Saying the same thing using different words can have a surprisingly dramatic impact on your pay-per-click performance.  It can:

Make your ad stand out more

Evoke a stronger click response among searchers

Cause more searchers to complete a conversion once they get to your website

Following are some common concepts advertisers try to portray in their ads, along with some alternative ways to say the same thing:

Free, $0, Complimentary

Affordable, Won’t Drain Your Wallet, Cheap, Bargain, Deal, Budget, Special, Reasonable. Manageable, Low Cost, You Can Afford, Cost Next to Nothing, Get Your Money’s Worth

Amazing, Dazzling, Jaw-Dropping,  Impressive, Rockstar, Thrilling, Awesome

Quote, Estimate, Proposal, Evaluation, Assessment, Personal Price, Size Up, Find Out How Much

Fast, Speedy, Quick, Expedient, Instantly, Overnight, In 5 Minutes, Over Lunch

24/7, Day or Night, Anytime, All the Time, Always

Large, Enormous, Wide,  Huge, Gigantic, Massive, Humungous, Jumbo, Mammoth, Infinite

Expert, Well-versed, Know It All, The Source, Experienced, We Know Our Stuff, Pro, Hot Shot, Guru, Veteran, Well-Versed, Whiz

Leader, Favorite, Top Dog, Top-Notch

Award-Winning, Top-Rated, Highly Acclaimed,

Reduce, Lower, Knock Down, Slash, Crush, Eliminate, Trim, Tame, Lighten Your Load

Fast, Warp Speed, Speedy, Zippy, In a Jiffy, Rapid,  In a Flash, Presto

Improve, Transform, Boost, Skyrocket, Multiply, Turn It Up a Notch, Step Up

Simple, Easy, Natural, a Cinch, a Snap, No Sweat, No Hard Work Required, No Learning Curve,

Dramatically, Significantly, Meaningful, Substantially, Fundamentally, Extremely,

Responsible,  You Can Count On, Responsive, Trustworthy, Top-Notch Service, Come to Expect, Unwavering, Reliable, Safe, Reputable, Committed

Guaranteed, Warranted, For Sure, Or Your Money Back, We Promise, Our Pledge, Give Our Word, Our Commitment

Now, Immediately,  Today, Pronto

Instant, Immediate, Right Away, Straight Away,

Limited Time, Brief Time,  Won’t Last Long, Act Now

Voted, Named, Called , “”, The

Call Us, Give us a Jingle, Pick up your phone, Dial, Give us a Buzz, Ring Us, Get in Touch, Holler, Shout Out

Trying out new alternative content in your pay-per-click ads can bring about dramatically better results in both click-through rates and conversion rates. Ad testing is a continual process, which should never be stopped, so we hope you’ll find our adsaurus helpful in your constant pursuit of the best possible performance.

Search result pages are crowded, ads are everywhere and we are all working within the same tight editorial guidelines and space limits.  So how are you going to capture the searchers attention in just a few seconds?  Why, with pieces of flair, of course!  Just because search network ads are text-based doesn’t mean you can’t bring some creativity to your campaigns.  A great offer is nice, but unless you write your ad in a way that stands out on the page, few searchers will ever even bother to read it.

So here’s our list of 15 pieces of flair for you to try out:

1) Ampersand Signs (”&”). Instead of saying “and” use the “&” symbol. This is one of the few symbols that are allowed to be used in ads.  We find them to be particularly effective when included at the beginning or end of copy lines, as it seems to catch your eye.

Great Deals on Widgets and

Top-Notch Service

vs.

Great Deals on Widgets &

Top-Notch Service

2) Bold. We all know that including keywords into the ad copy is helpful in many regards, from click-through rate to quality score.  But having bold in only one line of your ad is just not enough.  Go for bold in two lines of your ad – the headline and also in the body copy.  We find the second bold location at the end or beginning of the copy lines to be most effective.

Replacement  Windows

Voted #1 in Portland, OR

Call Today for a Great Deal

vs.

Replacement  Windows

Voted #1 in Portland, OR

Call Us for Replacement Windows

3) Numbers. Phone numbers, rates, offers, rankings — any kind of number can really make your ad stand out.  Try them in the headline or use numbers in multiple lines of your ad copy to really grab attention.  Say whatever you can with numbers.

Toilet Paper

Twice the Toilet Paper

Half the Price

vs.

Toilet Paper

2 Times the Toilet Paper

½ the Price

4) Exclamation Points! It may not seem like a skinny little stick with a dot at the bottom could do all that much, but it is one of the only ways to instill excitement through text.  In almost all of the comparison tests we do, exclamation points out-perform those without every time!

