Mastering Google AdWords - CTR Boosting Techniques

There are two things that you have to keep in mind to increase the click through ratio (CTR) of your ads in Google AdWords. First of all, you want your ad to show up among the top three or four positions on the first page of the search results. Secondly, your ad has to capture the attention of the reader to induce them to click on the link and proceed to the landing page. If you work on these two things, you will see that your CTR will significantly improve.

In this article, I will focus on the latter part of the CTR boosting formula. Primarily, it is your ad copy that determines whether or not you will get a click through to your landing page. Here are two ways to test your PPC ads that may result in a higher CTR.

Using Numbers

Believe it or not using numbers in your ads can really boost the CTR. Just think about it. If you are doing your research before buying a product, would you be considering price as a major factor? Many people when searching to make a purchase of an expensive item will look for the best deal on the internet. For example, when it comes to advertising something like high definition TVs (HDTVs) and you have the lowest price among all the competitor's ads, don't you think that your ad will stand out?

Another to use numbers is state the amount of savings in terms of dollars or percentages. You can add phrases like "50% off" or "Save 27%" within your ad copy. You can also use social proof concepts like "50,182 satisfied users" to gain the attention of the reader.

As always, you should always set up at least two different ads that you can test for each ad group. By split-testing with and without the use of numbers, you can decide from the results which version of the ad generates a better CTR.

Catch The Reader Off Guard

To use this method, first you have to scan the competitors' ads for a particular keyword. If you see that all the ads have roughly the same message, you can make your ad stand out if you say something completely different. For example, I was looking at ads for the phrase "low cost dental insurance". Most of the ads are highlighting how much you can save using a particular company's insurance plan. Suppose your ad says "You Don't Have To Go Broke To Have A Winning Smile". This is out of the ordinary and will capture the reader's attention.

Use your imagination and come up with different ways to phrase your offer. Sometimes it pays to be different. If you need more ideas about creative ad copy, try scanning the classified ads in your local newspaper. In many ways, PPC ads are very similar to classified ads. There is a limited number of words and each ad only has a few seconds to capture the readers' attention. Another thing you can try is to scan the headlines of tabloids at the supermarket checkout lines. The people who write those headlines are experts at grabbing your attention.

In summary, you should always be testing and tracking your PPC ads in order to optimize your campaigns and generate more profits with the same ad spend.

Keywords: