Let’s say you are a B2B company selling computer software and your desired conversion is for visitors to download a whitepaper.  Your landing page contains a short description of the whitepaper, an image, and a form.  The headline above the form reads Download this Whitepaper, while the button to submit your information says Submit.  Upon filling out the form, visitors are taken to a thank you page with a link to the whitepaper.   Overall, this conversion process is straightforward, but how will you write your PPC text ads to entice visitors to download this whitepaper?  Take a look at these 3 ads, all pointing to the same landing page, but each using a different call to action.

Read the Free Whitepaper

I anticipate being taken to a page that contains the whitepaper.  I realize I will have to click another link to bring the whitepaper up, but my expectation is that I will immediately read the document that the ad has stated.  When I get to the page and see that I have to fill out a form to read the whitepaper I get frustrated and leave.  Though the call to action did not lie to me, it left out a part of the conversion process. That’s a weak link in your conversion path.

Download Free Whitepaper

This call to action is very similar to the previous one, however, it is slightly more accurate as the headline repeats the call to action in the ad.  The same issue exists, though, as my impression is I will be able to download the whitepaper without having to fill out a form.  Unfortunately, I do have to fill out the form so again, there’s a disconnect between expectation and reality, and another potential lost connection.

Sign Up for a Whitepaper

I click this ad knowing I will need to submit personal information in order to read this whitepaper.  The call to action and the subsequent landing page are in line with each other and there is no form of trickery.  I fill out the form and proceed to read the whitepaper.

Other Considerations

Several other factors could sway me for or against signing up for the whitepaper.  Perhaps I don’t mind filling out a form to download the whitepaper because the description on the landing page whets my appetite.  Or the form has too many fields, prompting me to leave the site, even though I knew I would have had to provide personal information.

As a PPC specialist, ad click-thru-rate (CTR) comes into play as well.  I would have to see if a certain call to action is showing me a higher or lower CTR than another; generally the higher the CTR the less you are going to have to pay per click.

Conclusion

The call to action should not only tell visitors what to do, but it should also be accurate.  If you want visitors to sign up to read a whitepaper, tell them so in your ad.  Remember that visitors want to know exactly what they are supposed to do.  As an advertiser, you are weeding out irrelevant clicks by making the call to action that much more specific.  Not only will you gain more conversions, you’ll save money on irrelevant clicks.

The call to action is your chance to tell potential visitors what you want them to do.  Make sure you are making an accurate statement.

Along with CTR, other factors come into play in creating higher quality scores, but in general, the more relevant Google deems the process to be from search query to landing page the better your quality scores will be.  So why do keywords still have poor quality scores, even when advertisers adhere to Google’s guidelines?

Simply put, without historical CTR data Google does not deem certain keywords relevant enough and will not show your ads:

Or your ads will still show, but your average cost-per-clicks (CPCs) are going to be higher because of the poor quality scores.  The higher your CPCs are the fewer clicks you will get for your budget.

Niche keywords mean poor quality scores

Advertisers in niche industries are often assigned poor quality scores because the keywords are too specific.  Since there aren’t many searches for these niche terms Google doesn’t deem them relevant and will penalize you with poor quality scores.

As my Google rep told me, a solution is to start bidding on broader terms.  For example, say your company sells a product that automates the payroll process in organizations with 100 or more employees.  The product isn’t cost effective for smaller organizations so you only want to target larger enterprises.  You may bid on keywords such as: enterprise payroll automation and payroll solutions for large organizations.  Since these terms are very specific and have low search volumes, Google is assigning them poor quality scores.  A broader keyword (supposedly with a better quality score) would be payroll automation programs.  Granted this term would probably bring you some qualified traffic, but it would most likely also bring you traffic that you don’t want.

I have a big problem with this mentality.  The whole point of bidding on highly specific keywords is to weed out irrelevant traffic.  You shouldn’t be punished with higher CPCs or less ad exposure because your keywords are too niche-focused.

What can you do?

In speaking with industry colleagues, David Szetela and Jo Stumpner, both agree that this issue is a flaw in the quality score algorithm.  Szetela says that niche keywords receive low quality scores initially, but will improve after enough historical CTR data is collected.  Unfortunately, it can take months for enough data to be collected.  Some companies cannot afford to wait this long.  Stumpner recommends changing your approach if your keywords aren’t working for you, such as delving into the Display Network.  This approach has worked for me in the past as I was able to put ads on highly niche sites.