Great Deals on Widgets &

Top-Notch Service.

vs.

Great Deals on Widgets &

Top-Notch Service!

5) Little Sentences.  Everyone is so very worried about how they are going to cram all they have to say into the very little ad copy space, but taking the opposite approach can really help your ad to stand out.  Remember: less really is more.  Also, breaking it into little sentence chunks rather that one large, run-on sentence will enable searchers to digest your message in a much faster timeframe.

We Have Great Deals on Blue Widgets

Shop Today and Save 20% & Free Ship

vs.

Blue Widgets

20% Off & Free Shipping!

6) Totally Bold Headline. This one is also related to the concept of saying less rather than more.  Many ads include both the main keyword from an ad group along with other words in their headlines.  However, we find that having a headline with only the keyword so the entire headline appears in bold gets more clicks.

Local Blue Widget Supplier

Wide Variety of Widgets

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

vs.

Blue Widgets

Wide Variety of Widgets

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

7) Initial Caps. Capitalizing the first letter of each important word within your ad copy can help it stand out on a crowded page.  Since most advertisers do this, it is mandatory these days.

Great deals on widgets &

top-notch service!

vs.

Great Deals on Widgets &

Top-Notch Service!

8 ) Product Images. Including your products in a Google Merchant feed and then hooking up your Merchant account to your AdWords account can really enable your ad to stand out.  It also allows searchers to check out what you have to offer without paying for them to come to your site.  This isn’t just limited to the traditional e-tailers – if you have any product picture with a price from software to hotel rooms we recommend giving it a try!

Wide Variety of Widgets

20% Off & Free Shipping!

vs.

Wide Variety of Widgets

20% Off & Free Shipping!

+ Show Products from this advertiser

9) Geo-Targeting. Even if you are running a national campaign, it’s good to take the time to target states individually in order to get that extra line of ad copy.

Wide Variety of Widgets

20% Off & Free Shipping!

www.BlueWidgets.com

vs.

Wide Variety of Widgets

20% Off & Free Shipping!

www.BlueWidgets.com

Florida

10)  Address.  Add your business location to your campaign settings to have your address display in an extra free line of ad text.

Wide Variety of Widgets

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

www.BlueWidgets.com

vs.

Wide Variety of Widgets

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

www.BlueWidgets.com

2030 1^st Street, Boulder, CO

11) Keywords in URLs. Your display URL can include keywords either preceding or post-ceding the main URL of your site.  Especially if your URL does not include the keywords that you are advertising for, it can be helpful to include keywords here to make your site seem more relevant and get your URL in gold.

Blue Widgets

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

www.TheStore.com

vs.

Blue Widgets

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

BlueWidgets.TheStore.com

12) Google checkout. Enabling Google Checkout can get you an extra line added to your ad that appears as a colorful image.

Wide Variety of Widgets

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

www.BlueWidgets.com

vs.

Wide Variety of Widgets

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

www.BlueWidgets.com

13) Registered / Trademark symbols. If you are eligible, including the Registered ® or Trademark ™ Symbols within you ad copy can make it stand out and can be symbols of authenticity.

Blue Widgets

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

vs.

Blue Widgets ^TM

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

14) Questions? The question symbol can be an effective way to quickly engage a searcher to read your ad and check out your offer.

We Have Blue Widgets

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

vs.

Looking for Blue Widgets?

Order Today – Get 20% Off!

15) CAPS for Acronyms. While you can’t use all caps on regular words within your ads, you can capitalize acronyms.

Pay Per Click & Search Optimization

Sign Up for Free Trial Today!

vs.

PPC & SEO Software

Sign Up for Free Trial Today!

Take a look through your ads today and find new ways to express your unique offers with little bits of flare!

Being clever every day of the year can be tough on a search engine marketer. We all go through periods of time when we experience a creative block and can’t seem to think of new clever PPC ad copy to try out.

However, ad copy must always be on a path of improvement, even during those uncreative times. So, we’ve compiled a list of no-brainer ad performance improvement tests:

1) To “Initial Caps” or not?

Using your existing ad copy, try out different variations in capitalization. For example:

“Start a Free Trial Today” vs. “Start a free trial today”

This is a very simple test that can lead to some surprising results. Where you capitalize in your ad copy can be quite impactful.

2) To DKI or not?

