Yesterday we began our discussion of the dual disciplines of successful Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing with an explanation of the mathematician side. Today we continue that discussion by looking at the artist side – the part of the process that involves creative writing. It’s not really so much “creative” writing as it is direct marketing style writing. The PPC ad writer has very limited space in which to persuade the reader of the ad to click and visit the advertiser’s web site. Writing the ad is actually the very opposite from a sales letter situation, where the top copywriters often flourish. The long-form sales letter is a forum that great copywriters love because they have all the room they want to draw the reader in, list lots of benefits (not features!), tell stories, and do everything they can to convince readers of the letter to visit. However, long-form copywriting experience comes in very handy when writing the copy for the destination web page. If they’ve clicked your ad link, then they have expressed some interest in what you have, so the destination web page is where you can use copywriting to convince the visitor to do business with you.
But as far as the ad itself, how do you use such limited space and so few words to compel the reader to click the ad? We’ve touched on PPC ad writing strategies in previous posts, but following is a summary of some of our tips to get you started:
- Use the search terms in your ad.
- Use a call to action.
- Write from the reader’s perspective.
- Use buzz words like “free” and “guaranteed”.
The first tip above is the most basic but perhaps the most important. You have to find the line between keyword/ad granularity and having a manageable number of ads. The more separate ads you have with few keywords for each ad, the more effective your campaign will be because the ads will more closely match the search terms. If you can use the exact search terms, or nearly exact, in the ad body, or even better in the head, then the more closely the ad will match what the person was looking for.
The second tip is a basic copywriting rule. Tell the reader what to do! The search engines may not allow you to use the words “Click here”, but you still need to use some similar kind of phrase to tell the reader that he needs to take some specific action: “Visit now”, “Buy now”, “Come see”, etc.
The third tip means that you use the word “you” and focus on the benefit to the user, as opposed to some kind of list of features. People do not buy features, they buy what those features will do for them – the benefits. Using the word “you” focuses the ad on the reader, so he knows that the ad is talking to him.
The fourth tip really gets into the “artist” area because this is where good writing really comes into play. There are certain words that get people’s attention, and “free” and “guaranteed” are high on the list. Two huge tools in the copywriter’s toolbox are giving away freebies – free reports, free samples, free memberships, etc. – and reversing the prospect’s risk. Risk reversal means that you guarantee your product or service so that the customer knows he can get his money back with no trouble – you take on the risk, not the customer.
Much of this discussion is based on copywriting principles that have been around for years, tweaked to apply to the online world of writing for a very small ad space. We cannot recommend enough studying copywriting from some of the masters, such as:
- Dan Kennedy
- Brian Keith Voiles
- Jay Abraham
- David Ogilvy
There are many more fine copywriters, but if you look into the work of the above men, it will set you on the road to learning what you need to learn to be a strong copywriter. And that’s how you tackle the “artist” side of the Pay-Per-Click equation.
If you need some help managing your Pay-Per-Click campaign, please call Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email info@workmedia.net.