With Google AdWords becoming more and more competitive all the time, how do you write ads that stand out from the competition?

With Google giving higher positions and cheaper clicks to ads that get clicked on more often, how do you write ads so that people will click on them?

How do you write ads that will get qualified leads to your website, and not waste money advertising to people that will never buy?

When I was first starting out with AdWords and an internet business in 2004, I was lost and I didn’t know where to start. After a while, I finally got into it, and started using AdWords a bit more. After a while of that, I had used AdWords a little bit and got confident, and I thought I was clever. I thought that because I could get around the AdWords interface, I had mastered AdWords and that what I was doing would work fine. But every month I would look back over my account and I’d spent as much as I was making. Boy was I wrong!

It wasn’t until I figured out some of these tricks with writing ads and with other things that I was finally able to make a profitable AdWords campaign.

What an AdWords Ad looks like

I’ve broken down what I’ve learnt into a formula for great ads. But before we get into that, lets review what an ad looks like.

We have a headline, a display URL and some ad text. We’ve got exactly 4 lines to stand out apart from the competition. We need to make excellent use of every single word.

My AdWords ad formula

I’ve done quite a few ads now, and over time, I’ve figured out a simple formula that works really well, and I’ll share it with you here.

Heading: [Impact word] [your keyword]
Display URL: [your url]/[your keyword]
Ad text: [What]  [Qualifier]  [Why]  [Call to action]

What the hell? This makes no sense I hear you say!

Let’s look at it a bit closer.

Writing AdWords headings

Heading: [Impact word] [your keyword]

[your keyword] – In the heading, the first thing we want is that it is bold (stands out more). Google shows the keyword in bold. So if someone searches for wall clocks, the keyword “wall clocks” in any ads is shown in bold. That’s why I always like to have the keyword in the heading.

[Impact word] – If you have enough room, I like to have what I call an impact word. This is a word that stands out. It packs a bit of punch. It’s a different kind of word. In this example above, the word I’ve used is “Stunning”. You can try out different words and see what works for you.

What I’ve also seen works well in this spot is a word like “Buy” or “On Sale”.

What to put in the AdWords Display URL

Google forces you to have your URL. Fair enough. After that, it’s pretty simple – put your keyword on the end of your URL. Why? Because we want more bold in our ad.

What to put in AdWords ad text

Ad text: [What]  [Qualifier]  [Why]  [Call to action]

The first part of my formula is “What”. You need to tell people what you sell. If possible, use your keyword in this section (we want as much bold as possible!). In the example above, the [What] is “High Quality Wall Clocks”.

Then once you’ve described the offer, you need to qualify your ad. You don’t want people clicking on your ads if they will never buy from you. You also want to warm up prospects a bit so they know what to expect when they come to your website. In this example, our [Qualifier] is “From $99!”. The website in question doesn’t want people coming to the website that only want a $29 clock. That would be a waste of advertising dollars. Also, it tells people that they can buy a wall clock here. (Sounds simple right? Try searching for something to buy and see how many ads don’t make it clear whether you can buy from them or not).

Now we have the What and the Qualifier down. The next step is [Why]. Why would people buy from you as opposed to someone else? What do you offer people that other places aren’t offering? The [Why] in this example is “Free Shipping”. Other examples could be “Top Quality”, “Fast Turnaround”, “Fast Processing”, “Fast Shipping”, “Huge Range”, “Instant Service”, etc. Basically we need to separate ourselves from the ad below us and above us. If you don’t have something that separates you from other shops, you need to figure one out.

So the last thing to put in AdWords ad text is a call to action. Tell people what you want them to do! In this example, it’s “Order Online Now”. Other examples could be “Buy Online” or “Call Now” or “Enquire Online” etc. Basically whatever you want the customer to do, tell them to do it. This helps your visitors to know what they can do on your website. (Again, you’d be surprised how many ads aren’t clear about what is behind them).

Go and do it

Pretty easy right? Now go and try it out.

Once you’ve done it, post your examples in the comments! Or if you have questions or need help with your ad text, write your question in the comments and I’ll help out.

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