Understanding what makes an effective PPC advert and knowing how to write ad copy that sells is crucial for any online business.
PPC stands for pay-per-click and is a type of advertising that is used to drive traffic to websites. It is called pay-per-click because each time the ad is clicked, the advertiser pays the publisher. This is an extremely popular way for businesses, both big and small, to ensure their offering ends up in front of the right audiences online and can be a fantastic way to showcase products and services and increase sales, even with a modest budget.
Statistics show that 66% of people click on purchasing ads. This means more than half of all customers will click through a link to buy. So if you aren’t using PPC campaigns as a way to advertise your products already, you could be missing out on a tremendous amount of business!
A massive part of creating a PPC advert is deciding upon the copy. Your copy will determine how effective the ad is and ensure that it finds its way to the right audiences. It is also vital that when those audiences are shown the ad, they are interested enough to click on it to find out more – and it’s the copy that will decide this, one way or another.
So are you looking to learn how to write ad copy that sells?
Let’s take a look at the necessary steps for a successful PPC ad:
1) An Understanding of The Client
If you work on behalf of clients like us, you must have a solid understanding of the product or service for which you are creating the ad. Not only that but making sure you have a clear idea of the brand and business overall and their unique goals will help you create a much more useful advert. Understanding the brand voice will help steer you in one particular direction or another. If a company has a fun, youthful, and humorous brand voice, for example, you will create quite a different advert from one that is serious, intelligent, and mature.
2) Knowledge of Your Customers
Knowing the business and the product inside out is one thing, but knowing the customers is quite another. Customer research is crucial if you hope you create a successful ad. The better you know the target audience, the more effective your ad will be. Discover how they like to shop, what problems they have, how they want their information delivered to them, what motivates them, what irritates them, and what their values are. It will be far easier to construct ad copy that makes them sit up and pay attention if you do so.
3) Conduct Keyword Research
Keyword research for PPC ads will help you pinpoint the best keywords for your campaigns. The effectiveness of search ads is heavily dependent on keyword’s success. By conducting thorough research, you will discover which keywords you should choose. Consider using a combination of branded keywords, product-specific keywords, high intent keywords, and features keywords to help cover your bases. You can always split test adverts using different keyword targeting to see which ones perform best.
4) Conduct Competitor Research
Doing some homework around what competitors are up to is also wise. Monitoring what others in the industry are doing can help inform the kind of content you should put in your own ads. Using competitor research tools, you can even determine which keywords your competitors are bidding most on, what they’re ranking for, and more.
5) Have A Clear Goal
Before launching your ad, you need to be clear about what your end goal is. Making sure you have one fully-formed idea of what you hope to achieve will help inform the ad copy. Liaising with the client to create a clear, results-driven goal is essential, and you can ensure that every part of your ad is created so that anyone who sees it subsequently takes the desired action.
6) Deliver An Enticing Message
Think about the kinds of messages you are trying to deliver in your ad. What information do you want to impart? What do you want viewers of the ad to remember, to learn? Your copy should be intelligent and engaging and work to entice viewers of the ad to become motivated to learn more. No amount of gimmicks or clever puns or jokes will make up for the delivery of a clear, concise message – so this needs to be at the very heart of your ad copy.
7) Include Emotional Triggers
People are more likely to respond to your advertisement if they have been moved in some way, so try to include some emotional triggers in your ad to get the very best response. Emotional triggers are anything that evokes an emotional response. So make your ad shocking, funny, endearing, upsetting, or heart-warming. According to Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious. This means they are determined by how a consumer feels. Gently guiding how a customer thinks by including emotional triggers could therefore make or break your ad.
8) Pose A Problem And Provide A Solution
Create ad copy that’s valuable to the viewer. A person will find something useful if it helps them in some way. First, present the problem that they have, then empathise with them to draw them in. A problem shared is a problem halved after all! Next, provide the simple, proven solution to that problem, i.e., by presenting your product or service. If you can do this effectively, your advertisement will be a huge success.
9) Include Numbers And Statistics
People like facts and figures because they create a sense of trust and believability. So, where possible, include some hard-hitting, exciting, or jaw-dropping facts and figures in your headlines to make sure that you capture your audience’s attention. Using stats to prove the effectiveness of your product is also a smart move. So if you have conducted studies or consumer surveys with positive results, drop these into your ad copy too.
10) Include Unique, Keyword-Rich Display URLs
Your display URL is an additional opportunity for you to include interesting and relevant information into your ad copy, as well as your target keywords. Regardless of whether your destination URL contains the keywords you’re bidding on, you can still get your advertisement to show up in search results if you make a point of including the keywords in your display URL.
11) Frontload Your Ad With Your Best Copy
Make sure you structure your ad so that your best copy shows at the beginning. This will ensure that your viewers see this first so that even if the latter content is cut off, they’ve read the most captivating part and therefore won’t be able to resist clicking on your ad to discover more.
12) Keep It Benefit-Focused
Ensure that the majority of your copy is tightly focused on the benefits that your products and services deliver. Doing so will help viewers clearly understand why what you are advertising could be of use to them and why they should click through to your website to make a purchase.
13) Make Sure Every Character Counts!
The allowed length of ad copy is extremely limited, so make sure you make the most of it. Before you publish, get rid of any redundant words or repetitive phrases. You should carefully select each word to engage your audience and deliver your message clearly and enticingly.
14) Include A CTA
Stick to one goal and one CTA per campaign to keep things clear. Including a CTA will ensure your audience understands what you want them to do after viewing your campaign. Keep your CTA simple and match it up with the targeting, audiences, and keywords you have chosen.
15) Monitor Your Results
Make sure you have analytics in place to capture data of how well your PPC campaigns are performing from the get-go. Monitoring your results and analysing your copy according to the success of your ads will help you see patterns of both success and failure. You can use the copy from your best-performing ads to tweak old ones and create new ones. Keep monitoring and learning to ensure your ads continue to go from strength to strength.
Compelling Ad Copy At The Heart Of Every Advert
If you spend time creating exciting, valuable, keyword-focused copy that’s based on customer and competitor research, you should consistently create effective PPC adverts that boost your business. So if you are hoping to advertise your products or services and ensure that your target audience notices them, use these elements to create slick, compelling ad copy, and you should see a real boost in your website traffic and sales!
Get in Touch With Us at Seed
Here at Seed, we know exactly how to write ad copy that sells. We work with our clients to create smart and strategic PPC campaigns with copy that moves, motivates, and maximises results! Discover more about our PPC services here.
If you are looking for an agency to help your online business thrive, contact us on 01273 286616 or enquiries@helloseed.co.uk
