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Small Business PPC – Writing Ad Copy

June 16, 2009 By
adwords-ad-copy

While having the right keywords in your ad group is important, writing compelling ad copy is even more crucial so your ad stands out from the crowd and gets clicked. First, let’s discuss the basics:

  • Title – 25 characters
  • Line 1 – 35 characters
  • Line 2 – 35 characters
  • Display URL – 35 characters, must be the same root domain as the destination URL
  • Destination URL – 1024 characters, users don’t see this


Titles Are The Key

The title, though only 25 characters, is the most important. Since you chose keywords that followed a theme, you want to write a title that follows that theme. Ideally you also want your title to include your keywords because if the users search term is contained in your ad, Google will make those words bold, helping your ad to stand out. In the example above you’ll see the title is “I Mess With Texas T-shirt”. This ad is shown for searches on “mess with texas” and “texas t-shirt” where the keyword would be bolded.

Focus on Benefits in Line 1 & 2

You have a few more characters in Line 1 and Line 2, but you still need to be focused. Search users, whether explicitly or implicitly, are trying to determine which of the 10 organic and up to 10 paid links to click. You need to tell them exactly what they’ll get if they click on yours. Focus on the benefits of your product. For my t-shirts, the benefit is that you get to mess with Texas and you get to do it quickly because the shirts are in stock and I have fast shipping. Not to mention that 49 out of 50 states agree that Texas needs to be messed with.

Don’t Neglect the URLs

There are two different URL boxes. The first is the display URL that is shown with your ad. While the root domain must match the destination URL, you can fudge a bit for a little extra benefit. Say your landing page is www.mysite.com/contact.html. That would be an okay URL, but I suggest you spice up the display URL to say www.mysite.com/Keyword. Again, this will help your ad stand out by showing people that you actually have a page for their keyword (even though they just go to www.mysite.com/contact.html). Don’t be fooled into thinking that you just put your homepage URL in the display URL field.

Run 2 Ads at a Time

One last point. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS run at least 2 ads in each ad group. Use a little bit different title or different copy in Lines 1 and 2. Then you can compare the two ads later to determine which is working better.

Okay, you’re almost there. Now you have a keyword list and 2 ads written for your first ad group. Next we’ll show you how to take care of billing, budgets and bids.

Filed Under: AdWords, internet marketing, PPC, Small Business Tagged With: , ,

Small Business PPC – Keyword Research

June 4, 2009 By
keyword-tool

As a small business owner or employee, you’re always looking for ways to expand your business. Most likely you have a website and you’re heard about Pay-Per-Click(PPC) advertising on Google or Yahoo. You decide that it would be great if you could put your advertising in front of internet users right when they are searching for your product. But what are your potential customers searching for?

Do Some Keyword Research

The key is to find keywords that are related to your business AND that are being searched regularly. A great tool to find out how much your keywords are searched each month is the Google Keyword Tool. You can type in a few sample keywords that you think are related to your business, or, if you choose the 2nd radio button, you can put your own URL in the box and Google will tell you what keywords it thinks your website is related to.

As an example we’ll pretend I’m an Idaho florist, so I think it makes sense that people might be searching for “Idaho florists”. So I type it in.




And I get some results, but I want to see all the data Google has. I select Show All from the drop down:



And now we see some good information:


So What Does This Mean?

First we notice that there are over 2,000 local searches for idaho florists. That’s 67 potential customers every day. Then we notice that a lot of searches include the name of a city (ie rexburg idaho florist or nampa idaho florist). Hmm. We probably should look for cities close to my mom’s florist shop or this isn’t going to work. “Florists in Pocatello Idaho” only gets 12 searches/month, but someone I can help this person. Write this one down. Actually, what if we run the search for Pocatello florist instead?



As you can see, now I’ve found some terms that get more searches AND these are people looking for a florist in the area. BAM! Take some time and run a few of these searches. Write down the best terms because these are one of the primary ingredients for our small business PPC campaign.

Filed Under: AdWords, internet marketing, PPC, Small Business Tagged With: , , ,

Is PPC Ineffective for Small Businesses?

June 3, 2009 By

Whenever I see a blog post, article or book about PPC (usually Google AdWords) two facts are inevitably mentioned. First, PPC lets you advertise to millions of people right now and second, just $5 gets you started in the next few minutes. The idea is alluring, but is it just a siren’s song?

Why PPC May Not Be For You

PPC is a tool, and like most tools not everyone should use it. Just like you wouldn’t start your riding lawn mower, put it in gear and then jump off to go do the trimming you don’t want to start using PPC, set the budgets and then go do something else. Ask yourself a couple of simple questions:

  • Do I have the expertise to install the conversion tracking code?
  • Am I willing to monitor my account at least weekly?
  • Is there a simple page, with a clear call to action, on my website where I can direct this traffic?

If you can answer yes to all three of these questions I recommend you set up a Google AdWords account and get started. If you answered no to any of these questions, you will need help. Most internet marketing agencies offer PPC management services (the agency I work for, Vizad, can start you for as low as $250/month) and Google has a ton of resources in their AdWords Help Center.

This provides a good starting point to our discussion on PPC for the small business, but I will be spending the next couple weeks blogging about how small businesses can modify their strategy and tactics to compete with the big boys in the PPC game. Please subscribe to my RSS feed here so you don’t miss out.

Filed Under: AdWords, Google, internet marketing, PPC, Small Business Tagged With: , ,
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