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For many businesses, a cost-effec ve way to get an immediate boost in website
6 Things Your Small Business
traffic is Google AdWords – also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC). You’ve probably
Needs to Know About
no ced the ads in Google – the ones that appear along the top and sides of the Wordpress
search results. And you probably already know that placing your ad on Google can
drama cally increase visits to your website. 7 Best Sources for Finding Open
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 Special Report

The 12 Marke ng
Secrets
of Fast-Growth
Companies

Find out what they do to

achieve outrageous
business success

But do you know how to write great PPC ads that really draw in customers and
encourage them to click through to your site? Not all ads are created equal and
some produce far be er results than others. Most businesses put up poor ads
that don’t get clicked, which is a waste of their precious marke ng budgets. You
want your ads to stand out from the sea of mediocrity and catch the eye of your
poten al customers.
Subscribe to our email list and
You don’t have much to work with. The basic structure of a Google PPC ad is: get this special report

Email Address
Headline: 25 characters (maximum)

Display URL (e.g. www.example.com/shoes): 35

characters (maximum)
Yes, give me access!
Descrip on Line 1: 35 characters (maximum)

Descrip on Line 2: 35 characters (maximum)

Your challenge is to come up with something compelling with just a very few
words.
Browse Topics
Blogging
But don’t worry, our 14 AdWords ps below will show you how to transform your
mediocre ads into ads that get clicked again and again. Business Development

Business Management

Business Skills
1. Check Out Your Competitors
CMS Systems
With AdWords, as with marke ng in general, it’s
essen al you don’t reinvent the wheel. You can save Compe tor Analysis
a huge amount of me and money just by studying
what your compe tors are doing in terms of PPC. Content Wri ng
They could well have already put a significant
Customer Rela onship
amount of effort into their PPC campaigns, and their
Management
ads could have been through numerous tests and
itera ons. You can benefit from everything they’ve prac calowl
Digital Marke ng
learnt along the way.
eCommerce
Run some searches in Google using the keywords you want to target. Read
through the top ads carefully and learn as much as you can from them. If your Email Marke ng
compe tors are inves ng heavily in certain keywords, there’s a good chance
Facebook
they’re ge ng results.
This p alone could save you a fortune, so please remember to retweet this blog Growth Hacking
post!
Inbound Marke ng

Market Research
2. Include a Call To Action
Marke ng Mix
A call to ac on within your ad’s text is a powerful means to en ce customers.
Phrases such as “Download Your Free Report” and “Find Your Perfect Match” Marke ng Strategy
tell customers exactly what’s on offer and also encourage them to click.
PPC

Try to be crea ve with your calls to ac on. “Buy Now” isn’t going to stand out as Sales
it’s used so o en. “Learn French In A Day” is more interes ng, and targets
poten al customers with something more specific. SEO

Small Business Funding

3. Highlight How You Help Your Customers Small Business Support

Saying how great you are is unlikely to convince many customers to click your ad. Social Media
Anyone can say they’re number one and customers are likely to be scep cal. It’s
far be er to focus your ad text on what problems you solve for your customers, or Telephone Answering Services
the benefits your product or service provides.
Tes monials
Think about how your business actually helps customers and explain this clearly
WordPress
in your ad copy. Saying “Train Your Dog To Behave” tells customers how a dog-
training business can help them. This is be er than saying “We’re The Best Dog
Trainers in Town”.

4. Attract Your Ideal Customers With a Special Offer

Offering something that will be irresis ble to your

poten al customers is a great way to encourage
them to click your ad. “Get Your Free Trial”, “Save
£10”, and “Free 1-Month Subscrip on” are all
possible examples.

Remember, it’s usually best to be specific about

savings. “Get £2.50 Off” is be er than “50%
Discount”. Customers want to know exactly what they’re going to receive before
they click.

Free shipping is a par cularly effec ve offer. According to one study, it converted
at rates of between 0.22% and 1.9%, making it twice as successful at conver ng as
price-reduc on offers.

