First and foremost, when you write ads “one size fits all” does not apply. Why not? Let’s take a look at this example. When I search for “Panasonic televisions” I see these ads.

Notice that when my search query is mentioned in the ad, the term is bolded and immediately attracts my attention. I notice the third and forth ads and read these first. At this point, I’ve ignored ads one and two. They do not address my query. In fact, the first ad is not even advertising the brand for which I searched! Ads three and four both advertise Panasonic televisions, but ad four has flip-flopped my query. Ad three seems most relevant to my search and has a good message (low prices, fast shipping, and secure checkout). Even though Walmart and AllAmericanDirect earned the first and second spots in the auction, it’s ad three that I am going to click. The ad that the user sees must not only contain the search query, but the term must make sense in the context of the message.

Aside from the search query showing up at least once in the ad (multiple occurrences are even better) here are some other techniques to make sure your ads stand out.

Strong Call to Action

What do you want the user to do once the ad is clicked? You need to provide the next step through the call to action. Whether it’s to purchase a specific product, view a selection, or download a whitepaper, the call to action needs to be prevalent. Take a look at these two ads:

The first call to action is to “Start your day with Bosch” while the second ad’s call to action is “Order Now!” The first ad gives me a tag line while the second ad tells me exactly what I should do.

Product Deals

Any messaging to make your ad stand out from the competition is beneficial. In BuyDig’s television ad, low prices, fast shipping, and secure checkout are offered. The other ads contain some form of value-added service, but BuyDig clearly offers the user greater incentives to click. A product deal and call to action can also be combined with messaging like “Free shipping when you purchase online.”

Keywords in the Display URL

The display URL must contain the domain of the landing page that the user will go to, but it can also contain your targeted keywords. Using the BuyDig example:

You can see that “PanasonicHDTVs” is in the display URL and the terms “Panasonic” and “TV” are bolded. That’s good keyword practice, but when you actually type this URL in it leads to an error page as the URL does not exist. Be sure to set up a 301 redirect so users who enter a nonexistent URL will be taken to the right page.

Conclusion

The most important factor to consider when writing text ads is to make sure the user search query is within the ads’ messaging. I cannot emphasize this enough. Every single ad that a user sees should contain at least one bolded term. The other tactics are necessary for effective ad copy, but should play off of the search query being present. When all of these tactics are in sync, you should see your CTR increase.

Several factors go into creating a good landing page, none of which should be ignored.  These techniques will determine how many of your clicks turn into conversions.  Conversion rate, as I have previously written about, is a tier one success indicator of how well your campaign is doing.  Give your users an effective landing page, and you should see your conversion rates increase.

I am going to discuss the technique that has had the greatest impact on conversion rates in my campaigns.

Clear Messaging

Your landing pages need to clearly state what you want the user to do.  Never assume that the user knows what to do.  Make the conversion process as easy and forthright as possible.

Let’s take an example.  If I do a search for “Rawlings baseball gloves,” I see these ads:

Both ads advertise Rawlings baseball gloves, but which company has the better landing page?  The first ad leads to a page that immediately shows Rawlings baseball gloves:

The second ad leads to the company’s homepage, where customers are forced to search for the product they’re ready to buy.  The second ad will most likely lead to a bounce, because it doesn’t take the user to a relevant page.  By contrast the first ad takes the user right to the product, capturing the user right away and increasing the chance of a purchase.

Another example of a landing page honed for lead generation is one that contains a specific download and a form:

This page combines the registration form and the download function.  Instead of working through two different screens, the user can fill out the form and read the content on the same page.

Here are some other techniques that I have found to improve conversion rates.

Length of Form

If you ask a user to complete a form, be careful not to ask for too much information.  Too often companies ask for everything within this first interaction.  Users see the length of the form and are scared away.  Even if many of the fields are optional, a user’s first instinct is to leave because the form is too long. By asking for less, you improve your chances of converting that user.  Further user information can be gathered by a follow up email or phone call.

Appropriate Tabbing Structure

When filling out the form the user should be able to hit the tab key to go to the next field.  It can be frustrating (and a bit annoying) to use the mouse to get to the next field.

Privacy Policy

Let’s face it, the internet is not the safest place in the world.  Users are weary of giving out their contact information.  For this reason you should include some sort of privacy statement on your landing page.  Whether it be a link to the site privacy policy or a message that assures your users their information will be kept confidential, this item is a must have.

Browser Compatibility and Screen Resolution

Ideally your landing pages should be compatible with all browsers, even the obscure ones.  At a minimum, though, make sure the pages are compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.  These pages should also be compatible with the different versions of these browsers.

Screen resolution is another important factor.  Your key messages and calls to action should appear “above the fold” even in lower resolutions.  Above the fold means the items in your landing page that users do not need to scroll down to see.  Users have several other options and are not going to wait around for you to make your point.

Conclusion

The most important advice is to make sure what you say in an ad is what the user sees on the landing page.  Ultimately you are throwing money away if you are not giving your customers the right user experience.

Your budget plays a huge role in how much you are willing to bid, but other factors come into play as well. Among these are the importance of each targeted keyword to your campaign, the way the ad copy is written, and the landing page of each ad. Here’s a look at each of these factors in greater detail:

Stretch Your Keywords and Your Budget: How much money you have for the campaign ultimately determines how much you can bid per keyword. If it takes a bid of $15 for your ad to show up within the top three positions and your monthly budget is only $200, you have a problem. Unfortunately, the advertisers with the most money are going to pay top dollar to get the first listings for their most popular keywords. However, the more terms you have in your keyword, the less expensive it is generally going to be. For example, the term “baseball bats” might cost $10 to be within the top three positions, but the term “wooden baseball bats” might only cost $6 because it is less competitive. Shorter terms might bring more clicks, but longer, more tailored terms will bring better qualified traffic.