It’s frustrating that being too niche-focused can actually hurt your campaign, but as my favorite football coach (Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots, of course) always says, “It is what it is”.  You must dig deeper and find other ways for your campaign to succeed.

How do you combat poor quality scores?

Be More Prominent

What is prominence? It’s anything you do to make your product or company stand out from the competition.  For example, speak to an award your product has won or a prestigious honor your company has received.  Most industries contain some sort of industry recognition, even if that means being listed as a top-10 company to work for, or being Better Business Bureau® (BBB) Accredited.  Using the latter in text ads has led my overall CTR to increase in more than one campaign.   You can also speak about your company in an elite manner:

Solve a Problem

I recently set up a campaign for a client whose product solved a specific information technology (IT) related problem.  The target audience was rather small, consisting of IT professionals who needed to solve this narrowly-defined problem.  I knew that the majority of user search queries would relate to a solution for the problem so I wrote the ads to address the issue.  I even asked an IT Director what messaging would lead him to click an ad.  Upon campaign activation, CTR bolted upward.

Use Numbers

I like numbers in a text ad because they break up the monotony of the results page.  Sure, users are going to be drawn to ads with their search queries because they will be bolded, but after this initial reaction why are they going to click your ad?  Numbers not only break up the text, but say a lot and add factual appeal.  Take a look at these ads:

The first ad tells me of a price reduction.  I immediately know that if I click this ad I will receive 25% off all red and blue widgets.  The second ad builds my trust in this company because it has been around since 1975.  I know the company must be doing something right to stay in business for so long.  Both of these ads contain my targeted keywords and a strong call to action, but they also advertise numbers that users will take note of.  Mentioning product prices in ads is good as well as long as your company has competitive prices.

It is important to test these three themes within your campaign and see what garners the highest CTR.  Depending on your industry one theme might end up working better than the others, but never lose sight of the goal: to make your PPC text ads stand out from the competition.

How do you make your ads stand out?

In my view, this metric represents the overall effectiveness of your PPC campaign. The click-through rate (CTR) measures how relevant your ads are to user search queries. The conversion rate tells you the percentage of visitors who complete your predefined goals once the ads are clicked. These are important metrics, but it may be time to consider conversions per impression (CPI) as well. Let’s take this example:

Of the 500 times my ad is seen (the “impression”), 20 searchers deem it the most relevant and click—a CTR of 4%.  Of these 20 visitors, 2 find my landing page or site meets their expectations and they complete my predefined goals, resulting in a conversion rate of 10%.

Individually, these metrics tell part of the story, but not the whole story. Measuring the success of this ad using the CPI metric, I find that 2 users convert out of the 500 times the ad is seen, thus leaving a CPI percentage of 0.4%.

So how might this metric come in handy?  Let’s use a timely example.  I search for “New Orleans Saints Super Bowl Merchandise” and see these ads:

Ad #1 receives:   2,000 impressions, 150 clicks, 15 conversions

CTR = 7.5%          Conversion Rate = 10%

Ad #2 receives:   2,500 impressions, 100 clicks, 25 conversions

CTR = 4%              Conversion Rate = 25%

Ad #1 gets more visitors to the site, but ad #2 proves to have the better post click experience.  Using our new metric, CPI for each is:

Ad #1:   0.75%
Ad #2:   1.00%

Ad #1 may have the better CTR because the offer of 15% off the purchase is more appealing than having to spend more than $99 to get free shipping. If someone is just looking for a $20 hat, the offer in the first ad is more beneficial.  However, once visitors get to each site, the conversion rate tells us that ad #2 does a better job of turning clicks into customers.  Perhaps the landing page of the second ad showcases more products than the first ad and has an easier user experience.  Ultimately ad #2 does a better job from the start of the search process to the completion of the conversion.  However, CTR and conversion rate are still important metrics as they break down the success of these ads.

I admit that I do not know what an ideal CPI percentage is (or if one is known).  I do know that this metric is gaining traction and needs to be considered by PPC managers.  I encourage your feedback about the importance of this metric and if/how you are working it into your campaign reporting.

