Here's a very quick and painless history lesson; a hundred years ago, many advertisements had no headline. For example, if they were selling cars, Ford might say that their vehicle had six seats and a powerful engine.
That was a feature; an aspect or characteristic of the item for sale. Features tell you what you actually get, or what the product physically is - not what it actually does for you.
It worked for a while. But then some smart advertisers figured out that if they pushed the benefits of their wares, rather than features, it worked better.
By clearly stating the benefits to the consumer of what they were selling, advertisers found they sold more stuff. Why?
Because seeing a benefit laid-out before them, an individual could immediately see what an item could do for them, without having to translate a product feature into a human benefit.
This vital lesson has stood the test of time and has proven response benefits in today's Google PPC ads. Keep this in mind when you're writing your ads, as it's critical;
Benefits of your product or service should go in the first line of ad text. Features should be placed in the second line of ad text.
For example, let's say we wanted to advertise golf balls on Google. What we might start with, for the keyword 'golf balls,' is something like this;
Ultra Range Golf Balls
Massive 400 Yard Drives are Yours.
Here with Acme Rubber Coated Balls.
In the first line of ad text, we've stated the benefit (achieving 400 yard drives). And in the second line, we've stated a feature of the product that goes some way towards justifying how the benefit is possible.
Also note what we put the keyword (golf balls) in the headline, and in the display URL. This forces the keyword to show as bold in the headline, ad text and display URL.
Here's another ad, for the keyword, 'book printing'.
One of the main benefits of a book printing service is that someone does the printing work for you. Quickly, and with little effort on your part. So, let's try the following format;
The benefit is saving time with little effort. So let's place that in the first line. Two features are quick, five-minute service and low prices. So those go in the second line. Our ad will therefore look like this;
Easy Book Printing
Save Printing Time with Ease.
5 Minute Copies. Low Prices.
By the way, low prices in themselves are not a benefit, they're a feature. The human benefit of low prices is saving money.
Here's a very simple formula we've used over and over again to keep improving our ads and turning them into winners.
If you follow these steps, it's virtually guaranteed that you'll soon see amazing results. And the best part of this secret? It's free!
It costs nothing to follow this proven strategy. In fact, it will not only boost your Google campaign, it will also save you oodles of time!
HOT TIP: Here is one of the most powerful Google success secrets: Always split-test your ads: No matter what you do, you should always have at least two versions of your ads. Always keep optimizing: This is where most people fail. Why?
First of all, many Google users run out of ideas of what to test. Secondly, most Google users don't know when it's time to go back to further optimize their campaign. And if you don't know, you'll probably forget because you don't have the time to keep checking your account.
There is a free, automatic optimizer tool out there (this tool is NOT from Google), which automates the testing of your different ad versions. Then it lets you know by email when you have a winning ad.
How does free tool, which is NOT from Google, help? If testing is a slow and painful process, you'll just stop. And you might miss out on lots of 'accidents' where you try something and suddenly stumble upon an ad that does 100% better than before.
These fortunate 'accidents' happen to us all the time in our own campaigns. Here's one example;
Testing something very small in an ad for meditation techniques (the number of minutes mentioned in the ad text "15 min" vs. "5 min", etc.) had a huge impact on the Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and on the Conversion Rate (CR) of this ad group.
Ad Version 1;
How To Do Meditation
Did You Know That Meditating Just
15 Min a Day Could Change Your Life?
Ad Version 2;
How To Do Meditation
Did You Know That Meditating Just
5 Min a Day Could Change Your Life?
Can you see the difference? The only text that is different is the number of minutes. The ad mentioning "15 minutes" had a CTR and Conversion Rate DOUBLE the ad version that mentioned, "5 minutes"!
Could we have ever guessed that "15 minutes" would do 100% better than "5 minutes"? Or that that "5 minutes" would lower the Conversion Rate by 50%? No way!
The only way we discovered this huge boost was from using the free optimizer tool mentioned below. Here are some additional tips to make it far easier to keep improving your Google account. Keep reading resources like this, and keep reading ads on Google to keep getting new ideas of things you can test
What You Need to UNDERSTAND: You need to use automation to help you manage your Google campaigns. If you don't, you'll forget to monitor sufficiently and quickly lose out. You need to seek out a free optimizer tool that will automatically help you manage and improve your Google Campaigns. These free, labor-saving and time-saving tools are out there. All you need to do is find them.
