Imagine, you have created an advertising campaign, carefully selected keywords, set up targeting, but the result leaves much to be desired – there are displays, but few conversions and conversions. What could be the problem?
Now advertising offers are so many that Internet users have simply developed banner blindness and they scroll through blocks with ads without noticing them. However, this does not mean that contextual advertising is ineffective. The secret is to create a truly catchy, attractive and stand out ad.
This will help not only to increase CTR, but also to attract the “right” visitors – the target audience ready to buy. Moreover, the higher the quality from the point of view of search engines, the lower will be the cost per click and, accordingly, the higher the return on investment (ROI) of the campaign as a whole.
Next, let’s talk about how to create an effective ad for contextual advertising, how you can make it more relevant, informative and what you need for this.
How to properly compose an ad for contextual advertising?
Before you compose an ad for contextual advertising, be sure to consider the following recommendations:
Determine your target audience. Before writing a text, clearly formulate who it will be aimed at. Take into account the socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, income), interests, needs and “pains” of the audience. Speak to potential customers in their language, using terms and slang they understand.
Set a specific goal. What do you want to get from advertising – to increase sales of a certain product, to increase traffic, to get applications? It should be something measurable and achievable. That way you can choose the right words and write relevant text.
Focus on advantages and benefits. Be sure to mention 1-2 benefits of your offer in the text. What will a person get if he/she takes a targeted action? Why should they choose you? Set yourself apart from the competition, show your uniqueness.
Write concisely and succinctly. Ads have character limits. You have only a couple of seconds to grab a person’s attention and induce them to click. So avoid “water”, stamps and complex language constructions. Write simply, specifically and to the point.
Test and optimize. After creating an ad, be sure to monitor its effectiveness – CTR, number of conversions, price per click. Don’t be afraid to experiment by changing headlines, texts and the displayed link. Regularly analyze the results and optimize the campaign by disabling ineffective elements and scaling those that bring more conversions.
Tips for creating effective ads for contextual advertising
It’s time to talk about more specific tips and tricks to help you squeeze the most out of your Google Ads campaigns. What specific words should you use to increase clickability? How to make a headline visually appealing and noticeable against the background of competitors? What mistakes should be avoided? Let’s find out.
Let’s start with the headline. Its main task is to attract the user’s attention and encourage the user to click. It should be as relevant to the search query as possible. Ideal – the key phrase is present right in the headline.
If a person searches for “order khinkali delivery” and sees “free khinkali delivery” in the headline, he is more likely to click on such a link than if it says “Georgian cuisine restaurant”.
In addition, the headline should remain informative and clearly reflect the essence of the proposal. Don’t get carried away with creative wording at the expense of clarity. Remember, you only have 30 characters (with spaces), so every word has to work.
Let’s move on to the text. There is a little more space here – you can fit up to 90 characters in the description field. This is quite enough to briefly but succinctly tell about the advantages of the product or service, and call to action.
Basic principles of writing an effective text:
Focus on benefits and UTP. Answer the questions – how is your offer better than others? What do you give the client? Why should they choose you?
Avoid generic words and clichés. “Best quality”, “favorable prices” – such formulations mean almost nothing. Write specifically – “2-year warranty”, “50% discount”.
Support your statements with facts and figures. Instead of “fast delivery”, write “delivered in 60 minutes”. People trust objective information more.
Make the text as concise and clear as possible. Avoid complex sentences, participle and deictic turns. One thought – one sentence.
Capitalize your message. Such ads better attract attention and are perceived as meaningful.
Here is an example of a good text for an online store, let’s say, clothes:
Headline: “Buy Adidas clothes in Kiev”. Text: “Over 500 models. Quality assurance. Trying on before buying. Delivery in 24 hours. Gift for ordering!”
As you can see, the text contains concrete facts, promises benefits, and calls to action. At the same time, it remains easy to read and simple to comprehend.
Add a call to action
With such a message, you give the user a clear understanding of what they need to do right now and motivate them to take a targeted action. However, it is important not to go overboard and not to slip into outright “tininess” like “Buy now!” or “Today only!”.
