Take a look at the two ads below. Imagine you are a business owner who is looking for signs that comply with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). You know you’ve got to buy ADA signs to comply with the law. You’re not deciding whether or not to get these signs — only who to buy them from.
With that in mind, which ad would you click on? Which one would be more likely to earn your business?
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This is not an easy contest to call. The ad that lost was the control ad for months. It beat quite a few challenger ads. Even though it lost badly in this contest, it’s a REALLY good ad.
Surprisingly, there is no difference in the title or URL. The only differences are in the body copy of the ad. It’s unusual to see such a large difference in CTR between ads that have the same title/URL.
Alright, made your decision?
The winning ad is ad number two. It was written by BoostCTR writer “SublimeSuccess,” and it increased CTR by 164%. Where the original ad was getting 1 click, the new ad is getting 2.64 clicks. That is a HUGE increase in CTR.
So why did the new ad win? And why did it win by so much? Let’s take a look…
1. While the losing ad appealed to the benefit disabled persons receive, the winning ad appealed to the benefit businesses receive! This is the single biggest reason for the difference in CTR. “Bold & Clear” is a benefit to the people who will see the signs. “Avoid Hefty Fines” is a benefit the business (and purchaser of the signs) receives. This is a perfect illustration of the importance of getting into your customer’s mind.
2. Both ads use a strong call to action. The losing ad appeals to the searcher’s good will by emphasizing the signs are made in the USA. The winning ad, on the other hand, appeals to the searcher’s fear of hefty fines. The appeal to the searcher’s fear is far stronger.
3. The winning ad avoids raising the searcher’s buying resistance.The losing ad uses the verb “Buy,” while the winning ad uses the verb “Get.” Any overt attempt to sell raises a person’s buying resistance, so the choice to use “Get” instead of “Buy” was astute.
4. Last but not least, the winning ad uses an exclamation point. It may seem silly, but an exclamation point at the end of Line 1 or Line 2 of the body copy seems to predictably increase CTR. While some may interpret an exclamation point as “hype,” I think many searchers interpret it as enthusiasm and urgency. They respond by clicking.
The bottom line: The new ad wins because it appeals to the person who is buying the signs instead of the person who will be seeing the signs. Furthermore, the winning ad is more urgent, more enthusiastic, and avoids prematurely raising the searcher’s buying resistance.
And for these reasons, the new ad wins by a whopping 164%.
Such a small space… such a big difference. That’s what happens when you concentrate on your market, crawl into your prospect’s mind, and use your creativity to come up with a completely new angle.
What’s your takeaway from this contest? Feel free to leave a comment below.
By the way…
The BoostCTR writers have collectively spent thousands of hours improving pay-per-click ads on both Google and Facebook. They increase CTR and conversions by 30% on average, sometimes as much as 164% or more. Go ahead and put ‘em to work… risk-free for 30 days!
Note: This article was produced by BoostCTR and originally appeared on Wordstream as a guest post.
About the Author: Ryan Healy is a direct response copywriter and BoostCTR writer. Since 2002, he has worked with scores of clients, including Alex Mandossian, Terry Dean, and Pulte Homes. He writes a popular blog about copywriting, advertising and business growth.
Tags: Ada Signs, Ads, American With Disabilities, American With Disabilities Act, Business Owner, Business Signs, Challenger, Control, Disabled Persons, Fear, Hefty Fines, Illustration, Ppc, Purchaser, Reason, Searcher, Title Url
This site has been a fantastic resource for me re-thinking my adwords campaign. Just wondering, what sample size (# of total clicks) do you use before determining a winner?
Hi Daniel,
BoostCTR uses an algorithm for determining statistical significance. It factors in both number of actions (clicks) as well as the difference in CTR between the two ads. The less difference there is, the more clicks are needed. The greater the difference, the fewer the clicks are needed. So each contest is a bit different.
In spite of the algorithm, all contests where the Challenger is winning run for a minimum of two weeks. Contests where the Challenger is losing are killed after four days.
Ryan
I appreciate it. Some of the statistical significance tests (chi-squared, t-test) have some limitations. What I’ve begun doing is making identical duplicate ads in many of my groups, running both at the same time, and tracking how many total clicks it takes for the cumulative difference in CTR between the two identical ads to get close to 0%. The difference between two identical ads CTR at any given # of total clicks would be the margin of error. It took my most popular ad about 250 total clicks between the two identical variations before the cumulative CTR difference fell below and stayed below 10%. Using too small a sample size can lead to terrible conclusions. One of my tests between two identical ads has 70 total clicks and cumulative CTR difference of 46.29%
“One of my tests between two identical ads has 70 total clicks and cumulative CTR difference of 46.29%”
Wow, that is quite a difference. You are correct… it takes some time and clicks for the margin of error to even out.
Daniel,
Be sure that you are on campagn level even rotation. In your example were the positions of the two ads the same? Google uses a QS for each ad/keyword combo and part of that is from historical performance as well as defaults from other areas of the account. If one ad was new he could have been suffering from using defaults more than his own performance. Usually this shows up in the position of the ad which can lead to much lower CTR’s. This is something that actually hurts our ability to win because we use the same bid but have a lower position which leads to more losses. We are working on looking at multipel variables beyond just one metric as well as trying to correct for things that can skew measurements.
Rob Lenderman
Co-Founder BoostCTR
Yes, made sure to set to even rotation.