How to write effective Google ads
Crafting Google ads requires a mix of creative writing and keyword precision. To attract your target audience, you need ad copy that engages and converts visitors to clients.
Before you begin creating your Google ads, it is helpful to understand who you are targeting. This means knowing not only who they are, but also their pain points, their immediate needs and how they interact online. This way, you can create digital marketing copy that resonates with them directly, tailored to their requirements.
Do extensive keyword research
Knowing what words your potential clients are using to search for your product or service is half the challenge. But, the good news is that nobody knows your clients as well as you do, so it should be simple enough to identify general ideas for keywords.
Once you’ve identified the main areas, you can hone in on relevant keywords to create more direct engagement. For example, a mortgage broker might target users looking for “mortgage refinancing Sydney” or “mortgage first home buyer”.
By undertaking keyword research, you are also developing basic SEO writing skills that will help you across all aspects of your digital marketing copy.
You can use platforms like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush or Ahrefs to help with your keyword research. This gives you an idea of related keywords and how difficult they will be to rank for. You can also keep track of the keywords you have used and take note of what seems to work and what doesn’t. This all forms part of your broader content strategy that you can implement across your website and social media.
Write compelling headlines
Good headline writing is the ultimate goal for an ad that doesn’t require a lot of copy, like a Google ad. A potential client scrolling through a news website will likely only briefly glance at the sidebar ads, so yours needs to grab their attention.
A good headline doesn’t give the whole thing away. It must be concise, intriguing and, most importantly, offer solutions to your potential clients’ needs.
Using your keyword research, you can target specific categories of people. For example, an accountant might run a campaign during tax season with intriguing headlines like “Three ways to save money this tax season”. A mortgage broker might target property investors with “Grow your property portfolio using equity”.
Craft effective copy
If the headline grabbed their attention, the body of your ad should do the work of getting the user to click. This is where you can showcase the benefits you can offer clients.
Remember, the aim of a Google ad is to get the potential client to click through to your website where they can find out more about your service or get in touch with you.
So the most important aspect of Google ad copy is to keep it as short and concise as possible. There are two reasons for this:
- Space. There is limited physical space afforded to you in a sidebar or header ad space. Too much copy will make the ad too busy and likely require a small font that will be difficult to read.
- Time. Your potential client will not spend minutes reading your ad.
Use storytelling
Hook your potential clients by telling a story that they can relate to. Writing for the web shouldn’t be stale and doesn’t have to be overtly salesy.
In your story, address your potential clients’ pain points and the challenges they can overcome if they use your service. Then, offer solutions.
Go multimedia
Google ads are not just text. You can create engaging content using compelling visuals like images, animations, GIFs and videos to stand out.
Google offers many extensions you can implement to enhance your ad. These add space to your ad, allowing you to include more information and make your ad more visible. They can include adding your location, product offerings or ratings. You can use an extension to add a call button, making it easy for a potential client to contact you directly from our ad.
Optimise your website
Effectively driving clients to your website will not achieve much if your website is slow, out of date, difficult to navigate or irrelevant.
First, fix any technical issues on your website like broken links or slow page loading times. Regularly check that your contact forms are working and other contact information is correct. Delete out-of-date information.
Then, consider developing an effective content strategy for your website that continues the journey started by your ads. You can achieve this by building custom landing pages related to the content of your ads or writing blogs relevant to your ads.
A common mistake with Google ad campaigns and extended marketing strategies is not staying up-to-date and relevant. As a busy business person, you probably don’t have the time to plan, write and manage your marketing content. A content agency like Hunter & Scribe can help by producing regular, informative and well-crafted digital marketing copy relevant to your audience.
Test different ads
Google ad campaigns do not always show immediate results. It is an ongoing process that requires refining and tweaking as you go.
In order to see what works and what doesn’t, it helps to have a few versions of the same ad. This way, you can pinpoint the copy and design elements that draw the most actionable results from high-quality clients.
A/B test different headline writing techniques, copy, colour schemes and calls-to-action.
Within Google ads, you’ll be able to analyse the number of impressions (how often did you ad appear on a website) and the click-through-rate (how often did someone click on your ad).