The new feature I am going to discuss is Ad Sitelinks.  Similar to the sitelinks you see in an organic listing, the paid Sitelinks allow four additional links to show within your ad.  Take the example below:

Instead of only being able to click on one link, users now have the ability to click on one of five links that best suits their search.

Before Sitelinks was implemented, a search for “shop adidas shoes” would result in an ad like this:

For the most part, this is a very good ad because it includes my targeted keywords in all four lines of text and it has a good call to action.  The only problem is that the ad does not know what type of Adidas shoes I am searching for, as I could specifically be looking for men’s shoes, women’s shoes, kids’ shoes, etc.  To be safe, the destination URL takes me to the Adidas homepage.  One of the principles of PPC is that your ad should always take users to the most relevant page.  For instance, if I’m looking for men’s shoes, the homepage is not the most relevant page.  Unfortunately for this particular query, the AdWords system cannot decipher the true intention of my search.  You can A/B test landing pages and change the ad’s messaging to include all genders, but more often than not you will still run into the same problem.

Sitelinks gives your ad the ability to have five potential landing pages.  When I look at the ad using Sitelinks, I immediately click on men’s shoes and bypass the homepage altogether.  You always want to make the conversion process as easy for users as possible and eliminating that extra click certainly goes a long way.  In theory, Sitelinks will improve your click-thru-rate (CTR) because you now have five chances to get users’ clicks.  Normally there are roughly eleven ads per page, and thus eleven links for users to potentially click.  Your ad contains one of those links so you have a 1/11 chance of getting the click.  However, with Sitelinks the ratio now increases to five out of fifteen.  It’s true that paid search is not a lottery, but the more exposure your ads get can only help your campaign.

Though only select advertisers are able to use Sitelinks for the time being, it is a feature that’s sure to catch on.  Stay tuned!

First and foremost, when you write ads “one size fits all” does not apply. Why not? Let’s take a look at this example. When I search for “Panasonic televisions” I see these ads.

Notice that when my search query is mentioned in the ad, the term is bolded and immediately attracts my attention. I notice the third and forth ads and read these first. At this point, I’ve ignored ads one and two. They do not address my query. In fact, the first ad is not even advertising the brand for which I searched! Ads three and four both advertise Panasonic televisions, but ad four has flip-flopped my query. Ad three seems most relevant to my search and has a good message (low prices, fast shipping, and secure checkout). Even though Walmart and AllAmericanDirect earned the first and second spots in the auction, it’s ad three that I am going to click. The ad that the user sees must not only contain the search query, but the term must make sense in the context of the message.

Aside from the search query showing up at least once in the ad (multiple occurrences are even better) here are some other techniques to make sure your ads stand out.

Strong Call to Action

What do you want the user to do once the ad is clicked? You need to provide the next step through the call to action. Whether it’s to purchase a specific product, view a selection, or download a whitepaper, the call to action needs to be prevalent. Take a look at these two ads:

The first call to action is to “Start your day with Bosch” while the second ad’s call to action is “Order Now!” The first ad gives me a tag line while the second ad tells me exactly what I should do.

Product Deals

Any messaging to make your ad stand out from the competition is beneficial. In BuyDig’s television ad, low prices, fast shipping, and secure checkout are offered. The other ads contain some form of value-added service, but BuyDig clearly offers the user greater incentives to click. A product deal and call to action can also be combined with messaging like “Free shipping when you purchase online.”

Keywords in the Display URL

The display URL must contain the domain of the landing page that the user will go to, but it can also contain your targeted keywords. Using the BuyDig example:

You can see that “PanasonicHDTVs” is in the display URL and the terms “Panasonic” and “TV” are bolded. That’s good keyword practice, but when you actually type this URL in it leads to an error page as the URL does not exist. Be sure to set up a 301 redirect so users who enter a nonexistent URL will be taken to the right page.

Conclusion

The most important factor to consider when writing text ads is to make sure the user search query is within the ads’ messaging. I cannot emphasize this enough. Every single ad that a user sees should contain at least one bolded term. The other tactics are necessary for effective ad copy, but should play off of the search query being present. When all of these tactics are in sync, you should see your CTR increase.