How To Write Killer Ad Copy

When a user conducts a search on Google, the first thing that they will see is your ad, the text that appears at the top of the Google page, not your campaigns, nothing else. Depending on what they read, that will determine whether they click on the ad or not. That could be the ultimate decider between your campaign being successful or not. If you write a poor ad copy, that could lead to a high click through rate, but an exceptionally low conversion rate. You want to write ad copy, which not only attracts the right users but also deters or disqualifies people who are not your potential audience. I want to share with you some great tips on how to write great ad copy for Google ads.

To find out check out my video below or keep reading for the full blog.

Use All Available Fields

Firstly, make use of all the fields that are available. Expanded text ads are slowly being phased out by Google and they’ve been replaced by responsive search ads or otherwise known as RSA ads. With these ads, you have your headline. In your headline, you have 230 characters to develop your description lines. You have two description lines, whereby you can put a list 90 characters of text, and then you have your path one and path two. both of which have 15 characters each, make sure you populate all of these. By populating them, you’re making sure that your message is being correctly portrayed to your end users. Here you can educate users about what your service or product is about.

Include Your Main Keyword in the Headline

Always include your main keyword within the first headline of your ad copy. For example, if you’re selling led torches, make sure that your headline contains the word led torches. By doing so when people look at the ad, they instantly know whether your ad or your product or service is relevant to them. Also, by including your keywords within your ad copy, you’re increasing your relevancy. What is it that makes your ads unique? Remember, you’re competing against many other advertisers, you’ve got to make your ad stand out. Include USP’s, for example if you’ve got free shipping, have you got competitive prices, your features, the benefits of your products or services, include promotions and limited time offers etc.

Price Extensions

You can also use price extensions within your ad text to help people get an understanding of the price range of your products or services. Again, this can help to attract the right audience, as well as deterring people who are not willing to pay your price point.

Call to Action

This is one of the fundamental things that a lot of people miss out. I look at ads and people have missed out what is it that you want the user to do when they see your ad. Include a call to action. A call to action could be get a quote, call us, filling out a contact form or get in touch, any of these types of call to actions. It’s imperative to use these in order to help maximise your click through rate.

Test Different Ad Copy

By testing different ad copy, you’re ensuring the ad copy which you have entered suits your ideal audience. Something that might appeal to yourself might not appeal to your potential audience. It could be that you’re writing ad copy whereby you’re putting people off from clicking on the ad because you’ve got the wrong messaging within your ad. It’s imperative to test different ad copy, different ad copy could affect your click through rate, and it could affect your conversion rate. For example, if you have an ad copy, which is poorly written, it could be that you’re attracting a high CTR(click through rate), but a low conversion rate. People might be clicking on your ad, but they’re not finding your product or service to be of value so they’re not converting. Likewise, you could have a lower click through rate but an extremely high conversion rate because your ads are well written.

Ad Rotation

Something else to consider is in the settings of your campaign. Look at your ad rotation settings. Now, by default, Google optimises your ads. It determines which ad to show more, and which ad not to show more. Experiment with it, whether you agree with Google’s strategy, or whether you want to put them on rotate indefinitely for a period of time. That way each ad gets served equally whilst you’re testing what the conversion rate of the ad was.

Ads For Mobile Devices

Play around with ads, which are specifically designed for mobile devices and remember, ads that appear on desktop are going to appear very differently than on mobile devices. You could also have different messaging for people who are on their mobile and send them to a different landing page which is specifically designed for mobile, so it could be faster to load, lightweight, have less graphics etc. For mobile users, you might consider pushing certain extensions more for example, the call extensions, or the location extensions.

As for testing your page speed of your mobile devices you can go to Google PageSpeed Analyzer, enter your website domain name, and it will tell you how fast your page is loading on a mobile device and show you which ad matches your landing page. For example, if you’re selling led torches, avoid taking people to your homepage, if your website takes them to a page, which is specific to led torches, as a result you’re providing your primary users a much better user experience and Google loves this type of thing. Every search engine loves that, not only they do, but users also love it. They don’t have to navigate around trying to find what they’re looking for and what you’ll find is your conversion rate will naturally increase.

When it comes to landing pages make sure you also AB test your landing pages. You might think you’ve got a great landing page and you’ve got a certain conversion rate. But what you might also like to do is mirror that landing page, change things around it and see how it compares. This should be a continual exercise that you should always be conducting to maximise your conversion rate, not just maximising how many people are coming onto your website. But for those who are coming onto your website, how can I maximise the conversion rate.

Disqualify People From Clicking On Your Ads Who Are Not Your Potential Audience

Implement a strategy to disqualify people from clicking on your ads, who are not your potential audience. For example, if you’re a lawyer, and you’re starting fees are $3,000, then consider putting that into one of your ads. If you put in your ads our prices start from $3,000, then somebody who is potentially looking to hire a lawyer for $500 are less likely to click on the ad, because they know that your price point doesn’t match their budget. This will save you a lot of time, because you won’t be processing or taking calls from people who are not your potential audience and it will save you a lot of money.

Grammar

Avoid using excessive punctuation marks. Likewise, avoid using all uppercase words where they’re not meant to be uppercase. People use uppercase in order to make the ad stand out more. But all that will happen is that your ad will soon get disapproved. Likewise, avoid using trademarks within your ad copy unless you’ve got written permission from the trademark holder that you can use it in your ad in which case you would have to submit that to Google for approval before Google will allow you to use that trademark.

Dynamic Ad Copy

Within your ad copy consider using dynamic ad copy. With dynamic ad copy, Google will replace certain parts of your ad with other dynamically generated text. For example, you can use dynamic keyword insertion or DKI and what DKI will do is that whatever the user has typed in the Google search engine or any other search engine that will appear as your headline or description line automatically.

Likewise, you can put countdowns within your ad. For example, if you’ve got an event in two week’s time or one month’s time, you can automatically have a countdown feature. It shows the users in real time how many days or hours are left to your event.

Consider Hiring A Professional Ad Copywriter

My final tip for ad copy is consider hiring a professional ad copywriter. Now, this one might come as an expense to you, or it might seem like an expense. But normally what I see is so many different Google Ads accounts whereby the Google Ads account is structured well, but the ad copy is badly and poorly written. A professional ad copywriter will make sure that you have covered all the main points in terms of attracting the right audience, the right click through rate, and ultimately saving you time and money.