The Best Seo Blogs

by Mike Fleming

I’ve started powering through David Szetela and Joe Kerschbaum’s new PPC book called Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing: An Hour a Day and I really like this PDF
they made available online to their readers.  Although it’s about
classified ads, you can pull direct correlations to apply to your PPC
text ads when advertising on search engines.  Really, search engine
results pages (SERPs) are just like classified ads except the page is
digital instead of paper.

Here are some of the highlights that I personally took away –

1.  The Goal – The goal of your ad is not to sell a product.  It is to get a qualified prospect to click through your ad so that your site can sell them. 
Notice I said “qualified” prospect.  All too often advertisers are
paying for clicks that have no chance of buying.  The search intent and
what is being offered do not match.  Therefore, the goal of your ad is
not only to communicate your offering in a compelling way that will
motivate the click, but to motivate the right “clickers” so that you
don’t end up “selling air conditioners to Eskimos.”

2.  The Content
– If the ad is not read, it won’t stimulate any sales; if it is not
seen, it cannot be read, and if it does not command or grab the
attention of the reader, it will not be seen.  Your knowledge and
practice of the “master formula” of ad writing called “AIDA” will
determine the extent of your success as an advertising copywriter.

Attract the attention of your prospect
– Imagine your prospect scanning a SERP.  For him it is much like which
ride at the amusement park to take next.  Something must grab their
attention to direct their focus toward your product.  With text ads,
it’s all in the words and it starts with the headline.  It must be more
difficult for the prospect to ignore your headline than to stop and read
your ad.

To do this, you typically want to do the opposite of or be different
than most other advertisers.  You might ask a question, give a warning,
make a promise, etc.  Whatever you do, you want to make sure to test
powerful words that relate to the primary emotional benefit you’ve
identified your audience to be looking for.  Tip: It’s the reason that motivated their search in the first place.

Interest your prospect to desire the product
– Tell the prospect exactly how they’re going to benefit from the
purchase of your product using the appropriate emotional benefits.  This
is where you reiterate the benefits you’ve implied in your headline.

Cause your prospect to desire the product
– You have to build belief and credibility in the mind of the prospect
to assure him of his good judgment in the final decision to buy.  So,
give him evidence of the benefits you’ve promised.  Let him imagine
owning the product and visualizing the benefits you’ve promised.

Demand action from the prospect
– Psychologists say that when given a directive, a human’s first
instinct is to reply.  You can tell them what they’re going to miss if
they don’t take the action, tell them why procrastinating is a mistake,
or offer them a reward for acting now, etc.  Tell them what to do and
make it easy for them to do it.

3.  The Words
– Some words are more powerful than others.  Saying your ad must “spark
your reader’s interest” is more powerful than saying your ad must “get
the reader’s attention.”  Words spark feelings and getting prospects to
have feelings about your words is what you want to accomplish.  It is
the feelings that have the power.  If you are having trouble finding
power words to use in your ad, it is probably because you are
concentrating too hard on what words you want to use instead of what
sorts of feelings you want the reader to feel.  Decide on the feelings
first and then experiment with the words that best convey them.

Be sure and visit our small business news site.

Go to Source

No related posts.