B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

Want More Paid Search Web Traffic? Play Dead.

June 17th, 2008 Posted by: Jonathan Eilberg

The first thing journalism majors are taught in college is how to write an obituary.  It’s true!  Writing an obituary involves thinking about the highlights of the subject’s life from beginning to end, and writing about it in an extremely concise manner.  This exercise disciplines the writer to focus on what’s most important, and to trim away the fat.

The same could be said for writing Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads in Google and Yahoo.  When writing your ads, it’s vital to stay focused on the highlights of your product or service that are most appealing to your target Web audience …the meat and potatoes, if you will.

Too many times, we see in-house folks who manage their company’s PPC campaigns using branded product names and internal “lingo” in their writing, thinking that their ads have universal appeal and will make sense to everyone.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, ads need to be constantly honed and perfected in order to achieve their true click-through potential.  Not sure what the most appealing things are about your product or service?  Well, that’s one big reason why you should be conducting A/B ad testing.  Writing multiple ads and letting them compete against each other is an important strategy that is often overlooked when your company’s PPC is run by in-house staff.

PPC “obituaries” – all of life in 95 characters
Whether you write your own Pay-Per-Click ads or have someone write them for you, you must pay special attention to not only what is written, but also how it is written.  Writing good Google and Yahoo ads is not as simple as one might think.

Here’s the mandated structure of a Google Sponsored Ad:

Headline – 25 Characters
Line 1 – 35 Characters
Line 2 – 35 Characters
Destination (landing page) URL

And here’s how to fill that structure in…
Headline – Grab attention quickly and evoke emotion in the Web visitor.
Line 1 – Benefits of your product or service, not the features, belong here.  This might seem inverted to some, but it is paramount to continue to excite the reader in this line, and help them envision what your product or service can do for them.
Line 2 –  Features of your product or service go here;  a sentence that ties it all together.

Now, here’s an example that follows our recipe –

7-Day Dog Training System
Stop barking, biting and begging
Works for all breeds or money back
www.utrainrover.com

Keep in mind, every word matters!  According to a recent MarketingSherpa survey, two-thirds of PPC viewers spend less than 0.7 seconds looking at a sponsored ad.  That means people are literally making a decision whether to click or not in just milliseconds.  Which “trigger” words are going to make your Web surfing prospects spring into action?

You might be asking, “Gee, do I have to be a wordsmith in order to run an effective Pay-Per-Click campaign?”  Answer:  yes, you do.  Only then will you have a PPC campaign to die for.

There’s always more…
We’ve focused here on ad copy (aka “creative”), but of course there’s much more to learn and apply to have an effective PPC program.  Much of it can be found in previous posts on this blog …for example, PPC Reporting Metrics – Keys to your Campaign’s Cost-effectiveness.  And of course, your Web marketing consultants are there to help you through any problematic areas.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, Internet Marketing, PPC