I love writing these tiny little ads. Like haiku with its tight structured cadence, the GAW character limitations force you to deeply think through the meaning and purpose of your message. I like challenges like these as they help keep me sharp and a bit humbled.

But our work doesn’t or shouldn’t end at the words. Our clients expect us to know a little bit more about what works/what doesn’t and why not? It’s our chance to gain a little extra gloss on our expertise and makes us an invaluable partner in our clients’ success.

So in this spirit, I was happy to see Perry Marshall’s recent synopsis of tips he gleaned from “The Ten Most Serious AdWords Beginner’s Mistakes” in Howie Jacobson’s new book, AdWords for Dummies. Here are three tips that I think you’ll find valuable:

1. Split Testing for Improved CTR Only: I think a lot of us stop here and don’t consider this as simply one metric of many. Of course, you want it high but not as the expense of conversion. That’s the bottom-line. Your ads have to attract BUYERS not just tire-kicking traffic.
2. Ignoring the Display URL Line in your Ad: It’s the little stuff that can easily pop your metrics skyward. For example, if you’re working with www.copywritingmaven.com, also try www.CopywritingMaven.com. If you’re working with sub-domains and sub-pages, think about www.CopywritingMaven.com/HotStuff and www.HotStuff.CopywritingMaven.com. Play with caps and lowercase and test, test, and test some more.
3. Creating Ad Groups with Unrelated Keywords: Granted, copywriters don’t always get to review and select the keyword phrases, but I always ask. Even if your client wants to dump every keyword into your smartly strategic ad group, don’t do it. You’ll want to create tight ad groups on a narrow set of related keywords matched closely to the ads and the landing page.

And because I always like to deliver just a little bit more …

Bonus Tip - Don’t forget to review and consider negative keywords. These are the words you don’t want your ads appearing for. For example, when I write ads for my online store, AdoptShoppe, I make sure that I list the word “agency” as negative since folks looking for an adoption agency are not the same people shopping for an adoption gift. Just about ANY ad group you’re writing would benefit from negative keywords identification. Eliminate the off-target traffic and you’ll increase your CTR and won’t burn through your ad budget on the wrong eyeballs.

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[tags] google adwords, writing google ads, howie jacobson, adwords for dummies, perry marshall [/tags]