How To Ace In Creating PPC Ad Copy
Chad Faith
Director of Content
Let’s say that your job is to optimize search advertising for companies in the e-commerce industry, your main task would be to increase the profits of said companies. This might not be as simple as it seems. Although it is impossible to control factors which affect profit such as your competitors’ business decisions, or the kind of advertisements that they put out, you actually do have control over your own.
As such, it is very important to optimize the text in your ads to reach out to more people. Knowing what to write for your ad copy helps to maximize the click-through rate (CTR) and the conversion rate (CVR). This can be done by increasing the relevance of your ads to your products as well as the needs of your audience, ultimately increasing the probability of higher profits. Do reach out to the SmartSites team for any help with online marketing or e-commerce development.
Understanding the Effects of Ad Copy on CVR and CTR
In the world of e-commerce, it is crucial to understand that although these two metrics are related, it doesn’t mean that an improvement in one will result in the same improvement in the other. Thus, you have to find out the type of content that can impact your CTR differently from your CVR.
A common mistake that novice ad writers make is by utilizing gimmicks. This includes the usage of clickbait. Clickbait titles typically feature headlines that are over-the-top and sensationalized. Although this helps to increase traffic and increases the chances of people clicking on your main site, it might be detrimental to businesses in the long run.
Aim to Increase User Engagement
Traffic is important but at the end of the day you want to increase user engagement. Furthermore, if your content or product does not match the hype that you built in your ad copy, you might risk damaging the name of the brand. Alternatively, you could utilize the tactic called dynamic keyword insertion (DKI). This helps to ensure that the specific keyword that aroused interest always appears inside your copy. For example:
Keyword: “Women’s red combat boots”
Headline 2: {KeyWord: Women’s Combat Boots}
As mentioned, if your landing page does not provide “red” combat boots for women stated in your ad, CTR will increase but CVR will be negatively affected. This is because users will choose to bounce off your site if their expectations are not met.
Know Your Audience Well
Ultimately, having good ad copy is useless if you do not understand your audience well enough. To drive up profit, it is important to know what your audience needs and wants, and craft PPC ad copy that is relevant to them.
As such, being specific and direct is often the best way to meet your audience’s needs. For example, if you are a retailer who sells umbrellas, there is a higher possibility that users will find your ad by searching for something like “umbrellas for women”, rather than queries such as “how can umbrellas help me to stay dry in the rain”.
Do not underestimate your audience because they are aware of the exact product that they want to buy. It would be beneficial to write ad copy that utilizes this assumption.