I find it amazing as pay per click professionals we spend so much time talking about account structure, keywords, and bidding, yet ad copy is treated as an afterthought. After all doesn’t Google Adwords and Bing Ads contain the word ‘Ad’ in their product title? In the end, the only thing a potential prospect or buyer sees is the ad. If your ads are lacking a compelling message, either no one will click, or the dreaded ‘tire kickers’ will click your ads but not take action. If the ‘clickers’ don’t convert to leads or sales, you’re just making a big fat donation to the search engines. Neither of these scenarios will help reach yours or your client’s business goals.
On the contrary, creating a strong headline, benefit statement, and a compelling call to action dramatically increases the chances of converting. Below are the principles I follow when writing ad copy.
Principal #1: Get Emotional
Ad writing is part science, part creativity. People are swayed by facts but react emotionally. Whether we’re buying a TV or filling out a web form, we’ll use the facts as a way to convince ourselves to not take action. However, emotion based ad copy gets people to react on a more primitive, gut level. Every human being reacts to some combination of these emotions: fear, greed, vanity, and exclusivity.
For a more in depth understanding of how to get people to respond to your ads on this level, I suggest reading ‘scientific advertising’ by Claude Hopkins. In this free .pdf, Claude Hopkins outlines the science of direct response advertising. The principle Hopkins laid out 100 years ago still apply today and will apply tomorrow. The only difference is we’re shrinking down the message from a multi page sales letter into an ad that has a 25-character headline and a 70-character body. However, human emotions have been with us since the beginning of time, so if you can tap into them in your ad copy, the probability of converting prospects into leads or buyers increases exponentially.
Principle #2: Headlines Matter
Let’ face it, most people skim headlines instead of reading ads all the way through. Creating a strong headline is paramount to a successful ad. I am currently running an ad test in one of my accounts that has the same exact benefit and call to action combination. The only difference is the headline Ad a is an emotionally driven headline and the other one contains a generic dki headline. The results are astonishing. The test ad, which has the more emotional, action driven headline has 50% less CTR but a 50% increase in conversion rate. This result of this test tells me that headlines matter. People are reading and reacting to them. If your going to get one part of your ad right, make sure it’s the headline. Web users have a very short attention span so make your headline count. A great headline can be the difference between a winning and losing ad.
Principle #3: Make Life Better
Does your benefit statement answer the following question: Am I explaining how my product or service makes life better for someone? If the answer is yes, you have a powerful benefit statement. If not, try again and come up with one that answers the question. There are numerous ways to phrase a benefit statement. For example, creating fear that not using your product or service will make life harder, or your prospect will be happier because they’re using your product or service. Either example taps into basic human emotions.
Principle #4 Tell Them What To Do
Ever heard the saying ‘ask for the sale’? It’s important that people know what to do once they click an ad and arrive on the landing page. I’ve learned from experience that a vague or no call to action leads to lower click thru and conversion rates. Make sure to tell your prospects exactly what they should do!
I have found success applying these basic direct response principles. I hope you will have success with them too!
