Many of you probably already know Ian Fernando. He is the king of networking and known far and wide as ghetto affiliate. He is also a great friend of mine. I asked him to make a guest post for AdHustler.com readers. Enjoy 🙂
The Art of Ad Copy
There are many ways to look at advertising and the way it is viewed by others. From our perspective we see it at a different level than the traditional user. Do we think from the perspective of the user or do we just market as if we are marketers? Should it always talk about the product or offer or should it always digress from the actual offer?
Some ad copies out there are there to trick a person to get a click on their ad but sometimes what is the point when it will not convert. There are several aspects of an ad copy and how to write a good ad copy, but we are going to just break down the basics of an ad copy and what need to be included.
With any ad there needs to be a strong CTA (call to action) and it should happen in 2-3 places out of the 4 lines you are given in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Seems that the CTA should be everywhere, well it shouldn’t because you need to state the basis of the offer or product somewhere in the ad copy.
First line is a CTA because it it a link and it is always a colored link. This pulls in the users eyes towards yoru ad usually right away, but how can you differentiate from all the other standard search results and the other ad? Does it contain the keyword the user searches for? This is very important because it will give you more visibility across the other ads. The ad with the containing keywords are now bold via either Google, Yahoo, or MSN. This simple idea gives you an advantage over others and givse you more visibility than others.
Once you get someone looking at your ad what is next?
The second line of an ad should contain a description of your ad. Also it should contain the same containing keyword of the title of your ad. This puts reassurance to the user, try not to digress off the title of the ad copy. If you mentioned blue widgets in the title, back the title up by re-mentioning blue wdigets and an advantage. Reenforcing the title provides you with a much better quality score as well.
The last line is sometimes controversial, but should be a final CTA. Users will add numbers to get more visibility or will continue the description. Continuing the description, personally does not work. It is the last line that users will see that will be related to your ad/offer. You simply have to sell them on why they should visit your site or offer. The third or last line (technically not the last line) needs to hit strong to your viewers, why should they visit? Is there a selling point? Is there an urgency? Are you showing any type of authority?
This last line can be your final CTA or not, it just needs to sell.
Finally, the last last line or domain line needs to show authority. This also needs to be or can be your other CTA because it should provide a sense of confidenc to the viewer. If it is a jumbled up URL then it will not attract the end user. It should also relate to the headline of the ad and should not be just a random url. The domain needs to have a strong authority, if it is just a so so domain, then your prior work in the above 3 lines were useless. The domain should be also straight to the point, almost straight to the selling point. It needs to be bold, because after you sold them on the third line, authority is what users will search for when looking at the ad.
These are basics of an ad copy and how to properly write it for the end user. There are many other ways to test ad copy like emotional response, controversial responses, immediate reactions, etc. The basic of an ad copy is usually still the same, CTA -> Description -> Selling Point -> Authority.
Great points Ian. Some don’t realize that the adcopy has a lot to do with the conversions. Since all affiliate marketing is , is testing, testing your adcopys should be no different.