AdFlintTM - Crush Your Competition With Brilliant Ad Copy
Brian Lewis is VP of Marketing at Engine Ready, Inc. (www.engineready.com) A noted author and speaker at many industry conferences, Mr. Lewis earned his B.A. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego and his M.B.A. in Finance from the Graduate School of Management, Arizona State University, graduating both schools with honors
Anybody who’s written ad copy for Google AdWords has experienced the challenge of condensing their marketing genius into 2 lines of 35 characters of text.
It’s an imposing undertaking, made only tougher by the fact that your ad needs to stand out among a sea of competitors' ads that are vying for that same prospect.
Even though you use best practices for ad writing, do you also take into consideration how your ad will actually look on the Google search page compared to your competitors?
“The Art of War" & Ad Copy
In the classic “The Art of War”, author Sun Tzu states “The general who wins the battle makes many calculations where the battle is to be fought. “
Translated for online marketers, Mr. Tzu was saying “The online marketer who wins the PPC battle, creates his PPC ads where the battle will be fought”.
Where’s the battle fought? On the Google search results page, where your ad will spar with your opponents … not in the sterile and safe environment of the AdWords interface.
You see, the AdWords interface provides an easy set of form fields to create your ad, but you have no idea how your ad is going to look alongside your enemies’ ads.
A Defeated Ad
For example, take a look at the image below that was taken from the Google search results page when searching on the keyword phrase “dining room tables”. Would you have created the first ad offering 20-40% savings if you knew your competitor’s ad would appear directly underneath offering 40-50% savings?
If you were shopping for a dining room table, which ad would you be more likely to click?
Beware of the 2-Line Deception
Have you ever read a PPC ad placed directly above the organic listings that just didn’t seem to read well? Remember, if you compose your ad in the safety of the AdWords interface, you’re only seeing your ad as it would appear in the right hand column of the search results page; that is with 2 lines of ad copy.
Weight Loss Vitamins
Thinking of using a fad diet? Don't
Try our vitamins first-see results.
This is how the ad would appear in the AdWords interface and in the right hand column of the Google search page
However, PPC ads that appear above the organic listings combine both fields into a single line of text.
Here’s an example of an ad that looks fine in the AdWords interface, but goes wrong in a 1-line format.
Weight Loss Vitamins
Thinking of using a fad diet? Don't Try our vitamins first-see results.
If you’re wondering why we didn’t put a period at the end of the 1st sentence, it was because we couldn’t – we’d already hit our 35-character limitation. And, based on how the ad looked in the AdWords interface, we thought our ad read fine without the ending period.
But the awkwardness of that ad displayed as one line distorts our message, will tend to deflate our click through rate, increase our average cost per click, and will likely result in lost revenue opportunities.
That kind of miscalculation could have been avoided if the marketer created their PPC ad on the Google search page.
But, how is that possible?
Until recently, it wasn't. But now, there’s actually a quite easy way to compose your ad on a Google search page with a free software application from Engine Ready called AdFlintTM.
What is AdFlint
AdFlint™
· Is a completely free Windows software application
· Was created and is being made available by Engine Ready
· Allows you to develop and brainstorm ads in a much more rich and inspiring environment
· Gives you the ability to discern what will make your ad more compelling than your competitors … before your ad is live
How AdFlint™ Works
When you start-up AdFlintTM you’ll notice that it looks and works just like your Internet Explorer browser. Within the AdFlintTM interface:
1. Login to your AdWords account by first clicking on the AdWords button in the AdFlintTM toolbar.
2. Next, open another window in AdFlintTM , launch Google, and enter your search term. You'll then receive the Google’s search results page for that keyword phrase.
Here’s your chance to look over the competition and brainstorm on crafting an ad that really stands out from the rest.
3. When you’re ready to see how your ad will look on the search results page, simply click the ad location where you expect your ad to appear. You can click on any ad position, both above the organic listings or in the right hand sponsored listings positions.
When you click the ad position, you'll see a red dashed box will appear around that ad position.
4. Using AdFlintTM , you just simply type directly over that existing ad title, display URL and ad copy. When you’re satisfied with your new ad, it’s real easy to post that ad directly into your AdWords account.
5. When you’re ready to post your new ad to your AdGroup, just click the “post” button located in the lower right portion of your ad. AdFlintTM will automatically paste the text of your new ad title, description, copy and display URL into the AdWords interface.
Give AdFlint™ A Try - It's Free
You can download for free your own copy of AdFlintTM by visiting: http://engineready.com/company/adflintsignup.html.
Within minutes you'll be creating much better performing ads. And you'll be more effectively armed for the PPC battlefield.
Remember, as the great Internet Marketing warrior stated, "Make your calculations where the PPC battle will be fought", and you'll be on your way to crushing your enemy with brilliant ad copy.
