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Improve Your Google Adwords Search Engine Ads

by Marcia Yudkin

The haiku-sized blocks of text that show up when people
hunt for information on Google or Yahoo can
cost-effectively deliver perfect prospects day after day to
your site. For instance, one pay-per-click ad I wrote sends
its owner all the $2,000 clients she can handle for just
$39.88 a month.

But when I look at search engine ads both when I’m
searching for information and when clients ask me for help
with their Google advertising campaigns, I’m shocked at how
flabby, vague and boring most of the ads out there are.

If you’ve tested thoroughly and the most mind-numbing ad
copy gets the best response, fine. But too often, all the
ads tested were equally tedious and uninspiring. Here are
some suggestions for creating ads with spunk and magnetism.

1. Think your way into the mindset of your target market.
What is the problem that sent them searching on Google?
For instance:

Language learning is hard?
Not with NL Lessons. Native speaker
tutors you online. Makes it fun!

2. Now inject some emotion into your ad, the emotion felt
by your potential customer or client. How can you capture
their problem in unexpected, dramatic words?

Foreign language torture?
Learn French, Spanish, Swahili thru
jokes, music. Painless, guaranteed!

3. Imagine several different types of buyers and create
ads tuned into each one.

Diplomacy Made Easy
U.S. Foreign Service certified
tutors for worldwide languages.

Inlaws speak Spanish?
Or German, Japanese, 120+ others:
Fun, easy online language lessons.

Pass PhD Language Exams
Graduate-level online tutor makes
passing German, French exams easier

4. Paint a vivid picture of the results buyers enjoy after
purchasing your product or service.

Speak Spanish pronto!
Converse like a native for fun,
travel, business. Online tutors.

5. Mention either unusual or popular examples of what you
offer.

Japanese for Business
Specialty vocabulary: health, tech,
finance, any industry. Online tutor

6. Emphasize what makes you different from other vendors
or service providers – differences that matter to
customers. Sample headlines:

Easiest language lessons
No grammar drills!
Unlimited live tutor time

7. Edit, edit, edit. Google forces you to be concise by
allowing only 25 characters (letters, punctuation marks or
spaces) in the headline and 35 characters in each of the
two succeeding lines. Get rid of all unnecessary or
repeated words. Try shorter variants of key words. It’s
OK if the ad then turns out slightly ungrammatical so long
as the meaning comes across clearly. You can leave off
final punctuation if there’s no more space at the end of
the ad. Readers understand that ad constraints force you
to compress your thoughts.

Google makes it easy to test different ad versions against
one another, and now you’ll have more powerful candidates
to see how they perform.

Marcia Yudkin (marcia@...) helps business owners and
corporate managers compellingly and tantalizingly
communicate their strengths. See a sample makeover of one
ineffective Google search engine ad into five dynamic ones
at http://www.yudkin.com/sample10b.htm . Sign up for her
free weekly newsletter on creative marketing at
http://www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm .