New Ad Copy Basics

by Troy Blanchard, Manager, Advertising Solutions

As search advertisers, we sometimes forget just how quick a process using Google and other search platforms has become. As the search algorithms are continually tweaked and improved, finding relevant information or pages is becoming quicker and easier. This means that most people are spending less time browsing search results, which means less time looking at sponsored ad links. Recent studies have shown the average time a user spends looking at Google search results page is just a couple of seconds before they click on a link.

The question becomes: How can you optimize ad text to capture the maximum number of clicks? The simple way has always been to use dynamic keyword insertion to render the search query as the ad headline. While this practice can improve click-thru-rate, it is equally important to have the main query term in the description lines. Searchers are most likely to click on an ad or link that features a part of their query in both the title and description line. Take a look at these two example ads and think about which one you'd be more likely to click on if you were searching for 'printer supplies':

{Keyword:Printer Supplies}
Get all your computer & office
equipment at brandx.com today!
www.BrandX.com

{Keyword:Printer Supplies} from Brandx
Find print cartridges and other
printer supplies at BrandX.com!
www.BrandX.com/Printers

By maximizing how many times the word ‘print’, ‘printer’ and ‘supplies’ occurs in the description line, the ad will stand out as more relevant to the searcher, and is more likely to generate a click. In the second ad, ‘printer’ or ‘print’ occurs four times from the headline to the URL. This ad is far more relevant to the user and likely to stand out amongst other ads. This means you should take more time to organize your keywords into the proper ad groups. An ad group should have a key term and then all of the modifiers. For example, you would not want the words ‘driver’ and ‘putter’ in the same ad group. Instead, have an ad group that has the keywords “best driver”, “popular driver”, “woman’s driver” and have a different ad group for all the putter keywords. With this system, you can optimize your ad text to feature the search term and not have generic and irrelevant messaging like the first ad example above. Go ahead, revamp some ad text and reshuffle some keywords, I’m confident you will find a lift in click thru rate and customer conversions.

A little something more to “byte” into
By Jayme Haselow, Manager, Advertising Solutions

Google is now allowing AdWords ads to serve with extended character limits within the title. This exception accounts for the actual display width rather than the byte count limit of 25 characters. As you know, when a dynamic keyword insertion ad serves, the AdWords system inserts the keyword that triggered the ad into the ad text. If the keyword exceeds the character limits, the ad’s default text serves instead. In these cases, Google will display the default title so long as the characters fit based on the amount of space they occupy. Wide characters, such as certain capital letters & punctuation marks will prevent this from happening. It's definitely worth testing.