Write Winning Adwords

This is something I discovered the hard way…

You need to pay attention to the quality score of your keywords. Google, in their quest to deliver relevant content to searchers, rates every keyword for relevance. How they do this is by comparing the keyword to the ad to the landing page. All three have to have common elements in order to receive a high quality score.

How does Google reward higher quality scores?

There are two main ways you’re rewarded for a high quality score:

1. The most relevant ads receive a lower bid price. That means you pay less for clicks than someone who doesn’t take the time to ensure their ads, keywords and landing pages are relevant. For instance, in one market I compete in, the average first page cost per click is $1.48. But, through a process of refining my ads, narrowing my keywords and tweaking my landing page, I am only paying $0.64 per click (on average). By continuing to refine my process, I expect my CPC price to drop more over the next two weeks.
2. The quality score also affects your Average ad position. This is the spot Google shows your ad on the search result page. Obviously, the higher on the page your ad is, the more people notice it. And that can result in higher click through rates and ultimately more profits for you.

Keeping quality score in mind when you do your keyword research, write your ads and landing page will pay off for you in the long run.

In getting ready to write a series of ads, I try to get as much data on the characteristics of a TYPICAL prospect. If it’s a market I’m familiar with, this is fairly easy. I can look at what worked for them in the past and use the same ideas.

If it’s a market I don’t know much about, I need to dig into their psyche a little bit. One way I do this is by knowing a little bit about human nature and different personality types. I like the system that breaks the different types into colors because it’s easier for me to remember.

For instance, GOLD personalities are organized, neat and tidy. They tend to think in spreadsheets and flowcharts. Sell to them using logic and reason. Appeal to their need for order in the world.

The complete opposites are the ORANGE personalities. Totally emotion driven, they pursue fun first. Use emotional appeals and they will respond.

Many people have BLUE personalities. These are the social people who are relationship driven. Empathy is big with these folks. They tend to buy on emotion, but look more to have a relationship with the marketer, or buy products that enhance their relationships.

The final type we look at are the GREEN personalities. These are the analytical types. They gather a lot of information before making a decision. Once they do decide, they are extremely loyal.

How do we write to all these different personality types in one little 95 character ad?

Here is a little thing I learned from Daniel Levis:

To sell to John Q. Public, sell to the pessimistic, externally driven closed-minded victim mentality. As H.L. Mencken once said, “No one in this world has ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”

I am an affiliate in a highly competitive niche. It’s one that attracts some very big names who have much deeper pockets than I do. Yet, I pay less than half per click than they do, and I sit in ad position #2. And am ready to raise my ad spend to boost traffic and make some serious money.

Here are the details…

The affiliate program had a list of suggested ads. I chose the one which I thought would have the highest response and wrote an ad based on my own system. After four days, it was clear which ad was winning the click-through battle.

The one I wrote.

At the same time, I was reducing my cost per click and maintaining my ad position. And reduced my keyword list from 30 to 3 high performing keywords.

Then I made one change that doubled my CTR.

I eliminated the poor performing ad that was written by the affiliate program manager and tested a second ad I wrote against the first. The interesting thing is I just moved two words. I recognized the fact that my three keywords all had one thing in common. And that one thing was not in the headline of my ad.

Sure, the keyword was in the body copy – a couple times. But I was using a different term that meant the same thing in the headline. Yet even with this oversight, the ad was performing at 7.21% CTR.

When I changed that ONE WORD, and tested against the first ad, the new ad clicks through at 16.94%.

Needless to say, I was stunned at the difference. But not surprised. Paying attention to the details in your Adwords ads can double – or even more – your clickthrough rates.

Before you even think about writing your ad, you need to spend time thinking about WHO you’re writing to. This requires understanding your product and who it appeals to. It also means taking some time to think about the person who would buy your product and what they are searching for. After all, they took the time to turn on their computer, open up a browser and type in a search query.

Let’s look at an example. If you had a product for babies, you obviously would not write your ads for infants. First, they don’t read, but more importantly… they don’t make buying decisions! But their mothers do. Or their grandmothers.

Now here is where it gets interesting. You would use different words in your ads for mothers than you would for grandmothers. To appeal to a mother, you might use terms like “nurture,” “care for,” or “protect.”

Whereas with grandmothers, words such as “treat,” or “spoil” are more likely to trigger the buying emotion.

That’s why it’s of utmost importance you know your audience. And why your first step should be to know who you are targeting.

I like to create small character studies of the one person I’m writing my ad for.

“Linda is unhappy about her weight. She’s tried to lose weight before, without success. It’s affecting her social life because she doesn’t want to go out for fear of being ridiculed. She’s seen other people lose weight, so she knows it’s possible if she can find the right program.”

Notice that I gave her a name and some emotional characteristics to help me get a clear picture of who she is, what her problem is and how to reach her.

Taking the time to do this one step – preferably on paper – will make writing your ads much easier!