Creating Compelling Ads

In this session, both speakers discussed the best practices for creating, testing and writing Ads/Creatives for paid search engines. The commonalities from this session were testing ads without affecting the quality score of the campaigns; create multiple Ads and have them simultaneously against each other and let the consumers decide based on CTR% and Conversion Rate. Below are some more interesting details from the session

Vic Drabicky Range online media Vic Drabicky started off the session with a presentation discussing that in reality, there is only (1) one Ad/creative can be applied to all engines and he entitled it “GoogleHOSN”. Vic also addresses that the goal is not to not get every click, but to get every profitable click. He also emphasizes on his Five (5) Ad/creative rules to live by:

1. Include the keyword in title and description of the Ad. 2. Write tailored, clear factual Ads (not everyone can have best deal in the world) 3. Avoid symbols, exclamation point, numbers and “cutesiness” 4. Avoid non-specific calls to action (book now, save now, etc…) 5. Don’t be salesy. Use the rod roddy rule (monotone, general tone of the offer and this technique tends to be more successful)

Step 1 of 3 - Titles:

• Use DKI
• keywords in title
• use param2 & alt text to further customize
• be grammatically correct
• differentiate yourself from the competition where possible

Step 2 - Descriptions

• Descriptions are most important and customize Ads for every relevant group of keywords is key.
• Setup adgroups by Ads/creative and not by keyword.
• It’s important to tell your story in the Ad
• Also important to include your brand name in the Ad
• Clearly indicate your unique value proposition (price, selection, etc..)

Step 3 – Display Urls Slight changes in display URL can drastically change your CTR display with in domain has higher ctr%

• Search Engines can automatically optimize creative for you.
• Having 3-4 Ads/creatives running together is best alternative
• Make sure each ad/creative has a very different message
• Track the performance of the Ad/ Creative (CTR% & conversion)
• Search Engines punishes users who make a lot of changes to the Ads/creatives (Quality score)
• Try to keep at least 1 Ad/creative unchanged.

Rule #1 - Use alt text & Param2 for MSN and Yahoo. Rule #2 - Test often, but limit the testing for quality score problems. Rule #3 - Get a 2nd opinion, then 3rd, then implement.

Theory #1 - Goal is to not et every click, but get every profitable click Theory #2 - Searchers may think differently than you, so keep writing new Ads/creatives Theory #3 - Don’t chase competitors. Have your unique creative message

Darren Kuhn, Group Account Director, ResolutionMedia Next up to the podium was Darren Kuhn, and he discussed the test and analysis phase in writing effective Ads/creatives as well as going into detail into how MSN & Yahoo handle Ads.

• Best practice to have a testing methodology
• Research categories and industries with historical strong ROI% & CTR%
• Make sure keywords are related to one another
• Keywords and ads should link to the same url/landing page
• Minimum: Each ad/creative should get at least 25,000 impressions or 250 clicks during the test period
• Duration of tests depend on the amount of time it takes each creative to attain the min number of impressions or clicks
• High volume sites test period should be at least 2 weeks

Test phase

• Create 4-6 ad/creativess with different message types (official site, capitalization, price points, free shipping, etc…)
• Place unique tracking on each creative so both conversion and CTR can be tracked
• Disable auto optimizers.
• Continue test for at least 2 weeks.

Analysis phase

• Decide on winner and let winner run
• No clear winners, re-write new themes and messages and test again

Yahoo Panama specific:

• Difference between old Yahoo vs. new Yahoo Panama (quality index where cost savings enabled)
• Ad rank is determined by it’s bid & expected performance
• Yahoo looks at CTR% where it’s optimal for the keyword to relate to the ad (better the relationship, the higher the quality index.)

MSN Specific:

• MSN Allows low performing Ads to continue run and be displayed in results
• Best practice to constantly rewrite ads
• *Important Note: If you rewrite the Ad and don’t rename the Ad ID, the ad will keep its previous performance regardless of the change.

Study 1: Title & description testing: The DKI (Dynamic Keyword Insertion) option historically works well in terms of CTR%, but not always has the best conversion rates. Best to track Ads with analytics software that handles this.

Study 2 – Display Urls Noting the performance differences between different variation of Display urls (subdomains, www, etc..) Best tactic is to test all of them.

Study 3 - Content match testing Track the Content Network very closely, because it historically low converting.

Study 4 – Automated Testing Tool (example: BetterPPC) Auto generate 54 different creatives and explained the benefits of betterppc. Issue with tool, did not track conversions, but quickly tested to find the highest CTR%. Used these top 6 ads to then test for conversion rates

Article by Greg Meyers Sr. Search Manager at Commerce360