Text Ad Best Practices

How to write successful text ads

Now that you know what Google search ads look like, let’s go through some of the best practices of writing specific, relevant, attractive, and actionable text ads.

Highlight what makes you unique: When coming up with your headline, think of what makes you stand out from the competition. Your ad will likely be displayed among a few other ads that advertise similar products. Go back to the value proposition you created earlier and make sure your potential customers know about what makes your product or service unique.
Include numbers: Space is limited and numbers catch people’s attention very easily. Do you offer a fixed or low starting price or hourly rate that stands out? Or is your service available 24/7 or within 1 hour? Do you have 1,000 happy customers? Whatever number you can highlight to make your offering more attractive, consider to include it.
Use a call-to-action: Use your ad’s description lines to tell your customers what they can do on your site once they click your ad. Calls to action like purchase, call today, order, browse, sign up, or get a quote clearly define what are the next steps. Your call to action has to be specific and can’t include the word “click” (such as “click here” or “click now”).
Create a mobile optimized experience: Whether you would like to drive more foot traffic, or have multiple storefronts, customers on mobile can find you a lot easier if they know where you are and how to contact you. Through location, call, and message extensions, these mobile customers can reach you easily. Also, even though your ad may already be optimized for mobile, remember that it is best that your landing page is also mobile friendly. You can test that with Google's tool.
Match your ad to your keywords: Try thinking like your customers and imagine what they might search for when seeking your product or services. Include their search terms as keywords in your ad text so that they can easily recognize that you offer exactly what they are searching for. Google also offers a feature called “keyword insertion” that dynamically updates your ad text to include one of your keywords that matches a customer's search terms. This is an advanced feature that requires some careful setup. You can find Google’s setup guide here.
Match your ad to your landing page: When someone clicks on the link in your ad, they should be taken to a landing page where they can do exactly what your ad promises. The easier you make it for customers to find what they're looking for, the more likely they are to make a purchase.
Create at least two text ads per ad group: You can have more, but two ads to start in each ad group will help you figure out which messaging resonates with searchers. When you have multiple text ads in an ad group, Google rotates the delivery because no more than one ad from your account can show at any one time. Google, by default, runs the best ad - once Google has sufficient data, Google optimizes for the ad that receives the most clicks.
Do competitive research: To make your ad stand out, it’s helpful to know what other ads will appear next to yours from your competitors. As a result, before you write your ads, take a look at your competitors' ads and see how you can stand out to your target audience. There are also helpful tools available (e.g. semrush.com) that help you identify your competitor’s major keywords and the ads they are currently running. These tools usually charge you, but often have a free trial version, which can be a great place to start.
Avoid the most common mistakes: In order to make sure all AdWords ads are high quality, every ad must meet certain standards. Learn what those standards are and how to avoid common mistakes next!

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