It happens with practically every PPC campaign. Clickthrough rates (CTR) are lower than expected and people start to panic. Amazingly, most begin to scramble around tweaking bid amounts, adjusting geo-modifiers and the like. The most obvious of fixes, however, usually gets overlooked… your ad copy.
Think about it. The success or failure of your entire PPC campaign depends largely on the ads you run. If no one clicks your ads, it won’t matter how hard you worked on everything else. All your effort will be for nothing. The ad copy is what sets your entire campaign in motion.
Scrap the Copy and Start Over?
Let’s not get carried away. Sometimes we tend to throw the baby out with the bath water. While an ad might not perform as well as expected, that doesn’t mean all the copy is useless.
Rather than scrap the ad and start over from scratch, test it by making a few changes. Frequently, this improves performance faster than writing entirely new ads. Yeah, I know, the “T” word makes shivers run up and down your spine. Honestly, testing PPC ad copy is one of the easiest things to do.
How to Macro-Test Your PPC Ads
Once your campaign has launched, keep an eye on your CTRs. When you see ads that are underperforming, macro-test the original against a revised version or two.
Macro-testing (as the name implies) involves making major changes to the ad copy. Change entire headlines, swap out whole words or use a new tone/style. For instance, if you ran this ad:
Then, you might macro-test it against these versions:
Master Internet Marketing {entire headline changed}
2000 attendees, 130 speakers,
2.5 days, 1 lasting experience.
or
Internet Summit 2013
Stop struggling! 130 speakers, {swapped number of attendees with emotional call}
2.5 days, 1 lasting experience.
Here’s another example.
Macro-tests of this ad might give you these versions:
AT&T Customers Save More {changed headline}
Go wireless & save! Get U-verse TV, Internet
& Home Phone-$74/mo for 24 mos
or
Exclusive Customer Offer
AT&T wireless customers get more & save more! {added to this sentence}
U-verse TV, Internet, Phone-$74/mo for 24 mos
Google AdWords, Facebook and other PPC ad platforms offer good built-in tracking tools. You can easily determine the CTR of your ads by logging into your account and taking a quick look. Once you’ve found which version causes the underperforming ads to improve, you can move to the micro-testing phase.
Micro-Test to Refine CTRs
Whether you have copy that is getting fewer clicks than you hoped for, or you’ve finished a series of macro-tests (using the steps outlined above) you can move on to the next step: making minor tweaks. Micro-testing can give you just the needed bump to make your campaigns successful. Here’s how…
When micro-testing, you’ll make tiny tweaks, such as:
► Switching the position of words
► Altering punctuation
► Changing capitalization
► Replacing display URLs
Let’s go back through the examples above and apply micro-testing to them this time.
Previous Version
Micro-Changes
2013 Internet Summit {moved year to front of headline}
2.5 days, 130 speakers, 2000 {rearranged the order of the information}
attendees, 1 lasting experience.
Previous Version
Master Internet Marketing
2000 attendees, 130 speakers,
2.5 days, 1 lasting experience.
Micro-Changes
Internet Mkting Mastered {rearranged words in headline, shortened 1 word}
2000 attendees, 130 speakers,
2.5 days, 1 lasting experience.
Previous Version
Micro-Changes
Exclusive Customer Offer
Save more as an AT&T wireless customer! {rearranged words}
U-verse TV, Internet, Phone-$74/mo for 24 mos
Exclusive Offer for Customers {added word to headline}
Go wireless & save! $74/mo for 24 mos {rearranged words}
for U-verse TV, Internet & Home Phone
Previous Version
AT&T Customers Save More
Go wireless & save! Get U-verse TV, Internet
& Home Phone-$74/mo for 24 mos
Micro-Changes
AT&T Customers SAVE MORE {added all caps}
Get wireless U-verse TV, Internet & Home Phone {rearranged words}
$74/mo for 24 mos
Using the methods discussed in this article, you can easily start testing your PPC ads. Take a look now at your Adwords, Facebook or other campaign and determine the CTRs of your ads. Then, apply what you’ve learned here to all the copy in your campaign. With a little effort, big improvements await!
No obscure theories here! Get real-world help & how-tos for boosting conversions, increasing search rankings, developing better landing pages & escalating the ROI of your online marketing. Sign up for Karon’s weekly web copywriting newsletter and follow her on Google + and Facebook.
If you found this post valuable, others might, too. Please share (below) on your favorite social media sites. Thanks!