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Posts Tagged ‘Ppc’

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The Clean Bathroom Approach to PPC Ad Copy

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

 

We naturally believe in the principle of internal consistency. It may not make sense in every situation, but we believe it anyway.


If you walk into a restaurant’s bathroom and it’s filthy, you wonder how clean — or disgusting — the kitchen is, even though it’s unlikely that the same people who clean the bathroom also work in kitchen. Or at least one hopes that it’s unlikely!


Well, the same principle of internal consistency applies to PPC Ad copy. Take a look at the following contest, and with that principe in mind, see if you can’t pick out which ad outperformed the other:





So, assuming that the search Keyword was “Turquoise Earrings” the ads are fairly similar, with Ad A offering more specifics to strengthen the “save” claim and Ad B strengthening the free shipping claim with “on all orders.” But frankly, neither of those is the deciding factor here


The deciding factor that put Ad B ahead on Click-Through Rates was the internal consistency between the headline offer of “Turquoise Earrings” and the body copy describing them as “Beautiful & Authentic.” Because when you’re talking about natural stone — especially a natural stone that’s often over-dyed and imitated — a claim of “authentic” is naturally what you’d expect to hear. It’s internally consistent with the offer, thereby making the whole ad more persuasive and believable.


And that’s why Ad B won the contest AND a spot in today’s WIn of the Week column.


 

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Posted in Ad Text Tips, Ad Writing Techniques, Copywriting, Paid Search, Win of the Week | No Comments »


Are Your PPC Ads a Joke?

Monday, May 6th, 2013

 

When you’re telling a joke, you’ve got to hold the punchline until the end. It’s the surprise punchline that gets the laughs. Works great for comedy, but it’s lousy for PPC Ads.

When people scan search results, they’re looking for immediate confirmation of relevance — will this result take me to what I want? — that can be effortless confirmed as they sweep their eyes over the results for, oh, just slightly longer than a nano-second, I suppose.


And that means the keywords and trigger words need to be as high up and far to the left of the ad copy as possible. At the front of the headline, at the front of the first line of body copy. That sort of thing. A PPC Ad isn’t a joke — don’t save your keyword “punchline” until the end!


With that principle in mind, the rather confusing results from this test start to make a lot more sense:




If the keyword is cookware, you’d think ad copy that focuses exclusively on “Cast Iron Pots, Pans, and Dutch Oven Sets” would alienate a lot of people who are in the market for stainless steel, copper, non-stick, and most other kinds of cookware. In other words, you’d think that the cast-iron exclusivity would sink the winning ads performance. But oddly enough, it didn’t.


So what happened?


The winning ad used “cookware” earlier in the headline, and in the first line of copy, AND used the confirming add-on words of “Pots, Pans, and Dutch Oven Sets.” When searchers glance at that ad, they instantly know that it’s relevant to their search, and may even overlook the “Cast Iron” part.


Compare this to the losing ad, which delays the use of the keyword to the end of the headline, doesn’t use cookware at all on the first line of copy and uses no other trigger words or confirming language. This ad is sort of a joke, in that it saves the trigger words until the end, making it harder to scan for relevance.

And how much difference does this really make? Well, for this test, it was a 49% increase in Click-Through Rates — which is no small difference!


So take a tip from the boosters: don’t save those keywords and trigger words for the end — put them high and to the left in your copy and use them generously throughout your copy. Because your PPC ad copy is no laughing matter.


 

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Posted in Ad Text Tips, Ad Writing Techniques, AdWords Ad Best Practices, Copywriting, Paid Search, Tips From The Boosters | No Comments »


Weekly PPC Update – Cinco de Mayo Edition

Sunday, May 5th, 2013

 

Hello friends!  Hope you are enjoying your weekend, but let’s put down our margaritas for a moment to catch up on the past week’s latest PPC news, shall we?

 

First, from Google……..

 

Google is sunsetting the spreadsheet edit feature effective May 30.  This makes sense since they’ve been rolling out bulk edit features and bulk keyword uploads recently.   Will you miss it?

 

A new series of Learn with Google webinars will be starting soon.  Webinars are held at 1 p.m. EST on Tuesdays through Thursdays and are categorized as follows:  YouTube, Shopping, Research, Analytics, Mobile, Search, Social and Display.  You can visit the webinar site to learn more and to sign up.

 

Have you gone to any of these AdWords Office Hours?  Well, “gone to” as in gone to the Google+ Hangouts?  It’s an opportunity to ask questions in real time to the Google team about AdWords.  Pretty cool.  You can see the most recently asked questions and answers here. The first question this past week was a good one, Are there some niches that just always have low quality scores due to high competitor clicks? If so, will the results to boost the QS higher always be limited? Check out the whole transcript.  Some really good stuff in there.

 

Now, from Yahoo/Bing Ads……..

 

If you’re brand new to Bing Ads, you can find a nice introductory video here to help you get started.  It’s only 2 minutes!

 

If you have clients who have been asking what Bing ads can do for them, here’s a handy infographic that breaks down the power of Bing Ads, including numerous improvements that have been made to the platform, its reach, and quotes from happy customers.  What are you waiting for?

 

Father’s Day is coming up next month, and Bing Ads blog has some recommendations and best practices to get you thinking about how to advertise for this holiday. Also included are some useful statistics for making the case to up budgets during this time.

