Best Practices for Writing Google Ads Copy for PPC Success
Reading Time: 5 Mins | Written By: Luigi Macías
When it comes to running a successful Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign, the ad copy has a huge impact on the success of the ads. Creating catchy and well-structured Google Ads copy needs imagination, strategic planning, and a thorough insight into your target market. In this blog, we'll explore best practices for writing Google Ads copy that provides value to the user, while making your service or product attractive.
1. Understand The Copy Options
It is crucial that you have a clear strategy to achieve the goals. This also includes understanding the different ad types that Google offers, which can affect how the copy is built. Let’s review some of the most common Ad types:
Responsive Search Ad: Max 15 headlines of up to 30 characters each. Up to 4 descriptions with up to 90 characters each.
Responsive Display Ads: You can place up to 5 headlines with up to 30 characters each. Along with 5 descriptions with up to 90 characters each.
Video Ads: There are different types of video ads, such as Skippable In-Stream Ads, non-skippable In-Stream Ads, and Discovery video ads. However, most of them can place a headline of 15 - 25 characters and a call-to-action of 10 characters max.
Performance Max (PMax): One headline of up to15 characters, and up to 5 headlines of max 30 characters. Plus 1-5 long headlines, with up to 90 characters each. Up to 5 descriptions, with a max of 90 characters each.
Take this information into consideration when you are creating your strategy to write high quality copy for your ads, depending on the type of campaign you are using.
2. Understand Your Audience
Start by researching and understanding your audience, taking into account who they are and what matters to them, before you even write the first word. Consider their needs, their problems, and what can motivate them to make a commitment. Employ your buyer personas, data from customer feedback, and market research to customize the delivered promotional message to your target group.
Example: If you're targeting small business owners looking for accounting software, your ad could highlight ease of use and affordability. Emphasis on ease of use will meet the potential customer’s requirement for a solution that can be easily implemented without a steep learning curve.
Headline: "Affordable Accounting Software"
Description: "Manage your business finances effortlessly with our easy-to-use software. Start your free trial now."
To obtain a guide to understand your target audience, Google Analytics offers insights into user behavior and demographics.
3. Focus on Benefits, Not Features
Your ad copy should focus more on how your product or service benefits the user than just listing the features. Benefits should provide an answer to the questions, "What's in it for me?" and/or “How does it solve my problem?”, to ensure potential customers will resonate more strongly with the copy.
Example:
Headline: "Shop the Summer Sale - 50% Off"
Description: "Get discounts on your favorite premium summer essentials—available only for a limited time."
At this stage, you should also analyze your competitors' ad copy to gather inspiration and to take advantage of any potential gaps in their advertising. SEMrush and Google Ads Transparency can offer great insights into competitors' ad content. At this stage, you should also analyze your competitors' ad copy to
4. Use Action-Oriented Language
Users should be encouraged to act by employing powerful, action-oriented verbs in your ad copy. Expressions like "Get started," "Learn more," or "Buy now" create urgency and push the users to click on your ad. Your advertisement should always have a specific and powerful call-to-action that tells users what to do next. Including a sense of urgency into your CTA can be a big advantage in increasing your ad's effect. Statements like "Limited time offer," "Only a few spots left," or "Sale ends soon" that have the ability to urge customers to act right away will be more powerful. This can optimize your click-through rate and interaction rates, increasing the probability that a customer completes the desired action, such as a purchase, website visits, or contact.
Example:
Headline: "Get A Scholarship Today"
Description: "Join today and start learning from industry experts. Limited spots available."
5. Incorporate Keywords Strategically
Introduce your main keywords gradually to your digital ad copy. In doing so, you will contribute to increasing the relevance and quality score. However, it is important not to overuse keywords (known as keyword stuffing), which might make ads look unnatural and thus be less effective. From Google's perspective, the use of excessive keywords or irrelevant terms can also lower your ad's quality score, increase CPC, and, thus, lower your ad rankings. Ensure that keywords fit naturally and organically.
Example:
Headline: "Top Yoga Classes in Vancouver"
Description: "Find the best yoga studio near you. Sign up today for a free trial class."
There are different tools that can be used to identify the best keywords; for instance, Google Keyword Planner helps identify high-performing keywords relevant to your business. Additionally, Google Trends is another great tool that can provide great insights about what people are searching for around specific keywords.
6. Leverage Emotional Triggers
People generally make decisions based on what they feel; therefore, using emotional strategies (depending on your niche or category) could have a positive impact on your ad performance by forming a stronger connection with your audience. Emotions like fear of missing out, happiness, or trust can be powerful motivators.
Example:
Headline: "Secure Your Spot Now"
Description: "Don't miss out on connecting with industry leaders. Early bird tickets available now."
7. Test and Optimize Continuously
Running PPC advertising is not a set-and-forget job; it is crucial to keep working on the different aspects of the ad, such as the copy and keywords, and closely monitoring them to achieve positive outcomes. Regularly testing different versions of your ad copy to see which one performs best is imperative for continued success and growth of campaigns. For instance, A/B testing can help you compare and determine which headlines, descriptions, or calls-to-action are having a better impact on your target audience.
In this stage, you can use Google Ads Experiments, which allows you to test different ad variations and receive insights after a certain period so you can decide which copy performed best.
Conclusion
Writing Google Ads copy may seem simple from an outside perspective, doing it with the proper strategy and tools will have a massive impact on performance. By understanding your audience and product/service, and following the steps mentioned above, you can create compelling copy that drives ad results. Incorporate these best practices, leverage the right tools, and watch your PPC campaigns thrive.