Dynamic keyword insert (DKI) is quite effective sometimes, but not always. So, try it out in your ads. Try a dynamic keyword insert in your headline:

“Super Interesting Product” vs. “{KeyWord:Super Interesting Product}”

Don’t limit yourself to just the headline. You can try out dynamic keyword insert in your ad copy itself:

“Looking for a fabulous product?” vs. “Looking for {KeyWord:a fabulous product}?”

You can even try DKI in your display URL:

“www.GreatWebsite.com” vs. “www.GreatWebsite.com\{KeyWord}”

3) To www. or not?

The format of your display URL is another very simple thing that can have a great impact, so test it out to see what works best with the preceding “www” or without:

“www.GreatWebsite.com” vs. “GreatWebsite.com”

4) Location Display or not?

If you are a local business, Google allows you to display your address in an additional line beneath your ad copy display URL. This can be a great way to highlight that you are truly a local business and identify your location without wasting precious ad copy characters.

To try it out, go to the settings page for your campaign and select to show your relevant business address with your ads.

5) Two sentences vs. One sentence

Try formatting your ad copy line 1 and line 2 to be two separate sentences vs. one long sentence. For example:

We have an amazing product.
Try it out today for free.

Try our amazing product
for free when you sign up today.

Often times we find that for ads that display on the side in Google, two sentences can outperform one sentence. But, for ads that display at the top of the page, one sentence may outperform since these ads appear as a single line.

6) Say the same thing, just differently

Try out different ways to say the same thing. For example, see which of the following would be more appealing to searchers:

“Free Shipping” vs. “$0 Shipping”

7) Include Pricing or not?

Try including your pricing directly into your ad copy. If you know you’ve got a great price, this can be a great way to compete with others who claim to offer a steal of a deal.

Include Phone Number or not?

For local businesses, another way to highlight that you are truly local and push for immediate action is to include your phone number directly into your ad copy. If you have a local number and an 800 number, try them both out to see which one performs better.

9) Call to action placement

Try out your call to action in all the different locations – in your Headline, Ad Copy Line 1 and Ad Copy Line 2 to see where it’s most effective in attracting clicks and driving conversions.

Take heart, PPC advertising is forgiving on those days when you just don’t feel very clever. Keep this list around and when those creative juices aren’t flowing, try out a new “brain-dead” tactic to keep your ad performance on the track of continuous improvement.

Many people think starting a PPC campaign is as easy as opening up a Google, Yahoo!, and Bing ad center account, writing some quick ads and then watching the clicks and dollars roll in.

Were it only so simple.

Although PPC campaigns do give you results faster than a SEO campaign, starting a PPC campaign does require some up-front work on your part. You’ll want to use the following checklist to ensure you have everything needed to make a smooth PPC transition.

1. Determine your budget.

If you’re spending less than $500 a month, you might want to consider a single search engine such as Google or Bing. Why is that? Spreading such a relatively low budget across three search engines won’t give you enough bang for your buck.

Generally speaking, we recommend a minimum spend of greater than $500 per month in order to get the most out of a campaign, particularly one that relies on more than one search engine to generate traffic.

2. Read the manual.

Whether you use one, two or all three, each search engine ad center comes chock full of tutorials and how-to’s. Block out a few hours and bone up on how each one works. You’ll save yourself time and money down the road.

3. Make your keyword list.

We’ve covered this topic already – here and here. Once you have your keyword list in hand, separate similar keywords into ad groups. DO NOT do this on the fly – as in trying to do this step within the ad center interface. You’re setting yourself up for failure. We recommend you sketch out your ad groups using old-fashioned technology – a piece of paper and a pencil, or the less old fashion way using an Excel spreadsheet.

4. Write your ad copy and landing pages together.

Don’t make the mistake of writing out your ads within the ad center interface. One, you can’t catch typos this way, and two, if you’re writing ads on the fly like this, they won’t be as effective. It’s better to write first and final drafts of your ads in Word so you can catch type-o’s and spend time considering your ad copy. You also want to make sure the landing page that the ad links to will reflect both the ad copy you’re writing and the keywords you’re bidding on within a given group. Ensuring concordance between ad copy, keyword bids and landing page copy is the best way to get successful outcomes.

If you can afford it, pay a copywriter or direct marketer to help you write ad copy that compels people to take action and have this person write your landing page copy, too. Also ask him or her for variations on themes, which you can then test to see which ad / landing page generates the best conversions.

5. Keep track of results.

We’ve found that many small companies set up a PPC campaign and then forget about it. (Usually this is because the business owner or marketer is so strapped for time.) Make a date in your calendar to check your campaign results regularly – whether once a day for time-sensitive campaigns, or once a week for on-going ads.

