When everything else in the PPC world has gone away, ad text testing will still remain standing. OK, maybe that’s a bit grandiose. What I’m getting at is pay-per-click advertising is awash with bells and whistles, hoosits and whatsits (galore) and a million other ways to become distracted from those tools and tasks that provide the strongest return-on-time investment. Ad text testing is one of those tools/tasks, and I really mean it when I say that it’s a PPC manager’s constant friend and companion!
I won’t go so far as to say that it’s a perfect system, but it’s close. You have at your finger tips the ability to create distinct advertising variations that will immediately become part of a traditional A/B testing process (or A/B/C – whatever, you get it). That is if you’ve remembered to set your ad delivery to rotate evenly! There aren’t very many forms of advertising where the testing process is initiated so easily. But don’t let that ease of entry fool you. Properly testing ad texts is a timely, methodical process that is not a one-time event.
I’ve used the cliché phrase many times before, but ad text testing is a process that cannot be successful with a “set it and forget it” attitude. If you create one or two ads per ad group and walk away assuming everything will work out fine, you’re sorely mistaken. Nobody can instantly understand all of the nuances of a keyword (or group of keywords) and it’s competitive landscape and write the perfect ad from the get-go. Maybe you’ll get lucky and you’ll generate a decent CTR or conversion rate – but why would you leave such an important thing to chance?
To be successful with PPC, you have to be dedicated. Dedicated to the process of ad text testing: Create ads. Review performance statistics. Determine the benefits, calls-to-actions or any other elements that are driving the best CTR and/or conversion rates. Then start the process all over again. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Get to know this process, become comfortable with the cycle and make ad text testing your constant friend and companion. Do this, and you’ll find PPC success.
For a great primer for ad text testing, I strongly suggest reading one or all of these articles:
- Learn the Basics of Testing Ad Copy
- Measuring a Text Ad’s Effectiveness
- 4 Step PPC Ad Optimization Process
