SES: Creating Compelling Ads

Every webmaster/affiliate/merchant sees getting clicks through paid listings as a major challenge. The issue is: you have a lot to say, but the constraints of editorial rules and limited text space cause frustration.

You also want the RIGHT type of click. Choose your keywords or headline poorly and the wrong audience shows up. That wastes money as the opportunity of conversion is slim to none.

This session focused on ways to get the RIGHT clicks to your site via PPC.

Moderator: Allan Dick, Vintage Tub & Bath
Speakers: Brad Geddes, LocalLaunch.com, Vic Drabicky, Range Online Media, Mona Elesseily, Page Zero Media

Mona Elesseily from Page Zero Media opened by saying there are some things you should keep in mind when you focus on ad copy. In order to test well, you need to create a good foundation and in order to do that, you need to create killer ad copy.

A good idea is to look at what your competitors are doing. You should also try to have a good grasp of your unique selling proposition (USP): what distinguishes you from your competitors. You need to create compelling ad copy that jumps out at the audience.

I find these types of statements more harmful than helpful. Giving blanket statements without giving resources to improve is not helping anyone. Of course you need to write killer ad copy, but most webmasters want to know how to do this.

Going after your USP is not enough. You have to figure out what the prospects need, and finding out is most often done by surveying instead of guessing. I will be upfront and state that doing a survey is one of the most difficult tasks and is extremely time consuming, and I’m not even an expert at it. Knowing the right questions, how many questions, and in what order is a science.

Getting the right information will allow you then to have the correct USP and you will be able to put together “Points of Difference” that actually matter to the prospect.

Competitive Analysis:
- Ad Copy “Free Shipping” Example. 3 of 5 in her example use that. In that case, it may be worth testing alternative shipping offers especially around busy seasons like Christmas. That can yield significant increases in conversions.
- Test, test, and test.

There wasn’t any “competitive analysis” given in this section. Of the five examples that she gave, three of them referenced “Free Shipping”. While Free Shipping is a great way to close the sale, it isn’t the only way. If you give five examples, it is best to either show five different examples, or five examples of the same thing.

Ad Copy - best practices:
- Cater ads to different buyer’s needs:
Test the following: price (state it in ads), price vs. no price might work too.; information that reassures buyers (i.e. official site or 24/7 phone support); time sensitivity or a deal ending soon encourages prospect to buy sooner than later.
- The ad copy should be appropriate “in feel” to the industry category. Sometimes you can’t do “Need Thermal Oxidizers?” Try “Get Thermal Oxidizers”
- Consider the “buy cycle” - for terms like financial planning, financial planner, financial plans: try -
Financial Planning Services
Long term growth with a
margin of safety. Try this quiz.
www.bank.com

I ran a test for the exact ad as stated above. It performed poorly. I’m actually an affiliate in this space and discussed it with the owner of the financial planning company. His thoughts were right on target. Quizes are poor in the financial planning industry, calculators are better. Changing the description to: “Calculate your long term growth including a margin of safety.” There were 8 times more inquiries with the calculator approach than with the quiz approach. The test was given side-by-side over a five hour period, however, each page had just over 300 uniques each.

Multivariate Testing: uses mathematical formula and algorithms to test many things at the same time. Using advanced statistical methods, you can test a few ads. A large number of ads is impossible to do.

Good prices vs. great prices
Same-day shipping vs. fast shipping
www vs. non-www

If you put certain ad copy on the first line and others on the second line, you may put “ship same day, order today” - you might see different impacts. Try it on the first line instead.

You can’t really divorce ad copy from landing pages. Adding some completely remapped pages helps yield better conversions. Simply displaying features and benefits to a page can raise conversions for specific products. Don’t be complacent in your landing page - keep tweaking.

Testing in multivariate testing:
- Headlines
- Offers
- Buy words - try, get, etc.
- URLs with www vs. URLs without
- URLs with a subdomain versus without
- Different landing pages

She referenced a free tool to use, but the URL that she gave was either incorrect, or it has been taken off-line.

Brad Geddes discussed Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI).

Why DKI?

• Put keywords in the ad copy to make it more “clickable”.
• Building ad copy keywords.
• Great for part numbers and testing.
• It can lead to a higher clickthrough rates.
• DKI can target the ad to a particular user.

How DKI works on Google:
Syntax: {KeyWord: Default Text}
Default text is what displays if the keyword cannot be inserted.
Default text is displayed if the ad copy line exceeds allowed character limits.

Benefit: You can test DKI anywhere in your ad.

With Google, however, you can use different capitalization techniques to see what shows up in the ad copy. For example:

{KeyWord: Default Text}
{Keyword: Default Text}
{KeyWORD: Default Text}

But the order of keywords in an ad group matters. Someone might search for “plasma tv sony” and it will look funny if that comes up in your ad copy. Keep that in mind.

DKI and Expanded broad match: Google AdWords inserts what the search query matches to - not the user’s query (e.g. query is “homes for sale”, but your keywords are “condo sale” or “townhouse sale” - that’s what will show up).

Personally, I feel that Broad Match is just a bad idea in PPC and is the “lazy way” to get traffic to your site.

Yahoo! DKI also offers this functionality. Yahoo! doesn’t control the casing from the insertion of the keyword, so be mindful of that. They have something called “alternate text” which allows you to specify exactly what you want to show.

Microsoft came along and took DKI to a brand new level. There are three different ways to insert keywords automatically. There’s a drop-down box, a parameter system, and text entry. This is one area that Microsoft has done well in.

Tip: Use the Help link in adCenter. It has useful tools.

Be aware of your ads. Use competitive research because if everyone is using DKI, there’s less effectiveness. Always be aware of how your ad stands out. Check out different geographies.

DKI best uses:

• Helps bring a 1-to-1 relationship between keyword and ad copy.
• Saves time on very large keyword campaigns.
• If all ads look the same, test in the 2nd or 3rd line of the ad copy.

Vic Drabicky discussed using creative to maximize campaign success.

Example: Before father’s day: Ad copy that says “Don’t Forget Dad!”

5 steps to improving search and creative results
1. Maximize creative to your campaign goals.
2. Maximize creative around your business ebbs and flows (seasonality) - target a month before, not a week before. Holiday stuff should be started in mid-October instead of mid-November.
3. Target your creative to your customers and locations = GeoTarget
4. Effective search branding must be done creatively.
5. The goal may not to get every click, but to get every profitable click.

I felt the last presentation was very weak. Not a lot of information to put to task. It seems to be more “theory” than fact.