7 Ad Copy Tests To Boost PPC Performance [With Examples]

It is safe to say that online advertising is a must for any business.

We live in a digital age, and if you are going to have any opportunity to sell your products or services, you will need to make sure that your ads reach right in front of your target demographic.

But just paying for ads in the right places won’t do the trick. Forbes found that the average American is exposed to Between 4,000 and 10,000 ads each day.

When you take these stats into account, it’s not surprising 27% of Americans use ad blockers.

Those who don’t block ads have their own mental filters that help them decide what they want to look at and what they ignore.

No matter what products or services you’re selling, one thing is increasingly clear: You’ll need very attractive copy to help your products stand out from the ever-growing crowd.

Of course, what is attractive and what is not is a somewhat subjective matter. You’ll want to know what In fact It works and what doesn’t work. This is where ad text tests can come to the rescue.

To help you create the best ads possible and improve your PPC performance, here are some rules of thumb and tips and tricks for your upcoming ad text tests.

Don’t test for the sake of testing

As a starting point, it is essential that you have a hypothesis of what you think will boost your conversion rate and why – at all times.

Here is my company’s testing methodology:

Aim for visible results

Always have ample data when running tests!

Statistical significance should be your goal (plus increased performance).

According to Googleyour test must continue until it meets one of two conditions:

1. At least one variant has a 95% probability of beating the baseline (this Free A/B Calculator must help).
2. It’s been two weeks to account for the cyclical changes in web traffic during the week.

This brings us to the last rule of thumb.

Set a time frame for testing

Remember that tests should not be left running forever. Set a specific timeframe for obtaining valuable data and stick to it.

Not every test will matter one way or the other and that’s okay. Chalk the test indecisive and move on.

Now, with those ground rules away, on to the tests!

1. Numerical abbreviations vs. full numerical values

It’s no secret that ads with numbers help identify information, whether it’s your inventory, a discount, or the price of your products.

Using numbers makes your ads more attention-grabbing and helps them cut out all the noise other PPC ads make (more on that here).

The numbers also show that you’re a brand worth taking seriously — after all, you’ve got the data to back up your claims, right?

So basically the numbers are pretty good.

The question then becomes:

• What do you think your targets will respond to?
• Will it be numerical abbreviations, say, 15 million, or whole numeric values, say, 15 million?

When creating ad copy, it turns out that manipulating numerical values ​​is a great way to get attention and differentiate ads.

2. Adding, modifying and removing prices

Prices can be a double edged sword when it comes to pay per click advertising.

In fact, a recent analysis shows only the top performing ads 40% Of the top-performing branded ads, 37% of non-branded ads included numbers.

when?

On the other hand, being upfront with your prices gives your users the information they need to know and can then help them make a faster buying decision.

On the other hand, price can turn people off by reminding them that they need to spend money. This is especially true if your product and/or service is not the cheapest to appear in search engine results.

So how do you know which approach works? Tests.

We worked with a homebuilder client to test differences in pricing inclusions. After running some tests, it became clear that by circulating the number, we could increase CTR across these communities.

You can also frame your price as a discount to make it more attractive to your readers. And speaking of discounts…

3. Experiment when identifying promotions

In pay-per-click marketing, it is a common practice to specify promotions in numbers, usually in the form of discounts, conditional rates, and other special offers.

For example, instead of typing you have cheap car accessories for sale You can write something more compelling, eg 50% off car accessories.

But you can maximize your CTR by changing the language you use in your promotions, as well as testing ads that feature percentages, actual pricing, and fully written offers.

Better yet, try testing your “opponent” with the most important numbers that increase engagement:

4. Punctuation marks?!.

Numbering is one of the easiest places to start testing, however, few focus on tests that ‘simple’.

An analysis of 612 highest performing brand paid ads showed just that 48% Of the ads used exclamation marks while only 11% used the dollar sign and even fewer used the question mark.

According to this same survey, the following punctuation marks were most popular in paid non-brand advertising:

• Exclamation point: 42%
• Breaks: 25%
• Question mark: 11%
• Percentage: 9%
• Dollar sign: 8%

Based on our own testing, using the exclamation point makes sense:

However, the opportunity to test the use of punctuation (question marks, percentages, etc.) is worth exploring and pairs well with using emotion to drive increased performance.

5. Appeal to emotion

Most of the ads are very similar. They’re boring. They are all the same. We see?

Ads that engage people on an emotional level can lead to significant CTR gains.

Identify your customer’s feelings.

• What do they like/dislike?
• What is the biggest problem they face?
• How will you solve it?

Worst case, take a hint from the major categories that drive engagement on Twitter and Facebook.

While traditionally reserved for content ideas, the use of a title parser such as This or This It can also help apply emotional titles to your ad copy.

6. Test your CTA

Let’s face it, different people have different reactions to ads.

It is a key element in shaping people’s reactions to your ads Show – Basically, the way you ask them to trust your brand or try your product or service.

This is the place language It comes, and is especially important when writing your own CTAs.

As trivial as it may sound, the first call-to-action has the potential to create a positive or negative impression of the ad itself.

The first word in your CTA may be the determining factor, so you need to test different first words (they should all be verbs) in your CTA, and use high-converting copy.

For example, starting from “call us now,” instead of “Contact us today,” It can lead to a noticeable difference in CTR.

in the same vein, “shop now,” instead of “order now” It can lead to different levels of audience reactions.

Here is a variety of potential calls to action for you to test:

• Gets
• Shop
• Buy
• Builds
• explore
• book
• Order
• Buy
• start
• a call
• Order
• Spare
• Make a reservation
• joins
• Try
• Takes
• Loading
• Participation
• learn
• Subscription
• We see
• Discover
• appreciation
• Start

7. Play around with your landing pages

Of course, landing pages are a great marketing tool, as they give your target market a chance to decide if they should interact further with the business.

As a result, testing your landing pages is an essential part of doing business online.

In Google Ads, there are two types of landing page tests that you can easily perform without making any changes to your website:

• Link directly to the most popular product in a category you’re advertising.
• Direct link to the category page.
• Try different sorting methods on your category pages:
  • Best selling first.
  • Cheapest first.
  • newest first.
  • Best review first.
  • promotions first.
  • manual placement.
• A link to a search made for a specific brand, product or product type.
• A link to your homepage (yes, it might work for you).

Pro tip: Google Optimize is a godsend for this type of A/B testing and multivariate (for both paid media and SEO).

When it comes to campaign optimization, you Need To split tests like this down and then analyze your results. Otherwise, you’re doing your company – and your campaign – a huge disservice.

What then?

Anyone who works in marketing knows that well placed ads don’t come cheap.

Extensive ad text testing can give you confidence in your ads and boost your chances of making a return on the ads you decide to run.

Following the above steps can help you test your ad copy as best as possible before investing money into placement. But what next?

Whether you’re experiencing success or find that you need to make more changes or improvements, ad testing should remain high on your priority list.

It is important that you track the performance of your ads and analyze the data that you collect.

This will help you adjust and adjust ads as needed and make more informed decisions in the future, which increases success and profit.

Remember ABT: always. He is. Tests.

More resources:

• How and when to use subliminal messages in your ad copy
• How to call out the urgency in your marketing copy
• Completely optimized content from start to finish

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Featured image: Minimallista / Shutterstock