 

Not to be outdone by Google Hangouts and the like, Bing Ads has been offering podcasts to help advertisers get up to speed with the latest and greatest from Yahoo/Bing.  There are downloads to two recent podcasts here.

 

Finally, from Bing Ads last week, another “Bing Ads and You” series post.  Advanced diagnostics will be coming soon to Bing Ads, and will allow advertisers to: Identify which keywords within your account could be delivered in response to a search term but being disqualified due to issues with campaign quality and campaign settings, along with actionable feedback to fix these issues.

 

Finally, from elsewhere on the web………..

 

Search Engine Land reports on a study that shows exactly how well PLAs are working.  “Bucking the typical trend of CSEs (and e-commerce in general), paid Google Shopping traffic nearly doubled in post-holiday Q1 compared to Q4.”  We aren’t really surprised as these were really not rolled out until late last year.

 

Search Engine Journal has a very useful article to help manage automated rules.  It’s called The Art of Setting Up a 360-Fail Safe System When Utilizing AdWords Automated Rules. Some good advice there.

 

Finally, from Search Engine Watch, 7 Essential Skills for Managing PLA Campaigns.  If, as the article above states, we are really all spending more on PLAs, it’s critical that these campaigns are managed correctly!  Check out the steps to success in this article.

 

That’s it for this week, folks!  Enjoy the upcoming week.

 

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Precipitating Events

Monday, April 29th, 2013

 

Some of us are proactive some of the time. And by some of the time, I mean like 2-5%. The other 95 to 98% of the time we are reacting to something, whether it’s a sudden opportunity or a newfound problem.


I mean, do most of us buy running shoes just because? Or do we buy a new pair when our old ones break down? Or at the start of a new running season? Or when someone comments on how ratty our old pair looks?


Why does this matter for PPC? Because people don’t conduct a search just because either — they usually conduct a search as a respons to an event. And keeping that event in mind helps you write ad copy that’s more immediately relevant and response-generating.


Check out this recent win and see for yourself:




The winning ad won because it was more relevant to the most likely precipitating event for safety signs: someone was notified that they were NOT in compliance with workplace safety standards. And who is most likely to be doing the notifying? Well, OSHA and ANSI, of course.


I think it would work even better had the winning ad also mentioned the availability of express shipping, since fixing a safety discrepancy usually comes with some sense of urgency, but overall, it’s the ad that most directly addresses the emotional state and motivations stemming from the precipitating event that wins. In this case, the ad boosted CTR by 20%


So take a tip from the Boosters and give some thought to what kind of precipitating events are motivating your prospective customers. Then adjust your ad copy accordingly.


 

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Posted in Ad Text Tips, Ad Writing Techniques, Copywriting, Paid Search, Tips From The Boosters | No Comments »


Weekly PPC Update – Still Reeling Edition

Sunday, April 21st, 2013

 

Last week was a tough one for Boston.  And, even though we breathed a collective sigh of relief on Friday night, things are still not back to “normal”.  They probably won’t be for a very long time, and will never be for those injured and families of those killed on Marathon Monday.  Our condolences to everyone impacted by the tragic events.

 

Let’s see what happened in the world of PPC last week.

 

First, from Google…..

 

Google AdWords provides a pretty detailed post about what they do with publishers who are “bad apples” and don’t adhere to Google’s advertising guidelines.  Here are a few highlights:

  • Better technology helps monitor clicks, impressions and also to scan partners’ sites and downloadable software to pick up bad content and bad practices (like artificial traffic) at a very granular level
  • Hundreds of manual reviewers work for Google to weed out advertisers who don’t adhere to these regulations and Google has doubled the rate that they review publisher’s sites
  • In 2012, there were 17% fewer bad actors than in the previous years
  • Finally, to protect customers from getting add-ons that they didn’t sign up for when installing software, Google has issued these new policies including that the download be pre-approved by Google; offer one-click, complete uninstall, and more.  Read the post for full details.

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We always recommend using an Analytics program like Google Analytics in tandem with your PPC efforts.  Google Analytics’ blog has a good article last week detailing three options in-house (and we would argue any) practitioners should be using.  These options include event tracking, advanced segments, and shortcuts.  Are there others you would add?

 

Next, from Bing Ads……….

 

Bing, like Google, is also committed to fighting bad advertising on their network.  This article gives some pretty basic tips about how to protect your Bing Ads account from fraudulent activity.

 

Bing has a podcast here that answers frequently asked questions from Bing Ads advertisers.

 

Bing Ads is developing a Search Terms Report to help you add keywords and negative keywords directly through the Web UI’s Keywords tab.  Learn more here.

 

Finally, if you are advertising on Mother’s Day gifts & related terms, here are some tips on how to optimize your campaigns for Mother’s Day.

 

And, from elsewhere on the web…….

 

Did you hear about the test claiming that Bing search results led to five times more malware than Google?  Bing refutes those findings here.

 

Also from Search Engine Land, Google Earnings:  Q1 Revenue Rises and Paid Clicks up 20% though CPC Slips 4% YoY.  The title says it all!

 

Advertising:  A Brief History is a pretty awesome infographic that starts with the earliest known wall painting (aka the first billboard!) is created in 4000 BC and goes up to today with stats about how much is currently spent and more.

 

Finally, from Search Engine Watch, Using PLAs to Enhance, Not Encroach on SEM gives some tips to do just that.

 

That’s it for this week folks, stay safe and give your kids an extra hug.

 

 

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