How to Improve Click Through Rates PPC Campaigns
Some of the efforts you take to reduce the cost of your PPC campaigns can also lead to improved click-through rates. It’s essential that you work toward increasing these rates. Even though more clicks drive up the cost of your PPC campaign, they also lead to more sales or conversions.
Aside from the efforts that you’ve already seen (like dayparting and better targeting) you can also improve your click-through rates by improving the ad copy in your PPC campaigns. Ad copy is covered in more depth in Chapter 12, but for now you should know that there are a few strategies for beefing up that copy.
■ Include special offers or incentives in ad text. If you have coupons to offer, discounts available, or even free gifts with purchase or other special offers and incentives, be sure those are included in your PPC ad text. People are drawn to specials, and advertising them. should draw more people to your site.
■ Consider including price in ads for products and services. Many people shy away from advertising their prices, but those prices (especially if they’re real bargains) can entice cus- tomers. If you have great prices, tell the world. Just make sure you check out the competi- tion before you decide you have the best prices on the Internet.
■ Highlight a key feature of your product or service. Key features can be used to draw additional clicks, and they should be better qualified clicks than if you just include the name of a product or other more general information.
■ Create a sense of urgency. People are motivated by time. If you have a limited-time offer, make sure your PPC ad makes it clear that there’s a special going on, but only for that time. You can also create a deadline, which will motivate potential customers to click through your ad.
■Use a call to action. People won’t take action all on their own. Your PPC ads will be much more effective if you include a call to action that gives people a reason to click through your ad. Buyers need directions, and they want you to make as many decisions for them as possi- ble, so if you can definitively tell customers they should take some action (like “click here,” “act now,” or “hurry”) they’re more likely to click through your ad.
When you’re creating PPC ads, you also want to use the most active language possible. The follow- ing two ads are for the same product, but the first is written in a weak style, using language that’s not strong enough. The second ad improves on those factors, making the ad more effective for PPC campaigns.
Not great ad:
Learn about government grants. E-book provides details about grants available to you.
Better ad:
Free money from Uncle Sam! Learn how to land federal grants and free money!
The hook and the active language in the second ad make it much stronger (and therefore more effective) than the first ad, even though they both say almost the same thing.
Don’t be afraid to play with your ad copy a little if you find your PPC ads aren’t performing as well as you would like them to. You’ll find that changing the copy just a little can make a huge difference
