Web Marketing all-in-one for Dummies®

Chapter 4. Writing Ads That Earn Clicks and Pay You Back

in this chapter

• Understanding the structure of ads

• Writing compelling ads

• Testing ads

• Determining which ads are successful

Ad copy is a two-second chance to catch a searcher's attention, so clearly, your ads need to grab and keep a reader's attention.

In this chapter, I show you how to create pay per click (PPC) ads that are not only catchy and retain attention, but also catch the attention of the kinds of users you want to bring to your site and cause desired behaviors, such as purchases, downloads, or pageviews. (For more information on PPC in general, refer to Book IV, Chapter 1.)

Working with PPC Ads

A PPC ad is made up of the following elements:

• Headline

• Body

• Display URL

• Destination URL

Each component should be constructed carefully and separately, yet all the parts should flow together as a whole. In this section, you find tips for writing each part. (For more details, see "Writing PPC Ad Copy," later in this chapter.)

Creating the headline

Note

Your headline is the most important part of your ad. Most often, searchers don't read whole ads; they scan the headlines to narrow down their choices. Keeping this fact in mind, the best practice for any PPC ad is to use a high-traffic keyword (your most revenue-generating one, if possible) in the headline.

A revenue-generating keyword is one that you know brings in results, whether those results are sales, downloads, or signups. A high-traffic keyword is one that drives a lot of impressions ...