Use Strategic Keywords: Campaigns can have thousands of keywords, but not all hold equal weight. To determine which keywords you should bid on, you must assess your business objectives. For example: you own a sports shop and your top-selling product, baseball gloves, account for 75% of your revenue. The other 25% of your revenue comes from baseballs and baseball bats. Knowing these metrics allows you to put more of your budget toward your most lucrative products, in this case being the baseball gloves. So for “baseball glove” related terms, you bid to be within the top three positions, but for other terms, you make competitive bids but are not as concerned if they show up lower in the rankings.

Write Effective Ad Copy: Being within the top three positions of the sponsored links is good, but ultimately meaningless if your ad does not have the targeted user search query and a strong call to action. Every ad should mention the targeted keyword at least twice within the message: once within the headline and once within the description. Every ad should also include a call to action. What do you want the user to do once he/she gets to your destination page? This action should be clearly spelled out. Using the example “wooden baseball bats” as the search query, here is an ad that just uses the generic “baseball bats” keyword and does not have a call to action:

This ad, however, specifically targets “wooden baseball bats” and has a defined call to action:

The second ad is much more likely to be clicked because the user sees his/her search query and there is a clear call to action.

Tailor Your Landing Page: Not to be forgotten is the landing page that you are sending the user to once the ad is clicked. An ideal landing page should contain the targeted keyword and be a continuation of the ad. Using “wooden baseball bats” again, the call to action for this ad is to “browse the selection”. The landing page should allow the user to browse the selection of wooden baseball bats that the company offers. If the landing page does not immediately allow the user to take this course of action, it will most likely lead to a bounce, meaning the user will leave the site. Clearly getting that user to just click on your ad is not enough if your goal is to generate leads.

In the end, you must diagnose these four factors before determining your keyword bids. It is beneficial to show up near the top of the sponsored listings, but if you do not have clear conversion funnels and goals established for your ad, you are ultimately wasting your money.

• Vary the letter cases
• Try different calls to action (CTA)
• Add more keywords throughout the campaign
• Test different variations of landing pages

One of the first things I always test is different letter cases within the ad copy. Check out these ads with two different cases:

vs.

I have seen the same ad with varying cases have drastically different results whether that be through higher click-thru-rates (CTR) or conversion rates. Additionally, testing dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) better helps to match search queries to the ads. Trying different calls to action is good to test as well:

There are literally hundreds of permutations of ads you can write to contain different cases and punctuation, varying ad copy, and any other ideas you may think of.

There is always the opportunity to add more keywords to your campaign. You can expand the reach of your ads by testing terms in different match types. For example, if you are only bidding on the exact match of “designer coffee tables” you could also try it in phrase and broad match. You can take advantage of many free keyword expansion tools and can comb your site for new keywords. There are even tools that will make permutations of your keywords.

Testing different variations of your landing page(s) is always a good idea. Whether you do an A/B test or a multivariate test, play around with items on the page. You can tweak the content and shorten the registration form among other things. Google AdWords Website Optimizer is a great tool for testing variations of landing pages.

Keep in mind to always be careful whenever you test new ideas. Some ideas might have great results, but adversely some might not. It is important to keep a close eye on your tests as to not waste precious budget.

I have only touched on a couple of items as there is so much within PPC to test that you should never become complacent with your campaign. Remember, your campaign might be performing well, but it can always do better.

In any Pay-per-Click (PPC) campaign, it is important to decide whether or not you will be purchasing your company’s branded keywords. For example, a branded keyword would be “Dell,” whereas a non-branded keyword would be “desktop computer.” This issue often gets overlooked and, in the long run, can create a problem. There are both pros and cons to purchasing your branded keywords. In the end, the decision comes down to what the goals of the campaign are. Is the campaign meant to build brand awareness or to generate leads? Or is it meant for both? Whatever the decision, the purchasing of your company’s branded keywords needs to be addressed from the beginning.

Pros:

Branded keywords are inexpensive. In my experience managing PPC campaigns, very rarely have I seen branded terms that cost more than $0.25 to purchase. In fact, most programs have some form of budget optimizer that will bump the price down. You may receive 100 clicks on branded terms and only pay $10.00, an average of $0.10 a click.

Good for brand awareness. If the sole purpose of your campaign is to drive traffic to your site, paying for your branded keywords is a good idea. This concept holds especially true if your terms are not ranking well in the organic rankings. Instead of a user looking through the rankings, your ad is right at the top under the sponsored links. A brand awareness campaign will get your name out to the world at a cost-effective price.

Cons:

Irrelevant clicks. If the goal of your PPC campaign is to get leads, paying for branded keywords can be detrimental. Most users will click on the first listing they see for your company, whether that be organic or paid. Many of these users will not be interested in completing a conversion goal, but rather just want to get to your site. The best-case scenario is that the user is interested in what you offer, but would have gotten to your site anyway by clicking the organic ranking. So you end up paying for this traffic when you could have had it for free.

A drain on the budget. As discussed, most branded keywords are inexpensive, but nonetheless they do cost something. Paying for branded terms takes away budget from non-branded terms. The users searching for your non-branded terms are more likely to complete your conversion goal because they are directly searching for what you have to offer.

There is no clear answer as to whether or not you should bid for your branded keywords. All of the above factors must go into your decision. Sometimes there are even more factors at play. E-commerce sites tend to bid on their branded terms because of the fierce competition they often face with their resellers. The best way to make your decision is to test your PPC campaign with and without branded keywords. If you purchase branded keywords for a month and see many clicks, but few conversions, it might not be a good idea to continue. If over the next month your traffic stays relatively consistent with the branded terms off then you know your organic rankings are good and you do not need to buy these terms. Above all, you must always understand what the goal(s) of your campaign are.