First step in writing PPC ad copy: THINK
September 21st, 2010 by
Earlier this year Anthony, our resident PPC expert, wrote a great blog post titled, Pay Per Click for Dummies? Hire a Professional. Consider this its sequel. A part 2: Electric Boogaloo, if you will. While doing a little Google Maps magic for one of our clients, I stumbled upon this PPC ad when searching for the phrase, baby moon California.
Somebody call the CPS!
I was shocked. How did the baby-selling black market get ad space for their sale? I thought Google had standards! Though, free 2-day shipping on an 8 lbs. package is a steal. My curiosity was piqued. I just had to click. Needless to say, I was let down. Apparently, California Baby is a product line of shampoos, soaps, etc. If this is how they advertise baby lotions, I’d hate to see how their ad for the importance of baby naps would look…
I really don’t know how the site owners gave it the go-ahead. Perhaps if I lived in California and knew of the product, my mind wouldn’t have automatically jumped to such a horrendous conclusion. However, not every person who is searching for baby moons is going to be familiar with this brand. Even just adding the word “products” in between “baby” and “on sale” would have helped. It’s much clearer, still falls in the 35-character limit, and doesn’t remind people of the Lindbergh baby.
Awkward first impressions aside, they make a couple other rookie mistakes. First, the keyword selection is incredibly unclear. Most search engines bold the keywords in the title and copy. I assume they’re going for the phrase “California Baby,” but Google doesn’t seem to recognize it as a keyword. That’s why only California is in bold but nothing else. This should have prompted them to rethink their strategy.
Next, it’s best to try to squeeze the keyword into the copy as well. The bolder, the better. It stands out more to the customer, which means they are more likely to click through. They must have learned this lesson between the above ad and the most recent one I found:
TWO ads for baby sales? They must be selling like hot cakes. The free market has spoken!
