Whether you’re an independent media buyer or working with a few networks, your success comes down to the effectiveness of your ad copy. Copy affects all statistical categories of your campaigns from conversions to CTR (click-through rate) and developing engaging ad copy can establish you as a leader in the space. You don’t have to be a professional copywriter to write great copy, but these simple points can help give your stats a boost.
In this competitive market, your ad copy goal is to capture audience attention to initiate the offer process. Use your headline to provide information about the offer that differentiates the campaign from competitors’. When developing these headlines and ad descriptions, keep it believable. Over-the-top or unsubstantiated claims hurt everyone’s credibility.
Think like a consumer. You purchase products that provide the most value to you. Value can vary from features to product availability, but is most commonly equated to price. Selling a discounted product? Get specific - rather than displaying “Huge Discounts on Electronics”, try “Save 50% on a New Laptop”. This outlines and quantifies the value you can deliver to the customer.
The ability to target users living in specific geographical areas is an important tool that creates a granular landscape of your audience. Using geo-targeting is essential to reaching your target market with its ability to pinpoint and create connections with consumers. Be mindful that using geo-targeting in your ad can lengthen copy and affect character limits enforced by ad networks.
If your campaigns are banners or photo-text ads, be sure to select an eye-catching image. A picture of the product usually isn’t the best option. Show the product being used or the results it can produce. Customers want to know what their money is going to buy them. Creating intrigue and instilling confidence in the product are great ways to help generate clicks.
Now that you’ve captured attention and established value you need to help the reader understand what actions they need to take and how. Guide consumers to the next step by including a CTA (call to action). A good call to action contains two things, a statement of what the reader needs to do and a reason to act. A descriptive hook such as “Subscribe Now for Members-Only Deals” is better than a simple “Buy Now”.
The ad copy you use today might not produce the same results a month from now. Constantly test new copies and creatives to figure out what performs best. Split testing is a great tool available to many marketers that allows you to determine which copies produce higher conversion rates. If your stats start trending down, switch it up. You’ll never know what copies perform well if you don’t test.
