How to Write Effective Ad Copy
We all know how important first impressions are. It doesn’t matter how targeted your keywords are or how optimised your landing page is – if you’re ad copy is rubbish; you’re not going to see the return on investment that you hoped for. Luckily for you, Different Gravy Digital know a thing or two about creating excellent ad copy.
Paid advertising offers an outlet for business to get in front of their target audience on search engines, websites and social media platforms. With the importance of making an excellent first impression, creating engaging PPC ad copy is not only about introducing your brand and what you offer as a business, but also about enticing customers to click on your ad, visit your website and complete a conversion.
Grabbing your audience’s attention, persuading them to visit your website and giving them the fundamental steps to convert all starts with your PPC ad copy.
Structure of PPC Ad Copy
It’s crucial you understand different platforms have different ad copy specifications and requirements.
At the most basic level, PPC ad copy can be broken down into 4 different sections:
- – The Headline: Typically, the first piece of content users will see, it’s important your headline is relevant and commands attention
- – The Description: Advertisers have the chance to go into a little detail and promote their services
- – Call-to-Action: Prompts your audience to complete an action and convert
- – Display URL: The URL users will see when viewing your ad
Whether you’re looking to write copy for Google, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram, our tips can be applied to all forms of paid advertising.
The Importance of Competitor Research and PPC Ad Copy
All good marketing strategies begin with competitive research. You’re going to need to know what your competition is up to for your ad copy to stand out from the rest of the crowd.
This means that businesses should not only identify what their competitors are doing with their PPC ads, but what they might be doing to increase their click-through-rate.
The more unique your ad copy is, the more likely you will attract consumer’s attention and draw them away from the masses of PPC advertisers trying to do the same thing.
Do You Know Who Your Competitors Are?
Contact us to receive your free, no obligation competitor research document:
Book a meeting: michaelgoldman.co.uk/
Telephone: 0161 706 0004
Email: contact@differentgravydigital.co.uk
Basic Ad Copy Pointers
- – Be relevant
- – Incorporate keywords
- – Ensure your ad is related to your landing page
- – Ensure there are no spelling or grammar issues
1. Remember Your Audience Will be Clicking on the Ad
Remember the ad copy is about engaging the customer. People click on ads because they want to achieve something and solve a problem. It’s important that your ad mirrors the user’s goal.
When you come to brain storming ad copy, think about the user and what they’re looking for – then create your copy in a way that appeals directly to what they’re looking for.
The above Jet2 Holidays ad is a great example of an ad that fulfils the user’s goal. The headline simply reflects what the user is trying to accomplish – to find a holiday in Spain. Further, they add an additional incentive ‘Save £100pp on Chosen Holidays’ as an additional benefit to clicking on the ad.
However you choose to style your ad, always remember the end goal of the user when you come to creating your PPC ad copy.
2. Remember the Problem Your Trying to Solve
Before you begin creating your content, you want to put yourself in your audience’s shoes.
- – What problems are they experiencing?
- – What are their dilemmas?
- – How does your product or service solve their problems?
- – What questions do you expect your audience will have about your product?
- – What can you help them to achieve?
The answer to these questions will help you target your ad messaging to engage your audience.
3. Include Product or Service Benefits Were Possible
Your ad won’t be the only ad your audience come across.
- – What makes your product or service better?
- – What’s your unique selling point?
- – What are the benefits?
Try to incorporate your benefits and key selling points into your ad messaging to influence your audience and to add extra incentive to click on your ad.
4. Be Humanistic
Use a relevant tone and try to be relatable.
You will notice that the ad in the example above talks straight to the consumer. Nothing spurs people into action like a strong sense of emotion – create your ad to appeal directly to each individual user to make it feel personal to them.
But sometimes a more direct approach can work wonders – look at the above ad from a Solicitors. ‘Police Involved, Need Help?’ is a very good tactic – they’ve taken a blunt approach to capture attention.
5. Use Power Words
Somewhere in your copy you will need to instruct users of what they need to do. They don’t have to be complex calls-to-action – often, the simpler ones work best:
- – View Now
- – Download Now
- – Shop Now
- – Request a Quote
- – Learn More
- – Call Us
- – Book a Meeting
- – Subscribe Me
6. State Your Price Point (Or Maybe Not)
If one of your key selling points is that your price is highly-competitive, then consider incorporating it into your ad copy as an extra incentive.
You might also decide to include your price if your product or service is of high quality and you don’t want bargain hunter’s wasting a click on your ad.
7. Stick to Your Word
This point is more related to conversion rate optimisation but it’s worth knowing.
Never ever waste a click! The last thing you want is for your website visitors to be tricked by your ad copy.
If your PPC ad copy does not match the copy on your landing page, then your conversion rate won’t be optimised. If you detail in your ad copy that you users can enjoy 20% off their first order, then you need to make sure users can clearly see how they get 20% off their first order on your landing page.
8. Test, Test, Test!
You’re not going to know what kind of ad style gets your audience to click on your ad until you give it a go. Ad tests can help you see what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t capture their interest.
Keep testing to find out what works best to keep ahead of the competition and see what ads resonate with your audience.
Looking for An Expert?
In PPC Ads, you only have a limited amount of space to engage your audience. There literally isn’t any space to mess up.
Different Gravy Digital can create engaging ads on your behalf. We can work with you to optimise, plan and run your PPC campaigns to maximise your results.
Contact us for a free, no obligation consultation:
Book a meeting: michaelgoldman.co.uk/
Telephone: 0161 706 0004