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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:
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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?
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jokes, music. Painless, guaranteed!
3. Imagine several different types of buyers and create ads
tuned into each one.
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4. Paint a vivid picture of the results buyers enjoy after
purchasing your product or service.
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5. Mention either unusual or popular examples of what you
offer.
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6. Emphasize what makes you different from other vendors or
service providers – differences that matter to customers.
Sample headlines:
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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.
About The Author: Marcia Yudkin 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
www.yudkin.com/sample10b.htm . Sign up for her free
weekly newsletter on creative marketing at
www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm .
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