Reten on Science

5. Be Crystal Clear About the Price

It’s usually best to put specific prices in your ads, as
far as possible, especially if you’re running an
ecommerce business. Customers want to quickly
find products and services they want, at prices they
want to pay. If you don’t provide them with this
informa on, they could skip your ad and move on to
the next one.
ChrisGoldNY

Beyond this, price can be an excellent way to qualify

the people clicking your ad. If you’re adver sing a luxury product, including the
price will discourage those looking for a bargain from clicking at all. That way
you’re more likely to get only traffic from people who are really looking for what
you’re selling.

6. Create a Sense of Urgency by Using the Most

Powerful Motivator There Is

In your ads, use offers that are limited by me or quan ty. Use phrases such as
“Promo on Ends In 2 days” and “Only 5 In Stock”. Scarcity is a powerful
mo vator and encourages customers to buy now in order to avoid missing out.
This approach can mean you’ll need to update your ads more o en, but the
increase in click-through rate will o en make the extra effort worth it.

7. Reduce the Sense of Risk

When they see your ad, customers might be coming

across your business for the first me. They don’t
know you and they don’t know whether you’re
reliable and trustworthy. Try to reduce this sense of
risk by spelling out any guarantees you provide in
the ad’s copy. If customers know they can get their
money back if they’re not sa sfied, for example, heatherbuckley
buying from you will seem less risky.

8. Make the First Description Line a Full Sentence

If your ad manages to appear in the top few spots in Google’s search results, it can
be displayed with a special wide headline that includes Descrip on Line 1. This
type of headline really stands out and has the poten al to draw in more
customers.

To ensure your ad is shown with this longer headline, end your first descrip on
line with a full stop or some other form of punctua on, such as a ! or ?. Google
will then move the descrip on line up into the headline.

The following shows an ad with punctua on at the end of the first descrip on
line:
But in this example, no punctua on is included, so the first descrip on line is not
included in the headline:

Note that ge ng your ad in the top spots in Google can be a huge challenge,
especially if you’re facing strong compe on. To succeed in this area requires
more than just wri ng great ads – you need to consider what to bid and many
other aspects of how your PPC campaigns are set up and structured.

This is why at Grow we carefully hand-pick the PPC experts who we recommend
to our clients. If you’re spending a large amount of money on PPC, you have to
make sure you’re ge ng a good return on your investment.

9. Include the Keyword

Try including the specific keyword / phrase you’re targe ng in your ad’s copy. It
will be displayed by Google in bold when people search using that term, and this
will o en make your ad stand out from the crowd. It also confirms to your
poten al customers that your ad is definitely relevant to their search.

You don’t need to include the keywords more than once – you really can’t spare
the space anyway. But consider including them somewhere in one of the
descrip on lines, or even be er, in the headline.

10. Take Advantage of the Display URL

Don’t think of your ad’s Display URL as just a link – make sure it’s working hard to
get you more clicks and conversions. The URL text can act as a call to ac on,
provide more informa on, highlight a special offer or increase your ad’s relevancy
by including the keywords you’re targe ng.

For example, www.example.com/FreeTrial and

www.example.com/DiscountShoes tell poten al customers more, and encourage
them to click more, than a URL like www.example.com/about.

11. Try Some ?*!£*& Symbols

Many adver sers are convinced that using symbols

in ads increases the click-through rate. Try out
symbols such as ?, &, ©, ™ and * to see if they’re
effec ve. They can help draw a en on to your ad,
and can make all the difference if you’re facing s ff
compe on.
heatherbuckley
Don’t go crazy, though, especially with exclama on
marks (!) – Google only allows you to include one of these per ad, and not in the
headline. Google will also reject your ad if it deems your use of symbols is
excessive or inappropriate. So, a li le goes a long way.

12. Use Ad Extensions

Google provides a number of what it calls “ad extensions”. These are a way of
adding extra informa on about your business or offering to your ad. For example,
a “loca on extension” will display your business’s address, phone number and a
map link. The “sitelinks extension” shows links to specific pages in your site
beneath your ad’s text.

One benefit of ad extensions is that they simply make your ads look bigger and
more interes ng. Some extensions take up more space, and include addi onal
text, symbols and images. If nothing else, these help to gain some extra a en on
for your ad.

The following shows the sitelinks extension:

Ad extensions don’t cost anything extra to set up, but in some cases you’ll be
charged each me they’re clicked. For instance, you’re charged when someone
clicks a call bu on provided by a “call extension”, or the download bu on of an
“app extension”.

