The 4 Rules For Creating Compelling PPC Ad Copy

Creating compelling ad copy can be one of the trickiest parts of developing your PPC campaign. Without bidding extremely aggressively all the time (which is expensive and inefficient), you can’t be in the number one position all the time. Even if you are, your ad copy still needs to drive the searcher to click your ad instead of a competitor’s below.

Here are some rules to creating eye-catching copy to capitalize on a lower position or capture your audience at a higher average position.

Craft a Unique Headline

There are tons of advertisers on Google selling the same exact thing that you are; stand out when creating ad copy by writing a headline that is different from your competitor’s.

Google only allows 25 characters in the Headline of your ad so include punctuation at the end of your first description line to extend your headline and draw attention to the ad.

Get Creative

You only have 70 characters beyond your headline, so get creative with your ad copy. Know your audience and cater to what they need at the exact moment of their search.

This advertiser knows that someone searching for “last minute gifts” needs a solution fast, so they heighten the sense of urgency and then offer a price and promotion.

Include Sales and Promos

Use your ad to tell people about current sales and promotions at the moment (be sure that the landing page tells all the information you couldn’t fit in the ad). This tells the searcher what sets you apart from the other advertisers. If one ad offers free shipping, but another offers 25% off, the searcher can weigh the offers before they click. If you have room, add an expiration date to create urgency that they may miss out if they don’t explore this opportunity now. “Buy Now!” sets a different tone than “Sale Ends Dec 23!”

Make sure you keep up to date on this and don’t use outdated offers.

Ad Extensions

Utilize ad extensions to take up as much real estate as possible. Sitelinks are a great way to highlight other areas of the site that would be relevant to the searcher and add multiple lines to your ad.

Call extensions and location extensions can still appear even if you are not in the top 3 spots on the Search results page, so make sure the searcher knows that they can contact you if they need. Use review extensions and social extensions to add credibility to your business. If you have a 5 star review or testimonial you are proud of, include that in your extensions. The newest rollout of extensions, include callout extensions. This allows you to essentially add a third line of text to your ad to showcase unique selling points.

For more tips and best practices on driving results for your PPC campaigns, check out this free webinar replay, 7 Tips to Conquer Paid Search . You’ll learn the common mistakes made when creating AdWords accounts (that Google won’t tell you), how to use your PPC data to improve your SEO efforts, secrets to analyzing the competition and more.

The 4 Rules For Creating Compelling PPC Ad Copy