Small plug: All this effort can be time-consuming, which is why we developed the Yield Web Marketing Suite and our complete services offering. Both help you to set up, manage and keep track of campaigns across all three search engines – while giving you the insight you need to make effective business decisions.  To learn more, request a free 20-minute consultation or give our Yield Web Marketing Suite a no obligation trial run for 15 days. We’re here for you!

I like search engines – they quickly find what I am looking for and don’t talk back.  I can visit them when I like, ask about as many search terms as I want and the search engine responds in a speedy fashion with more information than I could ever find the time to read.

Because the search engine is such a trusty sidekick, we quickly forgive it when there is the occasional irrelevant result.  We have become so accustomed to irrelevant results spattered about, that our eyes are actually trained to quickly glaze over anything that doesn’t exactly match.  Search engines even help us with this by bolding the results that parrot our requests.  Even if we accidentally click on an irrelevant link, we can immediately bounce back to the search engine after realizing our mistake.

Since searchers have become such expert results cruisers, can a PPC ad that is not directly offering what you are looking for persuade you not only to click, but to actually consider an alternative? We continually see advertisers trying to stretch the limits here, so let’s analyze some examples.

Let’s say you are hungry for dinner and have decided on pizza.  You do a search for pizza in your town and Google includes an ad for Thai food.  You are not at all likely to click on that ad or even read it.  The Thai ad will get the “irrelevant” glaze-over.

Some advertisers argue that you could all of a sudden say, “Yeah, I’ll have Thai instead!”  But the likelihood is so low that it’s not worth it.  Too much of this “stretch” advertising can actually hurt you: garnering lots of impressions and no clicks can quickly damage your quality score. (And you don’t want a bad quality score!)

However, there are situations where “stretch” advertising is necessary.  Two typical examples are:  1) a new type of product or offering; and, 2) out-maneuvering your competitors.

These are a smaller stretch, but require careful crafting in order to avoid the “irrelevant” glaze-over as the ad will not be what the searcher thinks he is looking for.  Here are some tips for successful “stretch” advertising:

Do not use a “generic” ad. We all have them – an ad that includes your brand, its key benefits and a call to action.  This ad is guaranteed to get the glaze-over.  Instead:

First, your ad must be specific to the search term and very catchy.  Feed on your competitor’s weakness; use the keywords in your ad to get yourself bolded; ask questions that prompt further reading.

Second, once you’ve avoided the glaze-over, your ad needs to justify a click.  Why are you better?  What reward awaits the searcher that clicks on your ad?  Very strong draws are required here – much stronger than your typical call to action.

Do not use a “generic” landing page. Using your home page as your landing page is always a bad idea and in this case, it’s absolute death.  Your landing page is your only chance to seal the deal and persuade the searcher you are worth a try.  Think about where the user is coming from and clearly articulate your benefit in those terms.    Keeping with the theme of your ad a big catchy headline, short bullets and “offer completion steps” on the same page are good starting points.

Include some form of reward or guarantee in your offer.  You are asking someone to divert from their original intention, so incentivize them.  Do they get something for free?  Receive a discount?  Get some form of guarantee?  Why should they bother?

Make yourself sticky. Some of us (present company excluded) are a bit stubborn.  So even though the searcher might not change their mind on the spot, provide an easily memorable way for them to come back and find you.  Try a catchy brand name or URL and make sure you rank #1 in the natural search results for your persuasion taglines.

Just to reiterate, you should only use such tactics when absolutely necessary, and where you think you have a real chance at success. If you’re not careful, your quality score may take a fatal hit.

MarketingProfs is always a great resource for information, education and networking.  I also subscribe to their email newsletters, which are uniformly terrific.  In this morning’s email marketing newsletter, they point to a blog post in CopyBlogger by Brian Clark called “Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques” that I thought would be helpful to Web marketers everywhere.

He points out that all marketers — from novices to pros — are interested in attracting the attention of their target audiences, drawing them in and convincing them to buy a product or service.  There are a number of ways to do this, of course, including strong graphics, use of video and the like, but compelling copy is almost always at the core of any good marketing strategy.  Check out Brian’s blog post for his detailed advice, but here are his high-level tips for writing effective copy:

Repetition

Reasons Why

Consistency

Social Proof

Comparisons

Agitate and Solve

Prognosticate

Go Tribal

Address Objections

Story Telling

I’ve been a marketer for more than 20 years and have used all of these techniques, so I know them to be effective.  Use one or more of these when writing copy for your newsletter, PPC ads, landing pages or other marketing devices and you’ll see better success.

