The unveiling of Expanded Text Ads in 2016 led to tons of confusion among PPC marketers.
On the one hand, having more words at your disposal gives you plenty of room to play with language. On the other, expanded text gives you license to get less creative with your content.
If you look into how the words used in ads play a role when trying to maximise CTR (Click Through Rate), you’ll most likely find that that the number of words that you use isn’t the key factor.
It’s the type of words that play the biggest role:
Now, fast
Book
Get, find, search, call, shop, try, save
We, you, our
Best, great, up, official, new
Free, prices
Scraping conjunctions and articles to create a list of the power words that get people to click, and then cross-referencing those article with performance testing software, found that 335 best-performing ads that it examined all used at least one of the following words:
Your
Free
Now
Get
Online
Our
Save
Best
Shipping
You
Note the top result, which I would say is the most important. The ads with the best CTRs deliver a personalised message to users. They tell people what they get from clicking the ad, rather than what the company can offer them.
You can boost click-through rate if you make the ad relevant to the customer.
Then we get into the power words.
Words like “free” and “best” make obvious appearances. “Get” is also a useful term because it applies to practically every type of business.
“Shipping” is also a great power word for ecommerce businesses. You’ll likely combine this with “free” or “cheap” to give people another reason to click.
Here’s the key takeaway.
It’s not the amount of words that you use that encourage people to click an ad. It’s the type.
Focus your ad copy around words that urge people to act. Keep it personal and use words that draw attention. Always have a call-to-action near-by.
It’s best to use these words in the ad’s headline so you instantly tell people what they’re getting.