When it comes to Google Ads, you can have the best product or service but if you’re slacking in the copywriting department your bottom line may suffer.
The whole point of running ads is to grab the attention of as many viable users as possible.
Regardless of your ability to complete the service, or fulfill their requests entirely, you must first conquer SERPs.
Winning the click is everything.
Why? Because if you don’t win, you don’t get users. It’s really that simple.
Let’s try to uncover some of the effortless things you can do to optimize the performance of your Google Ad campaigns.
The objective of this article is going to be focusing purely on search and app campaigns as display campaigns grant more weight to the imagery when it comes to boosting your CTR (click-through rate).
When it comes to writing ads, apart from GDPR guidelines and other obvious things you shouldn’t do such as include other brand names in your headline or use profanity, curating the ad copy isn’t much of a barrier.
The battle is matching the right message with the right keywords, to the right bids.
Headlines Are 90% Of The Fight
Think about when you personally use the internet, let’s forget about the fact that you work in marketing and know the game. What makes you avoid clicking on specific ads?
Are you not confident in them since you know it’s pay-per-click? What is deterring you?
A simple solution could be that the ad is missing some key pieces of information.
This might include a link to product reviews or page categories, as well as any other promotional verbiage you could employ to persuade users to click.
Depending on the urgency of a user, click volume may fluctuate, however it is certain and studies show that brands that work to have their messages resonate with users on multiple levels is the key to a successful ad campaign.
Over the past decade of media buying here is our list of do’s and don’ts when writing headlines for Google ads.
DOS:
- Use keywords in your headlines
- Write compelling copy that stands out
- Anticipate user intent (use various call-to-actions in headlines)
- Show value props
- Test headlines using Dynamic Keyword Insertion
DON’TS:
- Don’t use other brand names in ad copy
- No profanity or political references
- No generic headlines (don’t be boring)
- Don’t waste characters (try to max out limits)
- Do not misspell anything
Remember to keep your headlines at or under 30 characters as well as your description equal to 90 or below.
Make sure you max out the options given within Google Ads and give the machine learning as much ammo as it needs to test your ads out in the wild.
Callouts & Extensions
Lastly, apart from the content within your headlines and descriptions on your ads itself you have a few other features you can utilize to maximize the real estate you take up on SERPs.
Whether you are a product-based brand or provide a direct service, the importance of extensions are imperative when it comes to really promote your services and what you provide without having any users click.
Now, why would this be important? Providing information before a user click allows the user to read everything and make a conscious decision to click.
By adding extensions and callouts to your Google Ad campaigns you are one step closer to reducing your bounce rate.
One simple example of this would be if you are a power washing company, your extensions could include your services, base prices, phone number, and a quick glance at reviews you have received.
As far as product-based brands that sell goods online, you can present potential customers with categories of products your product as well as a review link or any other case studies that bring more “trust flow” to your shop.
At the end of the day, it is important that you take advantage of the full list of features presented to you within Google Ads Manager. Sure, some will flop but you’ll never know until you test them.
Focus on your headlines first and foremost then make sure your ad provides more value when compared to your competitors.
Better ads mean cheaper CPCs, which leads to scalable ads and happy business owners.