Pay per click advertising can have a huge impact on your marketing efforts. With Google Adwords, you can create high-conversion search ads that bring in new customers who are so ready to buy, that they’re searching the Internet for the services and products you offer. It’s really too good a marketing strategy to pass up.

The following are some of our favorite tips for creating high-conversion search ads:

Use the Best Keyword Matching Options for your campaign targeting

Google Adwords offers different keyword matching options, and finding the best options can make a big difference in your returns.

• Broad Match. With a broad match, your ads would be shown when people search for phrases that are similar to your keyword. Your ad would show up when keywords are misspelled, when there are singular or plural forms, when people search for synonyms of your keywords, or even when they search terms that are just related to your keywords. Broad matches can be expensive, but you’ll cast a wide net.
• Modified Broad Match. A modified broad match also allows your ads to show up in searches containing variations of your keywords, but this match doesn’t include synonyms of your keywords. Some people think the modified broad match allows you to avoid generic users and get closer to your ideal searchers.
• Phrase Match. If you have an exact phrase that is important as a keyword, you might want to give the phrase match a try. This match is usually used by marketers who want to target potential customers who know exactly what they’re looking for.
• Exact Match. This match displays your ads only when the keywords match exactly. Since exact matches are harder to come by, this kind of campaign costs less, but you also run the risk of missing out on potential customers.

Use Keywords Associated With Your Branding

There’s a bit of a race going on in the Adwords world. Many firms are attempting to capture their competitors’ customers by running ads on their competitors’ keywords. Remember that you own whatever goes into your Adwords ad, and you can direct traffic to certain landing pages that are different from your organic links. You can also advertise offers and discounts in your Adwords campaigns that are not mentioned by your organic links.

By using your brand name together with the keywords you are trying to advertise on, such as “Park Slope Softworks Free SEO analysis” you are creating a “long tail” keyword that is usually much cheaper than the “short tail”, (free SEO analysis). When users convert on such branded keywords, it reduces the cost per acquisition of your campaign and allows you to reduce your digital marketing costs per lead.

Above, you can see a screen shot of a geenric search for “Coffee beans”. Starbucks does not bid on this generic term. The ad on the right is brought by Google shopping and leads to a web page that sells various brands of coffee beans.

The screen shot above shows a search for “Starbucks coffee beans”. As you can see, the first ad is by starbucks itself. They are using the branded keyword to drive targeted traffic to their website. This traffic consists of 100% prospects who are interested in the brand’s merchendise.

The bid for these keywords is significanly different. The unbranded keyword, (coffee beans) will cost the advertises $2.59 per click for an ad positioned on the first page.The branded keyword, (Starbucks coffee beans) will cost the advertiser $1.62 per click for an ad position on the first page.

Therefore, be the first one to use your own branding keywords in pay per click ads. Don’t give your competitors the advantage of using your keywords to direct traffic their way.

Optimize Your Ad Copy

Pay per click ad copy has to be short, concise, and utterly intriguing. Your ad copy is what entices users to reach you, so it needs to be well thought-through and tested. As you create your ad copy, focus on the following:

• Make your ads benefit-driven. Potential customers are looking for solutions to their problems. Does your ad copy promise solutions and benefits to their lives?
• Use ad extensions. Since you only have a little bit of room, entice them further by using ad extensions, links that encourage further interaction like “download our app,” “call us,” or “get directions.”
• Include a compelling call-to-action. Effective pay per click ads include a compelling call-to-action where it will be most effective, usually right below the address. “Register now!” is a simple call to action. Think about your own marketing and what you want potential customers to do next.

As you can see in the sceen shot above, this storage company used many of the tools Gogole provides for effective ads creation. They are proving an attractive promotion, use “the words “Call now” as their call to action and are using the Google website extensions to make their ad bigger and more prominent in the ad queue.

For specific help on your own pay per click ads, contact us at Park Slop Softworks an inbound marketing company in Brooklyn. We can help you to create high-conversion search ads to boost your marketing efforts.