Are You Making These 7 Deadly Mistakes With Your AdWords Ads?

Here’s Why People DON’T Click on Your AdWords Ads…

How can you be persuasive with just 25 characters for a headline, 35 characters for each description line and 35 characters for a url? This is the dilemma everyone faces when writing an AdWords ad. But it is possible.

Even with Google’s announcement of expanded ads, there’s still not a lot of room for wasted space. In fact, it can be a great way to focus on making every character count to get more clicks. Here’s some reasons why you might be failing to achieve success with your AdWords ads:

1. Ignoring what your visitor wants

If you don’t offer your prospective customer the solution they need, why should they click? Start by asking yourself: Who are my customers and what do they want to accomplish by using my product or service? Then use your headline and ad space to address this need.

Focus on telling people what they want to hear instead of what they already know. This can also help you stand out from the competition and hone in on your unique value proposition.

2. Not being specific enough

People won’t know exactly what they’re getting if it’s not plainly spelled out for them. And using super specific numbers can make your copy appear more credible and accurate. So make sure you write out exact numbers like 514 instead of using round numbers like 500.

Numbers and ASCI characters also make ads stand out visually by breaking up chunks of words and letters. Plus, when you use numbers to include a price, you can reduce clicks from those who aren’t a good fit for your business.

3. Mismatching ad copy and landing page copy

It will cost you to direct paid search traffic to a general page on your site instead of a targeted landing page. Not only in clicks and conversions but even in your cost-per-click (CPC).Google’s decision of your quality score is made in part by how well your ad copy and your landing page reflect each other. And both should match the need(s) of your target audience.

Starting a story in your AdWords ad that continues on your landing page is a compelling way to get people to click through.

4. Not adding a sense of urgency

Loss aversion is the idea that people are more motivated to take action to avoid loss than to acquire gain. To get prospects to click on your ad now rather than coming back next week, give your call-to-action a sense of urgency. You can use phrases like”Limited Offer” or “Last Minute” to let them know your offer won’t last for long.

Or try inserting a countdown timer to boost the power of your ads. Simply add a snippet of code inside your ad and set your desired end date. You could use this technique for one-day sales like Black Friday to countdown the minutes until the sale’s over.

5. Being too impersonal 

It’s easy to fall into the trap of writing AdWords ads that fail to address your customer’s needs. So beware if you find yourself using words like “we,” “I,” “me,” “us” and “myself.” This can cause your ad copy to come off as self-serving.

And it can hurt your chances of getting a click, and conversions on your landing page. When it comes to writing persuasive ads, I think James Boswell said it best:

Instead of talking about yourself, use “you” and “your” to make your customers feel that you’re speaking directly to them. Look for opportunities to include these words in your headline and ad description. And let them know right away what’s in it for me or how they can benefit from your product/service.

6. Excluding your keyword from your ad

Try adding your keyword to your ad description, and even better yet headline. It will be displayed in bold by Google when people search using that term. This confirms for your prospects that your ad is relevant to what they’re looking for.

You can even include your keyword in your Display URL. You can also use your URL as a call-to-action, to highlight a special offer or provide more information. Keep in mind that your URL is part of your ad copy. It tells people where they’re going after the click. So whether you use a keyword or not in your URL, make sure it works to help support the rest of your ad copy.

7. Neglecting to test, test and test some more

Fortunately for you, most of your competitors ignore an essential part of being successful with AdWords — writing better ads. Now you know how to do so, start testing your ads today.

Start with a highest volume ad group (both in spend and clicks) and set up a test ad group. Google will run both ads and alternate displaying them in search results. Once you find out what works best, you can apply what you learn to other ad groups.

What are your tips for success when it comes to writing killer AdWords ads?