Six Tips how to write successful AdWords ads

When talking about AdWords or managing an AdWords campaign, it is all about click rates, keywords, schedules, bids etc. We too often forget the most important tool, which is the ad itself.

In fact, a potential client sees nothing but your ad. It is hence up to a successful wording to communicate your message and to fire the expectations. To make it clear: the ad should definitely be the core of every AdWords campaign.

The typical ad contains a headline, two lines of text and the URL. This is the typical ad, the kind we see plenty times a day and the one we are used to seeing. Since it is nothing special, we don’t even register its existence. It`s just one more ad out there in the dense jungle of Google ads.

A successful ad, on the contrary, stands out from all the other advertisements. Thereby, it not only attracts more clicks but it also attracts the right clicks.

Here we present six tips, which will make your ads the special one

Ads: The bigger, the better

Ad extensions are a good way to enlarge the space your ad gets within the first three places. Bigger ads automatically attract more attention, suggest authority and display a maximum of information.

With simple call out extensions, catchphrases can easily be added. If there exist press articles published on independent online media, they can easily be included with the Review Extension. Additionally, site links and the address-and call extension help further enlarging your ad.

Use Keywords for your wording

Old but gold: use key words in your ad wording! If searched phrases appear in exactly the same way in the ad text, they will be displayed in bold and thereby further highlight your ad.

Furthermore, it makes sense out of psychological reasons to show the user exactly the text he just typed into the Google search. Using the exact phrase suggests a higher relevance and increases the click-through-rate.

This effect can be attained with a clear campaign structure: cluster your campaign in certain ad groups which consist of different ad sets with different wordings.

Google also offers to display the exact search text automatically in your ad text. Still, this feature should be used carefully since there is a high risk of producing completely senseless ads. Just remember ebay’s epic AdWords fail “„baby – buy it cheap on ebay“

Be different than the others

Sometimes, all the ads displayed for a specific search term look exactly the same. When searching for running shoes, for example, all ads use the same key words, they all offer quality brands and they all promise low prices.

In this case: forget about the keyword – use your creativity instead! When your competitor’s ads all look the same, it is your chance to stand out by bringing up something completely different! So, why not use the ongoing zombie-hype to create an ad like this:

Otherwise, you could frame your wording for a defined target group: when your clients work egg mainly in IT industries, they could be attracted by the following ad:

Tell the user which actions to take on the landing page

Call-to-action is one of the most successful strategies in advertisement since it clearly tells clients what to do. When you tell your clients what they should do, your click rates will increase and so will your sales. The psychological reasons behind are obvious: clear instructions automatically lead the user to the next step on the buying funnel.

Don’t give false promises

Imagine the following: you see an ad promising 70% off your favorite brand. You feel excited about this great offer. You click the link. You end up on website not even mentioning the minus 70% percent. If you had read the ad carefully, you would have realized that it says up to -70% – for the whole range of products. You feel disappointed. You leave the website.

Still, as the website operator, you have to pay for this click that led to nothing.

When every click costs bare money, there is no room for false promises or unclear wordings. Avoid common phrases such as “competent training”, “innovative company”, “customer orientated solutions” etc. Vague phrases like these have no place in AdWords ads. It is only about statements speaking directly to the target group.

When you choose to communicate a special offer in your ad text, this offer definitely has to be mentioned on the landing page. Otherwise, the paid-for ad wouldn’t result in an increased conversion rate but rather in disappointed non-clients.

Use ads as a filter

Let’s assume, you run a campaign for life insurances. Life insurance is one of the most contested key words there is. You pay 12€ per click and you get 100 clicks a day. This sums up to 1,200€ a day which is 36,000€ a month.

Still, among the users clicking on your ad are some who are not interested in actually buying a life insurance but they only do some general research.

This example underlines that a high click rate is not the worst thing to have but when the clicks don’t lead to conversions, there is nothing but high costs.