Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Writing Good Quality Copy For Your PPC Ad

By Brian Basch

There are lots of different ways to make your PPC ad campaign work. Start by picking keywords, bid for them, then make sure your ads are working and making money for you. However, the way the ad reads is very important, too. It's the component that convinces the customer to click.

These three lines of text might be small, but they're the springboard for the rest of your campaign. They have to be noticeable, encourage potential customers to read, and then to click on them. If that doesn't work, then all the best plans will be worthless.

Conventional marketing tricks just don't work with PPC. Pay per click has become its own marketing enigma where everything you know about advertising has been reinvented. At the same time, many novices are finding it to be their ticket for success. To get your campaign to work you need to understand how those three little lines of ad copy work, and the last thing you want to try and do is cram in too much information. Less really is more in this case.

The 80/20 rule applies to PPC, you've heard about a different 80/20 rule for many different applications, I'm sure. Here, it means that the ad works best if it has a good headline - which makes up about 20% of the ad. This is true in other forms of writing, too. As a matter of fact, in PPC ads, this is even more true.

Your ad's copy has to be perfect, or as close to it as possible. You have a few available words to sell your site, so the words you use must be the right ones, and spelling and punctuation are very important. A wrong word or a spelling mistake can mean you're kissing customers good bye- and your money, too! Even if it doesn't seem like a big deal to you, the finished product looks unprofessional, and people who would have normally clicked on that ad will avoid it.

Make sure you get attention first. There will be more ads than just yours in the search page sidebar. If you want to get customers, you'll have to stand out. Make your headline and copy appealing and attention grabbing. If possible, pique the viewer's curiosity - make him or her want to know what's behind that ad.

Keyword placement is another important factor and shouldn't be neglected. Try using your keyword phrase in the headline and see what sort of results you get. Make sure that next line is just as eye-catching, too. Don't use phrases like "quality service" or ramble on about how long you've been servicing the area. "Great products and services" is a great sign for a shop window, but will get you nowhere in pay per click.

The last line is important, too. So use it to tell the customer why your product is the best, or give them an offer they can't refuse like a special. This really does increase the chances of an eventual sale. Don't use deceptive wording, it might get you more clicks, but you've little chance of converting the click to a sale.

PPC ads are shorter than conventional types of ads but there is a definite science to making them work emerging amongst its advertisers. Make sure that your ads stand out and demand attention, keep the text clear and concise as well as effective - you can stand out from your competitors for some really big sales.

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