The Importance Of The PPC Header

Fri 26 June 2009 09:17, Bas van den Beld

Earlier this week Kate Morris posted a guest post on Searchcowboys. She wrote about writing PPC ads. On this same topic she spoke at SMX London several weeks ago. There she was in a session with amongst others Kerstin Baker, Guy Levine and moderator Jon Myers.

A post which was supposed to go online when SMX finished, but didn't because the laptop it was on crashed, is posted here below. It talks about this session where lots of good information was provided about setting up headers for PPC-ads.

The Importance Of The PPC Header

The art of composing a good PPC-ad is not something everybody does right. You want the attention of your potential customer and want them to click on an add which actually will make them buy your product.

On day 1 of SMX London there was the session "Killer ads landing pages". In this session three experts shared their thoughts and experience. Moderated by Jon Myers Kerstin Baker, Guy Levine and Kate Morris gave us some good tips & tricks.

First up was Kerstin Baker. She is a well known ppc-expert and showed us some good examples about how titles can be misleading an how bad that can be. If a surfer clicks on an ad and on the page he lands on something else is shown than expected, that can have a countereffect. She gave the example of an ad for a hotel which said "3 star hotel for xx pounds". When clicked on the ad it turned out to be a 2 star hotel. This is just a simple effect of a misleading ad.

After Kerstin Guy Levine took the stage. He talked "Ad writing 101". He focused on the the mixed messaging in advice for ad writing. He stated that tiy can make the difference based on the core of the message.

He believes that one industry that gets it well is the magazine industry. By showing some examples of magazine titles he showed us how. One example was "Has Iran won?" a compelling title which makes you want tor read on. Another good place for inspiration is Amazon. Finally he made a very simple but very true statement: start with what works and develop. Too many times people aim to high at the beginning, get dissapointed and miss the opportunities.

Right after the presentation Jon Myers pointed out the phonenumber in the ad. Guy said people believe that the company will get a face when a phone number is shown.

Finally Kate Morris was on. She just started a new company, Marketing Demons, a new company and 'fired' some good tips at the audience. Kate stressed the title importance and also mentioned the phone number.

She then showed us three different ads. One good, one bad and one ugly: the good title was "Madagascar hotel", the bad one just "doctor" and the ugly one "small compact car", which was completely irrelevant to the ad.

Your headline is your half of a second to get attention. So you have to get attention. Kate also gave us some attention getting tactics: bolding, numbers, characters and 'Get'R Done'.

Bolding only works when competitors are not doing it. Phone numbers are attention getting, but tracking can be hell. It's great for local targeting. A way to easily track the results is using a different phone number. Another good tip was about the company or product name in the title: many are doing it but it is not always the best idea when you have that little space.

All in all it was an interesting session with some nice tips and tricks to optimize your ad title. Something everybody at least shoudl consider doing...

<Google redesigns their logos (a ...

Our Daily Search Pic(k): Bing ma...>

Comment

Article marketing versus PPC mar...

Fri 19 Feb 2010, Stijn De Meyere

2 comments

Content and article marketing are highly popular method for beginner marketers to gain traffic. Despite occasional disdain from experienced PPC marketers, it is also a...... read more

PPC and click-through on social ...

Tue 16 Feb 2010, Editors

1 comment

PPC and click-through on social media platforms

Social media platforms a often praised amongst marketers for their free traffic, or for PPC marketers, very inexpensive traffic, and ease of operation. Offering access...... read more

Presentation: SES London 2008 - ...

Fri 12 Feb 2010, Editors

0 comments

As you know next week its time for SES London 2010. Many presentations will be held again. But what about the presentations from the past? Are they still valuable? For example this one, from SES London 2008. SES London 2008 - Search Ad Platforms View more presentations from Richard Gregory. ... read more

Our Daily Search Pic(k): UK Inte...

Mon 8 Feb 2010, Editors

0 comments

Like this Pic? Twitter it!. Full version on Flickr. Via. Have any suggestions for our Daily Search Pic(k)? E-mail us or DM or message us on Twitter! ... read more