Drafting advertisement texts can be challenging. Writers have known the problem for ages: creativity does not get to you on command. If you already recognize this problem if you are writing a whole book, chapter or newspaper article, then try to find the right words for an interesting and relevant advertisement text which can be no longer than 3 sentences.

Below, a list of good, proven methods:

1. Stick to the rules

Google’s guidelines for drafting adwords advertisements:

• Lengths of the texts:
  • Limit the title to a maximum of 25 characters. This includes spaces.
  • No more than 35 characters in the two lines under the title.
  • The visible URL under your advertisement can consist of a maximum of 35 characters.
  • The real link behind this Display-URL can consist of 1024 characters.
• Use of capital letters:
  • A maximum of one capital per word, unless it is an official recognized abbreviation.
• Prices, discounts, promotions:
  • When you put prices, discounts or other promotions in your advertisement text, they have to be found on your site within two clicks from the destination-URL.
• Exclamation marks:
  • A maximum of one per advertisement, not in the title.
• The use of Trademarks and terms who are protected by Copyright is only allowed when you do have the rights.
• The superlative degree may only be used when an independent third party confirms this on your destination-URL.
• There may not be placed any relations with Google in the advertisement text.
• The same word may not be in one line twice.

Well, that's a big list! But don't panic, if you don't cross the limits, Google will clarify the guidelines for you which could be without consequences. You can find more about Google’s "Editorial Guidelines" here.

2. Determine your USP's and use these in advertisements.

USP’s, or also Unique Selling Points, are key characteristics of your company/website because of which your customers should choose for you and not for your competitors.

Examples of USP's are:

• Delivering within a specified time.
• Free delivering.
• Lowest price.
• Highest quality.
• Most experience.
• Most sold product.
• Best service.

Pay attention! When you use the superlative degree, this has to be acknowledged by an independent party on the destination-URL.

If you are not so sure about the (most important) USP's of your company, draft a couple of advertisements in which you mention different USP’s. By testing these advertisements at the same time, you can easily decide which ad is prefered by your potential customers.

3. Make use of “Call-to-Action” phrases

First you should know the desired action of your potential customers as soon as they hit your site. This can be downloading a file, subscribing to a newsletter or viewing a page with contact-data. Most of the time this action will be the online buying of a product or service. For this reason, you have to find a way to describe this action as short, concise and clear as possible. You should try to limit this to 3 or 4 words at the bottom of your advertisement.

Commonly used Call-to-Action phrases are:

• Buy now!
• Book now!
• Order here!
• Make a reservation!
• Order today!
• Buy from stock!
• Download here!
• Subscribe now!

Because the potential customer is informed of the desired action as soon as he/she enters your website, he/she will be better prepared for this action. As soon as the visitor is ready for it, he/she will find his/her way to the buy-button faster. Besides, the individuals who do not want to undertake the action, will be deterred by the ad text. This is negative for your click percentage (CTR) but will result in a higher conversion percentage. After all, you do not want to pay for individuals who are not going to convert anyway.

4. For local businesses: Provide geographical information about the company!

If you have a company that only serves clients in a specific geographical area, as for example, physical shops and hotels, give information about where people can find your company. A hotel for example: I think it would be good if your potential customer can already see where the hotel is situated on the search page of Google. Often it is a smart idea to make a difference between local customers and non-local customers (travelers).

Give local customers the exact geographical information as for example:

• "Mainstreet 168"
• "You can find us next to the public parc, next to the fountain".

Give non-local customers relative geographical information as:

• "We are 10km from the airport."
• "5 minutes walking from the central station."

5. Write advertisements which connect to the appropriate "buyer funnel" phase your customer is in.

All customers are going through the buyer funnel to buy a product or service. This process is almost the same for all buyers of a specific product and it has to be clear where your potential customers are in the buyer funnel. Therefore, the “buyer funnel” is often shown as a funnel or inverted pyramid because at each phase of this process potential buyers will lapse.

The phases of the funnel are like this. At each phase is a short explanation which strategy at writing advertisement texts can be used the best.

A) Awareness

Before this phase the individual does not know your company, product or service. In the worst case, the individual does not even know he/she has a problem wherefore your company gives a solution.

• Strategy:
  • "Branding": tell everybody about the existence of your product. Do not use any specifications or jargon. That will be too confusing for this phase.
• Searchterms in this phase are characterized by:
  • Short-Tail, only some key search words.
  • High search volume
  • Low conversion percentage
  • High CPC

B) Interest

The potential customer has found your product/product category and is interested. For example, someone has decided that his/her television is too old. He/she will now be interested in the new TV-screen models. Only, this person does not have any know-how and no preference from one product type to another.

• Strategy:
  • Emphasize the benefits of your product.
  • Try to think like the customer: What does your product do whereby it is attractive to the customer? What can the customer gain with your product, which is not possible with competitive products?

C) Learn

The individual is now deepening in the different options and aspects of the intended product category or service. The potential customer gets knowledge by searching actively on explanations about know-hows, specifications and underlying technology. In our example of television screens, the potential customer will now want to discover the exact difference between LCD and Plasma screens, what HD-ready means, which other functions are available.

• Strategy:
  • Let your USP’s do the job.
  • Which unique specifications (features) has your product or service?
  • It can also be smart to appoint the benefits of the previous phase.

D) Compare

The customer now has a bit of expertise and is comparing specifications of different products. The individual approximately knows which product he/she wants to buy, but is not that sure about the exact model. In our example the client would now have chosen between LCD or Plasma, but does not know for example which brand, which size, which type fits the best to him/her.

• Strategy:
  • Advertise as specific as possible with the used search terms.
  • Guide your potential customers to product category-pages where different products which comply with the search term are shown and can be compared.
• Search terms:
  • Keywords in this phase will often have the appearance of “product” + "specification". For example "Flatscreen tv" + "Plasma".

E) Buying

The customer has found the specific model he/she wants to buy. The only question left is “where?”. The individual will compare prices, warranties, shipping costs, contracts, return policies and terms and conditions to decide where he/she can buy the product best.

• Search words:
  • Long-Tail
  • Search terms consider most of the time 4 or more words
  • Low search volumes
  • If the searched product is within your assortiment, you can get high click percentages (CTR) and high conversion percentages (conv.rate).
  • Low CPC as a cause of low competition.
• Strategy:
  • Make sure to mention the specific, searched product in your advertisement text. Make use of USP’s and “Call-to-Action” cries like “Buy here!”, “Order now!” and suchlike. On the destination-URL you will show the specific product with a very present buy-button. Show all information on top very clearly so that the customer can decide very easily to push the button.
  • This is the domain of Long-tail search terms. There are incredible much of these search terms who each bring a small search volume with them. If you succeed in advertising on all these search terms with matching advertisement texts and destination-URL’s, you can still get a good amount of search volume. These potential clients will, in contrast to the individuals of earlier phases, show a high conversion percentage. It is a lot of work to make separate advertisements by hand for all these search terms. AdWords Robot this process will be largely automated and u can very easily advertise on a large part of the Long-Tail search terms.