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Best Practice For Writing Effective Text For Google Ads

by | Apr 27, 2021 | Google Ads

Google Ads is one of the most powerful advertising tools ever created. It is where businesses are given the opportunity to convert millions of search users into potential customers and leads. If you’re having a hard time imagining how massive Google Ads can be, know that in a single second, the average number of searches in Google is processed at 40,000 search queries. That’s equivalent to 3.5 billion opportunities for a wide range of businesses all over the internet!
Google Ads for business success

Google Ads can be the key to your business success.

  Effective Google Ads can be the key to your business’s success. But when it comes to crafting ad copy, it can get tricky thinking of ways to set your brand apart. There are only a limited number of characters allowed in an ad. Aside from making sure that you capture the essence of your brand in order to rise above the thousands of other ads on Google, you also need to ensure that your copy for pay-per-click (PPC) ads is descriptive and high-converting. In general, writing powerful copy can be achieved by capturing a unique visitor experience from the search, to the ad, and ultimately to your landing page. This involves both the science and art of catching the user’s eye, articulating what service you can provide, and convincing people to click on the actual text ad. Successful Google Ads are made up of the right message and the right delivery. All though there is no cheat sheet in creating the perfect ad, there are best practices to consider in crafting successful text for ad copy:  

1. Strive For Genuineness

Set your brand apart by connecting to people instead of simply treating Google Ads as a form of business interaction. This usually depends on what you offer and the market you’re catering to. Since you are the expert at your business, you have to take on the responsibility of finding and highlighting what connects you to your target market. In general, here are some tips that you can use to make your ad more genuine:

Address Your Audience

Aim to use the words “you” and “your” in your ads. This can make it seem like the ad was created to talk to the readers themselves, making the process more personal and relatable. Using second-person pronouns is also a great way to make the readers feel more important. By letting them know that they are valued in your business, it makes it easier to build a healthy relationship with the users.

Speak To The Users’ Needs

Knowing what your target market wants is key in encouraging them to click on your ad. It’s important to remember that when someone searches for a service online, it is usually because they’re in need of services, not because they want to learn about the businesses that offer it. So try to hold back on full-out information about you and your company. Rather, craft your message with their problem (and your solution) in mind.  

2. Make The Ad Copy Compelling

There’s nothing worse than a PPC ad that’s dull. A user can just easily skip your ad even when they’re just a few words in. Even if your ad copy is well thought out and decently written, a user wouldn’t click on it if they don’t feel intrigued to do so.  This is where emotional triggers can be used to your advantage. Making your audience feel something by containing emotions in your ad is a fantastic way to catch their eye and their clicks!
Google Ads with emotional triggers

Use emotional triggers in your Google Ads.

Emotional Triggers To Use In Google Text Ads

Negative emotions are powerful stimuli that you can easily draw on. Since there is a psychological force in people to avoid pain, you can leverage the audience’s anxiety, anger, or fear. On the other hand, positive feelings can also be used for ad copy by focusing on hope, relief, or the feeling of being admired by others. These are also good emotions to stir up to get more clicks. One of the most effective human motivations to work on in making an ad more compelling is loss aversion. This is a psychological force that motivates people through the idea of losing out on something. FOMO or the fear of missing out can be injected into your ad by setting a simple countdown timer within your text ads. By using this tactic, you can get the competitive edge you need to drive up your conversion and click-through rates (CTR).

3. Make The Best Of What You Have In Text Ads

Easily one of the simplest yet best practices in writing text for Google Ads is making sure that you’ve used the platform to its full capabilities. To maximise your text ads’ potential, here are quick tips to help you out:

Focus On Your Headline

Your headline is arguably the most important factor in crafting text ads. Headlines (particularly, the first headline) determine whether or not the audience will continue to read the rest of your ad or not. This means that the quality of your headlines is also responsible for how well your ad will perform.

Keep Your Character Limits In Mind

Longer and bigger headlines should increase your click-through rate (CTR) since it makes it easier to see with more clickable space. You only have a total of 300 characters in Google Ads, so you have to make sure that you can pack as much information as you need into the ads.

