10 Google Adwords Ad Copy Tips

Over the years, I've written hundreds of Google ads for Google Adwords clients. I thought I'd give some tips that have worked for me:

1. Study the ads from your competitors. Which ones would you click on? What benefits and action verbs do they use?
2. Capitalize The First Letter Of Each Word In Your Ad. Studies have shown this converts better.
3. Try to use your keyword phrase in the ad itself. This improves ad performance. You might want to experiment with dynamic keyword insertion (DKI). The exact keyword phrase a person types into Google will dynamically appear in your ad. Here is the code: {KeyWord}. So if you want DKI in your headline, you'd write it like this: {KeyWord:Alternative Headline Here}
4. As far as the ad copy itself, you might try this formula:
   Headline: Benefit / Ask a question / Pose a problem that your product or service answers. "Marketing Problems? Get SEO Answers Now."
   Description 1: Benefit. Use action verbs! Motivate your visitor to take action! Revitalize. Enhance. Improve. Discover. Save. Explore.
   Description 2: Feature / Branding - Simple Web Marketing Tool.
5. Destination URL: Capitalize the first letter of each word in your domain name: DarbyWorks.com
6. Each line of your ad should stand alone. Don't use one long wrapping sentence for your entire ad. But remember, these are only guidelines! If your competition isn't doing it, and you are the only one who does, you just might get some great clicks with a long sentence!
7. What about the word "free?" Recent studies show that the word free is not as effective as it once was, but this doesn't mean it won't work. Try it, and test it.
8. Avoid being cutesy or clever in your ad. The goal is to state the obvious with flair! Don't try to deceive your visitors. Tell them exactly what they are going to get when they click.
9. Be sure your destination URL (landing page) really does fit your ad.
   Think out of the box. If everyone else is trying to get visitors to click, try the opposite. "Don't Click Until You Read This" or "Before You Click."
10. Be sure to AB test. Within each Ad Group, you can run more than one ad simultaneously. This allows you to test the performance of one ad against another. I would only test 2 ads at a time. Then after 50 clicks or so, see which one is converting better for you (giving you better ROI), delete the under performer, and write a new ad.

Comments

[Hillel]

Great article! Also to integrate the ad within the article on a website can also help because its allowing the reader to 'slide' right into the ad..and he just might click on it while he is there.