First impressions matter and your pay-per-click (PPC) headlines are no different. Start off on strong footing with these nine headline hacks for writing successful ads.
1. Maximize Your Real Estate
Communicating your business or product can be difficult in just a few words, so make every headline count. This applies to the ad copy, as well. By maximizing your ad space with longer, more meaningful headlines, descriptions, and path fields, youโll occupy more territory in the search engine results page (SERP).
Use this chart below as a reference when planning your own ad copy.
2. Speak Their Language
The more closely your headline matches the searcherโs query, the more likely they are to click your ad. Create compelling ads that are relevant to their keywords and the landing page theyโll be clicking to. As a bonus, the keywords used in the search are bolded in the ad copy, making them more eye catching.
But donโt go overboard โ you can get disapproved for keyword spamming. Place keywords naturally in your ads, and youโll start seeing better results.
3. Empower Action
If youโre seeing high clickthrough rates, but low conversions, be direct in your ads and tell the searcher exactly what you want them to do when they click to your landing page. Clear calls to action (CTAs) include โlearn more,โ โbuy now,โ or โcall to make an appointment.โ
Empower your potential clients to take a desired action and follow through with your landing page. CTAs help push prospects further along the sales funnel, and are more likely to result in stronger leads and higher conversion rates.
4. Highlight Your USP
Focus on the unique selling propositions (USPs) that make your company stand out from the competition. Why should a customer buy from you versus another?
Do you offer a โfree trial,โ โ24/7 customer support,โ or is your company โ100% organic?โ
You can even take this one step further by presenting your business as a solution to a relatable problem. At the end of the day, it all boils down to what you can do for the client that others canโt.
5. Use Numbers
In a SERP full of letters, be a number. Prices, percentages, and dates really pop through all the noise and allow the brain to scan information quickly โ drawing eyes to your ad first!
Which of the two above ads stand out to you?
Numbers also give users definitive data upfront to build trust and authority, letting your buyers know exactly what theyโll get before even landing on your website.
6. Weed Out Unqualified Clicks
Say youโre advertising a specialty service that only runs on weekends, or an expensive, higher-quality product. Naturally, youโll want to avoid paying for clicks that will never convert. By including descriptive qualifiers like โluxury service,โ โstarting at $99.95,โ or โevery Saturday & Sunday,โ you can help to turn away those unqualified leads before they click your ad.
โItalian Wool, Made in Europeโ and โluxurious fabricsโ very clearly give the impression that these menโs suits are not cheap. To drive that message further, they list a starting price in their price extension.
7. Offer an Incentive
Nothing is more attractive to a potential buyer than savings. Use current sales in your headlines, descriptions, and ad extensions.
Further entice your buyers to convert or forever be left in FOMO โ fear of missing out โ purgatory by using phrases like โbuy now,โ โsale ends 3/1,โ or โfree gift while supplies last.โ
8. Be Authentic
Stick to promotions, sales, and promises your business can back up. Nothing hurts your brandโs integrity more than advertising misleading or false claims.
Promoting โfree shippingโ in your ads is a great incentive, but when your prospect gets to your site and realizes they have to spend $150 to qualifyโฆ. Well, they might turn to a trusted site like Amazon, known for free shipping with no strings attached.
Donโt waste your limited ad space โ instead highlight your unique selling points.
9. Test, Test, and Test!
The only constant is change. Never forget to test variants of your ads to find what works best for your business today.
Try A/B testing, which both Google Ads and Microsoft Bing Ads offer with their Experiments programs. Apply the changes to your current campaigns if youโre happy with the results, or simply end the experiment with no permanent repercussions.
Bonus tip: Donโt forget to review your ads for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. Itโs easy to let an apostrophe slip, or forget about linguistic and cultural differences when writing international ads (such as โharborโ in the U.S. versus โharbourโ in Canada and Europe).
If you canโt even spell correctly in your ads, prospective customers may wonder what other mistakes youโll make when doing business with you.