Take Advantage Of The Display URL and Ad Extensions

Making the best of your text ad includes utilising the display URL and ad extensions to drive more clicks.  The purpose of the display URL is to give people an idea of the type of page they’ll be taken to. This means that display URL’s aren’t necessarily the same as the URL’s of the landing pages. How do you use this to your advantage? Make sure that you include the search keyword in the URL for better results. On the other hand, ad extensions are fantastic snippets that provide additional space for you to add more information that can potentially sway more potential leads. There are no drawbacks to using ad extensions. In fact, properly-utilised extensions can even drive up your Quality Score.  

4. Focus On What Makes Your Brand Unique

The most important task in order to make ad copy successful is setting it apart from your competitors. What better way to do that than highlighting what makes your brand competitive? Since you don’t have much space in text ads to really get into what makes your brand unique, aim to compress the essence of it to a small yet powerful bit in order to encourage clicks. One thing’s for sure, your messaging should reflect your brand.
Set your copy apart from competitors

Be unique, set your Google Ads copy apart from competitors.

Prices, Promotions, And Exclusives In Text Ads

Use discounts, sales, and promotions as your competitive edge if you think that you can do so. These are the sort of information that can help users decide easier when they search through ads. At the same time, numbers are known to draw eyes in a text. They are easy to understand and make your copy appear more credible. If there’s one tip you should remember in including numbers for ads, it’s to be as specific as you can be. Specific numbers instead of rounded numbers appear more credible and believable for people.  

5. Use Powerful Calls To Action

Don’t leave your audience without directions. Even when you get your ad engaging enough that they read through all of it, you can’t drive leads if they aren’t sure what to do next. Marketing is instantaneous, everything happens literally with a click. Your ad should immediately include what to do next in order to bring in customers, your call to action.

Remember “CUPS”

To write successful calls to action, you should remember the acronym CUPS: clear, unique, powerful, and specific. The language that you use for your call to action is important in order to increase engagement. Don’t go for generic and overused clichés. Instead, use clear and strong language to give your audience the sense of urgency needed to click on your ads.  

6. Keep Your Keywords In Mind

It will be difficult for your text ads to amount to much if they are not relevant. Including at least one of your keywords in your ads ensures that it is in line with what search users want. Although it is important to make text ads as relevant as possible, don’t bombard your ad text if it doesn’t match your creative messaging.  

7. Bring Your Landing Page Up To Par

Okay, you’ve got someone to click on your ad! It’s time to drive in the conversions and customers by bringing it home on your landing page. Getting the click doesn’t ensure that they will push through, so it’s important to match your landing page to your ad to maintain user engagement. One thing to really focus on is making sure that people can find what they expect on your landing page. This means any promotions, product, or service found on your text ad can easily be found on your landing page as well. If the user doesn’t feel like the ad and landing page is going down the same path, they could bounce. A strong accompanying land page includes the keyword or keywords in the original search results inquiry. At the same time, it must be structured in a way that is easy to navigate.  

8. Treat Your Mobile Audience Well

Advertisers have realised how massive the mobile audience is when it comes to Google Ads. Over half of all Google searches are done on mobile devices. This urges us to write and create text ads that can capture the attention of people across mobile, tablet, and desktop. If you can take it to the next level, consider creating ads that are devoted to the mobile devices that will lead to the mobile version of your landing page. Text ads could appear differently on mobile devices so it’s important to test beforehand.

The Next Steps

Those are the best practices to remember to write successful ad text on Google! Hopefully, these tips can help you out in your next campaigns. To get the most out of your Google Ads, don’t hesitate to test and optimise your text ad as much as you can to get the best results. You can do this by writing different messages for around three to four ads per ad group to see what copy are the best-performing.
Pushing the limits with Google Ads

Pushing the limits with Google Ads

Pushing The Limit In Digital Marketing

Invest in a Google Ads Management service to give your business the attention it needs to grow to its full potential. An effective digital marketing company like 5tales uses professional expertise in the industry to find the right strategies on Google that help bring in massive growth in CTR and sales. Find out how much your campaigns can achieve with our help! Contact us today to learn more about our services.  

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