Continuing our series on PPC ad text optimization, we look again at minimizing the cost of PPC text ads. With apologies to the Cure, we look at using ad text that offers a strange attraction to viewers. Using letter and symbol combinations that attract the eye can both increase click-through rates and lower cost per click.
Strange Attraction
The idea of strange attractors is to create combinations of letters and symbols that attract the fast-scanning eye of the short attention span searcher. Figure 1 shows a variation of 24/7 (which in itself is a kind of strange attractor).
Figure 1: PPC Ad Text Example of Strange Attraction
The ride service advertised is a 24 hour, 7 day a week service. We found that including spaces in the term 24/7 becomes “24 / 7” can yield higher click and conversion rates, and lower cost per click. The unusual combination of a symbol “/” plus numbers and spaces yields a strange attractor that grabs the roaming eye.
Scanning vs. Reading on the Web
People tend to scan text on the Web rather than read the entire page. Jakob Nielsen found that 79% of people scan rather than read on the Web. Eye-scanning studies have shown that the eye jumps around the page seeking interesting and useful information. Ad text has a limited text palette, feeding into our short attention span culture. Your ads are also competing for attention among other ads and search results. Make your ads stand out from the crowd.
Approved by Google
Of course you need to make sure your strange attractors are approved by Google. We’ve found that as long as the meaning is clear and the ad text doesn’t go over the top of Google’s guidelines you should be good to go.
Other Examples of Strange Attractors
Some other examples of strange attraction combinations are as follows:
- 100% Guarantee
- 24 / 7 Service
- & (instead of “and”)
- one Hump, camel case
Conclusion
Using strange attraction ad text can boost click-through and conversion rates and lower cost per click. We found that using a strange attractor of “24 / 7” lowered the cost per click significantly and in some cases boosted CTR over the baseline.
Further Reading
- MiGreenCars.com
- This Ann Arbor and Southfield Michigan-based green car ride company volunteered their AdWords campaign as the subject of this article.
- PPC Optimization: Abbreviate Ad Text
- Abbreviating key phrases in PPC text ads can lower CPC and the cost per conversion. Our otherwise identical text ad with “Michigan” abbreviated to “Mich” decreased the cost per call by more than 35%, and increased the conversion rate by 33 percentage points.
- PPC Optimization: Ad Text Position
- Leading with benefits can improve PPC text ad conversion rates. We show a case study that improves conversion rates by 1.8X.
- PPC Optimization: Age Range Targeting
- You can target specific age ranges in Google Adwords to optimize conversion rates. By tweaking the bids on high performing age ranges you can tilt your campaigns to those folks more likely to convert.
- PPC Optimization: Average Income Targeting
- Targeting your desired audience within particular geographic area using income is a powerful tool you can use to improve your conversion rates. Average household income is just the first demographic that Google has rolled out for that purpose. Coming soon are gender, age, and parental status which could be used to further refine your campaigns.
- PPC Optimization: Be Specific
- Using specific copy in your PPC ad text can improve conversion rates. Giving searchers ad text that more closely matches their search queries gives them results that more closely match their goals.
- PPC Optimization: Display URL Expansion
- By including keywords or calls to action in your display URLs you can boost text ad performance in Google Adwords. This article shows a real-world example of display URL optimization.
- PPC Optimization: Experiments in Punctuation
- By varying the punctuation and plurals within your text ads, you can optimize their conversion rate and cost per conversion. This article shows a case study of call only text ad optimization.
- PPC Optimization: Gender Targeting
- In Google Adwords you can optimize conversion rates using gender targeting. Learn how to squeeze more leads out of your PPC spend by targeting high performing demographics singly or in combination.
- PPC Optimization: ZIP Code Targeting
- Learn how to add ZIP code targeting to your PPC campaigns to boost conversion rates. By optimizing the performance of individual demographics and locations, you can improve conversion rates to squeeze more leads out your AdWords spend.