The modern Internet user does not trust too intrusive offers and a “straight to the point” approach. Therefore, calls to action should be correct, unobtrusive, but encouraging.
Here are some good examples:
“Compare prices”;
“Download the catalog for free”;
“Get expert advice.”
“Book a table online.”
“Leave a request for a discounted rate.”
Pay attention – all of these appeals offer the user a simple, unencumbered action that doesn’t require a serious commitment, but encourages them to take the first step. This is the approach that is most effective.
Specify the price
Yes, if the prices are high, it may slightly reduce clickability, but you will get more targeted traffic. Plus you will show potential customers your openness and willingness to share information.
Many users get very annoyed when they see “Cost on request”, “Find out the price by phone” or “I’ll send a price in direct” on Instagram. Nowadays, people want all the data here and now so they can make a decision faster.
If your prices are lower than those of your competitors – feel free to show them, it will be a plus. And if suddenly above the market – well, at least you will screen out casual visitors and save your budget.
Various promotions, discounts, bonuses work very well in advertising. Mentioning them in the ad can significantly increase CTR and the number of conversions. Come up with an interesting offer for your customers and be sure to announce it in the text of the advertisement.
It can be a seasonal sale, a gift for a purchase of a certain amount, free shipping, etc. The main thing is to clearly and concisely formulate the benefit for the user.
Use key phrases
If the text and title contain keywords that match what the user entered in the search box, they will be bolded. Accordingly, the ad will look more noticeable and attractive against the background of others:
This also increases the relevance of the ad to the search engine and improves the quality score. This parameter affects the ranking of ads and the cost of clicks in the auction. The higher it is – the more often ads will be shown at the top of the output and at a more favorable price per click.
However, it is important to find a balance and not overdo it. Do not mindlessly stuff keys in every sentence, it looks unnatural and can lead to the opposite effect – a decrease in clickability and conversions. Try to incorporate key phrases organically into the text to maintain readability and convey the desired marketing message.
As for the selection of the semantic core itself – the principle of “less is better” works here. Do not try to embrace the vastness and promote hundreds of disparate queries at once. Start with one specific product category or service section of the site. Collect the most complete semantics, covering all nested low- and medium-frequency phrases. These are the ones that yield the most conversion traffic.
Cut off the untargeted audience
Sometimes in pursuit of high CTR advertisers make very catchy and provocative ads that attract a lot of random people. Yes, there will be a lot of clicks, but what good are they if a person simply made a mistake and did not intend to buy anything?
Therefore, do not be afraid to cut off the obviously untargeted audience already in the text of the ad – it will save your budget and increase the percentage of conversions. Use specifics:
Indicate the gender and age of the target audience, if it is fundamental (“stylish clothes for girls”, “educational toys for children 3-5 years old”).
Indicate the price segment and positioning (“luxury Italian furniture”, “budget tours in Poland”).
Emphasize special features and conditions (“warranty 3 years”, “only for legal entities”, “service is provided in Lviv”).
If these criteria do not suit the casual user – he will simply pass by without spending your money and without spoiling the behavioral factors on the site.
Use extensions
Google Ads extensions allow you to make your ads more informative, attractive and clickable. In fact, they make it possible to fit much more useful information into the limited space of an ad unit and thus increase its effectiveness.
According to Google itself, the use of extensions can increase the CTR of ads by several percent. And this is quite understandable – the more relevant information a user sees, the higher the probability that he will be interested and click on the link.
So, let’s understand exactly what types of extensions can be added to Google Ads and how to use them correctly:
Clarifications. These are short text blocks (up to 25 characters) that appear below the main text of the ad and allow you to let customers know about benefits, promotions, or add a TOS. For example: “Free shipping”, “Discounts up to 50%”, “Consultation as a gift”, etc. You can add up to 20 refinements, which will be rotated and shown depending on the context of the search query.
Quick Links. In addition to the main landing URL, you can add up to 4 additional links to different pages of the site – product categories, shipping information, blog, etc. This allows users to get to the right section at once, increases the depth of views and the number of conversions. You can add a description of 2 lines of 90 characters to each link.
