the person who clicks on your ad knows where you will be sending them.

Destination URL

This is the actual URL of the page you will be sending the person to. For example, your display URL may be www.sneakers.com and your destination URL may be www.sneakers.com/tennis/red/discount.html. As you can see, this is the proper use of the display URL as well. You just put the home page in the display url so it is cleaner looking and folks know where they will wind up when they click your ad.

Optimizing

You can learn everything there is to know about PPC advertising and still fail if you do not master this skill. Remember, there is amazing sensitivity of ads to copy changes. This is why you run two ads at the same time for all of your Ad Groups. Just keep the ads identical, but change one part, such as the headline or one of the description lines. You will then keep an eye on each ad's CTR. After 100 or so clicks, you can begin to see which ad is performing better. Remember, the higher the CTR, the better. Then, change the worse - performing ad and run them both again. You can continue this to infinity to create a very compelling ad!

**A High CTR is the Key**

Avoid hype in your ads. You want your ad to draw interest, but you don't want to be too pushy or people will be turned off. You want your ad to be mild, but not boring, it must stand out from all the other ads. Your benefits will help you do this. Try to enter the conversation inside your customer’s head. This will help you determine what keywords they search on and make your ad text match what people are searching for. Remember, a close match on a very specific phrase will lead to a high CTR (ex. "how to build a birdhouse").

Remember this time honored formula for effective advertising:

Be sure your headline is attention getting and benefit driven

Make a statement of unique value

Have a clear and compelling offer

Have an inspiring call to action

Have an easy way to respond (All they have to do is click your ad so you have this one covered!)

I hoped this helped you learn a bit more about PPC advertising. Please check out the other articles on this site.

"Google AdWords" is the trademark of Google, Inc. Newbie marketing is not associated or affiliated with Google, Inc. in any way.

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