AdWords Ad Writing Tips

Updated January 13, 2023

That Gets Your Business Clicks

A well-written AdWords ad can get you clicks. And lots of them if you know what you’re doing. If you need to turn on the lead generation spigot immediately, then Pay-Per-Click is the way to go. Like it or not, SEO is a longer-term strategy. Strategically placed AdWords ads can get your phone ringing. This post will explain the psychology behind online ads and how to maximize your return.

Online Ads Overview

Online ad copy is really a bridge, linking searcher to your website. Before you begin online advertising, you should have these elements in place:

• Written goals for success — if you don’t have a specific target, how can you hit it?
• A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) — how your product or service is different in the marketplace
• A realistic budget — choose a comfortable spend and allocate daily and monthly targets
• List the benefits — while features may excite you, customers really want to know how your product/service will make their life/business better
• Compelling Call To Action (CTA) — things like free quote, download white paper, buy a …. (you fill in the blank)

AdWords Ad: Modern Haiku

Constructing an AdWords ad is complex. It looks deceptively simple, a little like Haiku (short form of Japanese poetry). Haiku and an AdWords ad have these things in common:

• Word choice is distilled down to its essence
• Follows a formula
• Reader focused

It’s Purpose

The purpose of an AdWords ad is NOT to get a sale. Rather, it’s designed to get a click. Similar to a page or post’s meta description, it is setting up an expectation. Humans are searching for answer to something… that’s why they are using a search engine! The ad tells them what to expect after the click. It can also tell someone what to do… again after the click.

Ad Anatomy

An AdWords ad is constrained by Google or Bing; they set the number of lines and limit the characters to fit on each line. Here’s the Google AdWord ad format:

1. Headline: 25 character limit. It’s the first thing a searcher will see. It should their grab attention. Keywords are automatically bolded by Google adding another attention-getting elements.
2. Description Line 1: 35 character limit. Focus on the benefit or USP. You’re giving the reader a reason to click on your ad. When you end this line with a punctuation mark Google moves the line up to the headline space.
3. Description Line 2: 35 character limit. Typically a Call to Action where you convince the human searcher to click.
4. Display URL: 35 character limit. It must include your root domain. Even if your landing page has more than 35 characters, simplify it so your reader knows where they will end up. Again, you are setting up an expectation.

Now that you know the ingredients to an AdWords ad, you’ll need to pull it all together. While this task can be repetitive and time consuming, it does takes skill and vigilence. You want to maximize your return on your PPC spend and not waste potential impressions and clicks. Testing different variations of your ads will give you the data needed to tweak and optimize. Plus you want to coordinate Organic SEO with your search strategy to get an extra lift.

What else would you add to this AdWords Ad how-to post?