ChaiSpice Cupcake, courtesy Just Desserts

Even You Can Write Great Ad Copy

A key stumbling block for many novice Web marketers is the task of writing compelling ad copy for a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign on Google’s AdSense, Yahoo’s Search Marketing or Microsoft’s adCenter. Web site owners and novice marketers who are not natural copywriters will find it difficult to zero in on the most right collection of words that inspire people to click on a link.

The good news? No one knows your site, your company or your products as well as you do.

Put that unique knowledge to work when following these few simple tips for creating excellent PPC campaign ad copy:

First, be sure you know the character limits for the advertising platform. Typically the title (the first line in the ad) is limited to 25 characters.  Ad copy, including the URL, is limited to 70 characters in most instances.

Second, when writing the title, be sure the keywords you’ve bid on are included. For instance, if you bid on the term “cupcakes”, that same word should be in your ad title.  The title is very often the most important element of the whole ad and will dramatically impact click-through rates (CTR).  Depending upon the ad platform, you can typically opt to dynamically place a keyword you’ve bid on into a standard headline (for instance, “cupcakes” OR “birthday cakes” OR “brownies” would automatically be inserted to a standard headlines such as: “<KEYWORD> baked fresh-to-order daily”).

Third, using clear, easy-to-understand language (i.e. whole sentences), briefly state what makes you different. If it’s the lowest prices, get that into the headline or body copy.  If you make your cupcakes using only fresh, organic ingredients, then say so! If you’ve won an award for customer service, crow about it.  No matter what business you’re in, it’s very likely you have competitors, so be sure to succinctly state: “this is what makes me different!”

One last piece of advice: writing effective PPC ad copy is inherently a trial-and-error process.  It’s best to try a number of ideas and see which perform best for you over time.  You’ll be amazed at how much you learn about your customers in the process.  All of which is to say: have patience.  Few people get this right on the first go.  Keep trying. Keep refining.  You’ll get the hang of it and before you know it, you’ll be a pro!

One more piece of advice that’s also a small plug: try Yield Software’s Web Marketing Suite. We’ve automated the whole process of PPC campaign management and provide a complete, easy and profitable way for you to test your ad copy and get at the results you’re looking for.  We have a free 30-day trial, so give us a try—nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

(Oh: and about that cupcake… Just Desserts is a famous bakery and an old favorite of those of us who live in San Francisco — check them out online and order yourself some cupcakes!  It’ll help to inspire your copy writing, guaranteed.)

For more information on our Yield Web Marketing Suite, go here.

For more of our blog series on Web Marketing 101, go here.

The good news? No one knows your site, your company or your products as well as you do.

Put that unique knowledge to work when following these few simple tips for creating excellent PPC campaign ad copy.

Be sure you know the character limits for the advertising platform. Typically the title (the first line in the ad) is limited to 25 characters.  Ad copy, including the URL, is limited to 70 characters in most instances.

When writing the title, be sure the keywords you’ve bid on are included. For instance, if you bid on the term “cupcakes”, that same word should be in your ad title.  The title is very often the most important element of the whole ad and will dramatically impact click-through rates (CTR).  Depending upon the ad platform, you can typically opt to dynamically place a keyword you’ve bid on into a standard headline (for instance, “cupcakes” OR “birthday cakes” OR “brownies” would automatically be inserted to a standard headlines such as: “KEYWORD baked fresh-to-order daily”).

Using clear, easy-to-understand language (i.e. whole sentences), briefly state what makes you different. If it’s the lowest prices, get that into the headline or body copy.  If you make your cupcakes using only fresh, organic ingredients, then say so! If you’ve won an award for customer service, crow about it.  No matter what business you’re in, it’s very likely you have competitors, so be sure to succinctly state: “this is what makes me different!”

One last piece of advice: writing effective PPC ad copy is inherently a trial-and-error process.  It’s best to try a number of ideas and see which perform best for you over time.  You’ll be amazed at how much you learn about your customers in the process.  All of which is to say: have patience.  Few people get this right on the first go.  Keep trying. Keep refining.  You’ll get the hang of it and before you know it, you’ll be a pro!

Our Small Plug Division has one more piece of advice: try Yield Software’s Web Marketing Suite. We’ve automated the whole process of PPC campaign management and make it fast, easy and profitable for you to test your ad copy and get at the results you’re looking for.  We have a free thirty-day trial, so give us a try—nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

For more information on our Yield Web Marketing Suite, go here.

For more of our blog series on Web Marketing 101, go here.