Structured descriptions. These are ready-made templates for adding additional product parameters by specific categories. These include “Services”, “Brands”, “Models”, “Courses”, “Amenities”, etc. You can specify up to 10 values for each parameter. This structured format helps users to quickly evaluate your offer and make a more informed decision about cooperation.
Addresses and phone numbers. Very useful extension for local businesses – cafes, stores, services. Show users the addresses of offices/points of sale, opening hours, phone numbers, driving directions. This builds trust and makes it easier to contact you. Also, on smartphones, the number will be clickable.
Prices. Relevant for online stores and catalogs with products. With this extension, you can show prices for certain SKUs directly in your ads. This saves the user’s time and attracts immediately those who are ready to buy at that price.
Promotions. Information about discounts, sales, gifts – something that is hard to pass by. Specify the terms, conditions, and amount of benefits the client will receive and the CTR of the ad is guaranteed to increase.
Links to apps. If you have a mobile app – be sure to add a link to it in your ads. Smartphones will also show an icon and a button for quick installation.
The main advantage of extensions in Google Ads is that they are absolutely free. You don’t pay separately for displays or clicks on additional links, buttons, etc. At the same time, they really increase the visibility and attractiveness of ads and give users more opportunities to interact with the business.
Other secrets of increasing the effectiveness of ads
Competent selection of the semantic kernel, composing headlines and texts, using extensions – all this really works and allows you to increase the clickability, relevance and effectiveness of contextual advertising.
But the secret of effective ads in contextual advertising lies not only in this. There are a number of less obvious, but no less effective techniques that will help to squeeze the most out of the advertising campaign and the allocated marketing budget.
Run a rotation
Be sure to use A/B testing (rotation) for each key group. To do this, create several variations for the ad with different headlines, texts, calls to action.
The system itself will more often show those variations that work better and bring more clicks. And you will be able to track statistics, disable ineffective combinations and thus optimize your budget.
Use the IF operator
The IF operator allows you to change individual text elements depending on the specified conditions. For example, to show a special offer to those who have previously visited the site, or to send a call to install the application to those who came from a mobile device.
It works like this – you mark certain “variables” in the ad text with curly brackets {this}. And then you set the substitution rules through the Google Ads interface. For example: {text 1} – if the user logged in from a PC, {text 2} – if from a smartphone. You can customize dozens of different conditions and text options. Go ahead!
Connect dynamic ads
This is a real lifesaver for online stores and sites with a large number of products/services. Imagine how difficult it is to manually create ads for thousands of key phrases. And dynamic ads will help you do it automatically.
The principle of operation is as follows: Google scans the site, analyzes the content, headlines, key phrases. And then, based on this data, it independently generates ads relevant to users’ search queries. All you have to do is set a general template for the text of ads and exclude pages that will not participate in the advertising campaign.
According to statistics, dynamic ads show a CTR 10-15% higher than regular campaigns. At the same time, they save a lot of time and effort. So if you’re still not using them – it’s highly recommended that you do.
Segment your audience
One of the main principles of effective advertising is narrow targeting and personalization. The more precisely you segment your audience, the higher the response and conversion rate will be. This is especially true for businesses with a wide target audience.
For example, if you sell clothes, you shouldn’t try to reach all internet users with general queries like “buy a dress”. Segment your potential audience.
Show some ads to men, others to women. For those who are looking for larger sizes – third, for fans of a particular fashion trend – fourth. This way, you can address different segments in their language and make the most relevant offers possible.
The same applies to other product categories. Advertise premium and economy separately, use appropriate markers in the texts – “elite”, “affordable”, “inexpensive”, etc.
Choose relevant landing pages
The principle of maximum relevance also works 100% here. A person should go exactly where the ad “calls” him.
He clicked on the offer of a particular product – he got to the card of this very product. He searches for “buy OnePlus Nord” – don’t throw him into a general category with all smartphones of this brand. Interested in a discount or special offer – direct him straight to the page with the terms of the promotion.
The ultimate feat is to make a separate landing page for each group of search queries. There will certainly be no questions about the quality of traffic and conversion rates.