You can find out more about the different ad extensions available on Google’s
support pages.

13. Capitalise Headlines

Many adver sers use ini al caps in headlines to

draw more a en on to their ads. In fact, many
people capitalise the first le ers of all the words
in their descrip ons as well. Experiment to see what’s most effec ve.

Be careful, though. Excessive use of capitals, for example capitalising all the le ers
in a word, is not allowed by Google and could lead to your ad being blocked.

14. Test, Test and Test Again

Being successful with PPC can involve a lot of trial

and error, and it’s important that you’re con nually
trying to improve click-through and conversion rates.
Even if an ad is reasonably successful, don’t rest on
your laurels. Try to come up with something be er,
that will net you even more business.
JD Hancock
Tes ng is easy with AdWords. If you create two or
more ads in an ad group and run them concurrently, Google will alternate
between displaying them in the search results. This allows you to examine the
stats to see which is working best.

Don’t forget to actually finish your tests! Make sure you remember to cancel your
lowest performing ads, as con nuing to run them will simply be a waste of your
money. In many cases, you’ll want to keep only the best performing ad in an ad
group, and stop all the rest.

Discover

The 12 Marketing Secrets of

Fast-Growth Companies
Find out what they do to achieve outrageous business success

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Filed Under: Inbound Marke ng, PPC

Comments
Annie says:
November 24, 2014 at 11:27 AM

Some great stuff here.

I thought I would add that as well as using keyword research (a great star ng point for
building ad copy) the blog post below outlines ten top ps for wri ng en cing ad
copy, which a er reading this post may be helpful.
h p://www.browsermedia.co.uk/2014/10/31/10- ps-write-en cing-ad-copy/
Log in to Reply

Oliver says:
January 13, 2015 at 5:47 AM

Good point. It really makes sense. I am doing a research about wri ng effec ve
descrip ons for be er site click through and found this
h p://www.lionleaf.com/blog/wri ng-killer-descrip ons-to-improve-click-through/
and it gives me good results too but your ideas are simple and concise. Do AdWords
and SEO works well when combined as one?
Log in to Reply

Nicolas says:
June 22, 2015 at 3:06 PM

Great ar cle
Oliver, yes its related. If you think that Adwords ads are test and test again for CTR,
maybe using those tles in the meta descrip on is a good idea?
Log in to Reply

Smart Web Solu ons says:

November 24, 2015 at 12:24 PM

Great p about making the first line a sentence… I’ve been using the ASCI characters
and numbers and it’s working well for me.
Log in to Reply

Shady says:
January 19, 2016 at 7:23 PM

Thank for sharing this valueble piece – well wri en!

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Liam Hawes says:

August 6, 2016 at 4:10 PM

I recently got asked to help my partners brother with their small business adver sing
campaign. I know a fair bit about this subject but thought I would quickly got some
refresher informa on.
This was a very useful and easy read, I was able to implement many of the ps and
the campaign is up and running now.
Cheers for providing this.
Log in to Reply

Satyam says:
October 7, 2016 at 11:03 AM

Awesome google Ad Copy ps

Log in to Reply
 Kim says:
October 9, 2016 at 8:26 AM

This is a great star ng point for those looking to write exci ng copy for their
customers. The great thing about this informa on is, it can apply to many careers
such as video produc on. O en mes companies want produc on companies to
produce compelling video ads for their business in hopes of boos ng sales. Things
such as including a discount, making sure there is a powerful CTA, and even
capitalizing on keywords that are typically found in wri en adver sements can all
help a video commercial become successful.
Log in to Reply

Vanessa Corradini says:

May 5, 2020 at 5:16 PM

Thanks for sharing this great ar cle with brilliant ps!

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hamed razavi says:

September 20, 2020 at 7:34 AM

Hi, Thanks a lot for your wonderful ar cle.

I will translate your ar cle into Persian soon and publish it on my blog.
(h ps://www.novin.com/google-ads)
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Tiago says:
November 1, 2020 at 2:09 PM

Knowing the Google Ads tool and tested ps and strategy will put you in front of many
other compe tors. It is worth inves ng me to learn how to use this tool.
Log in to Reply

Amin says:
November 21, 2020 at 3:16 PM

that was interes ng

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