5 Tips For Writing Winning AdWords Text Ads in PDF

In this episode I discuss 5 tips to writing a winning AdWords text ad. But importantly, I discuss why this is so important in your own AdWords account.

Ilana Wechsler here with another episode of  Teach Traffic. So I’ve been running my digital agency which we specialize in Google AdWords and Facebook ads for over five years now. So I think you could say I’m somewhat experienced in writing AdWords ads. I’ve probably written tens of thousands of AdWords ads in my lifetime so far. So we’ve got some tips for you today in how to write a winning AdWords text ads. So let’s get stuck in today’s show.

Why you should write a good ad

So before we get stuck into the specifics of what you should include in your ad to make it a good ad I really want to touch on why this is important and why this is something you should pay attention to.

See the thing is when you have a good ad lots of people are going to click on it and when lots of people click on your ad that in turn means that you get a good click-through-rate.

What is a CTR?

Now click through rate if you’re unsure what that means it’s a percentage that Google tell you which tells you of the people that have seen your ad be it been served an impression of those people who’ve seen it how many people have clicked on it. So that is your clickthrough rate. And when you get a good click through rate Google is happy with you and they feel that you’re a good advertiser in that lots of people are clicking on your ads and hopefully they’ve had a good experience. So they give you a good quality score.

What is a Quality Score?

Now if you’re unsure what quality score is, we’ve talked about quality score in another episode of Teach Traffic I believe it is episode 9. And by getting a good quality score this means that you will ultimately reduce the amount you pay for a click. So it’s really, really important to get a good click through rate which ultimately drives getting good text ads. So let’s get stuck into the first tip that I’ve got for you in writing a good ad.

Tips in writing a good ad

1. Incorporate a call to action

So the first thing you need to do is you need to have some kind of call to action in your ad and what I mean by call to action is explicitly saying in your ad copy what it is ultimately you want that person to do. Do you want someone to pick up the phone and call you or do you want them to fill in their details online. Whatever it is you want them to do. You need to explicitly say in your ad copy and I’ve tested this heavily.

I’ve tested effectively that two same ad copies against each other. One having a call to action and the other one not having a call to action and every single time the ad which has the call to action wins and by winning I mean getting a better click through rate and even better conversion rate.

So an example of a good call to action might be called for your free appointment, download this free report now, book online today, etc. There’s lots of different types and it really ultimately depends on what it is you want to achieve from your advertising. And it’s unique to every business. So think of your ultimate goal and make sure you incorporate it in your ad copy.

2. Incorporate the keyword in the headline

So let’s move on to tip number two and that is to put the keyword in the headline of your ad. Now it’s important to touch on the distinction between the keyword that you’re bidding on and also the search term that somebody has typed in and they’re depending on the match type that you use with AdWords.

There could be a distinct difference. So keyword is obviously the keyword that you’re bidding on but the search term is what someone who has actually typed into Google which has triggered your ad. But what I do find is when I input the keyword in the headline of my ad, I do get a better click through rate. And if I think about it logically somebody goes to Google to find a solution to that problem. Maybe they’re looking for a pediatrist in Sydney or a dentist and often people are looking to solve the problem as quickly as possible. So if I incorporate the keyword in the headline it’s going to jump out at them more because I’m saying to them I know you’re looking for this and here is exactly what you’re looking for.

So perhaps try this in your account incorporating the keyword in the headline and see if you get a better click through rate because for most of the accounts that I manage I can get a better click through rate by doing this.

3. Have a very compelling offer

The third thing that makes a really good ad is having obviously a very compelling offer. If you don’t have a good offer for people then people are less likely to click on your ad. So if you are running some kind of offer, for example if you’re a dentist you may offer a free initial consult, if you’re a plumber you might offer a credit for the call out fee, depending on what your business is.

If you have some kind of offer please make sure you write that in your ad copy because having a very compelling offer from the right individual always works very, very well. So that’s point number three.

4. Try and ask a question in which they answer yes to

Tip number four to getting a good AdWords ad is to ask a question but not any kind of question. A question in which the answer will be yes to. So if you combine this tip with tip number two of the keyword you can ask a really good question. For example continuing on with the pediatrist in the example you might put in your headline of your ad “Looking for a Pediatrist in Sydney?”, you know that the answer is yes. They’ve literally just typed it into Google and it jumps out at them and they instinctively answer yes in their head.

Now we often will test a question headline ad against a non-question headline ad and compare the results. And I’m surprised how often the question works better than the alternative. But I don’t want to say to do it in every account. Obviously this is a test that you need to apply in your market but in our experience we find that asking a question often can do much better than just a standard headline in your ad.

5. Incorporate some pains and frustrations in the ad copy

And the last tip I have is to incorporate some kind of psychological triggers in your ad. So really have a think about what are the pains and frustrations in your ideal client. What’s going on in their head that you can address in your ad so say for example you know you’re a dentist and most people don’t enjoy going to the dentist because they find it a painful experience. They’re worried about it being uncomfortable and it’s going to hurt a lot. So if you can incorporate in your ad copy that perhaps you offer anesthetics for pain free treatment or then that’s going to address that particular person’s concern that they’re going to be in pain and they’re going to be more inclined to go with you over somebody else.

Another example might be somebody who for the price conscious person if you can incorporate that you know you might price match or you are very affordable, your addressing that initial concern that they’ve got that might be really expensive and you’re explicitly coming out and saying no we’re very affordable and we will match any competitor rates. I’m just thinking of sort of random examples. So really think about what are the pains and frustrations of your ideal customer and address them in your ad copy.

So there you have it. These are our five tips for writing a good AdWords ad. I’ll just go through them very quickly. The first is to incorporate a call to action, the second is to incorporate the keyword in the headline, number three is have a very compelling offer, number four try and ask a question in which they answer yes to, and lastly incorporate some pains and frustrations in the ad copy and you will be well on your way to getting a good click through rate and hopefully reducing your cost per click with a good quality score.

Thanks for reading to this episode. I really do hope you enjoyed it and got some valuable insights. Be sure to apply this in your account and if you get some good results please let me know. I’d love to hear about it.