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2026: What Happens Next for Digital Marketing
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Writing effective ad copy to achieve your search marketing objectives
When running a PPC ad, the main goal is to get in front of the right people at the right time… right? And when you get there, you want to make sure your message is clear, concise and conversion-worthy with some awesome ad copy.
Writing ad copy is one of the most straightforward parts of any PPC strategy, and can come second nature to an experienced marketer, but it’s safe to say we all get writer’s block sometimes.
Writing for your audience
It can be challenging coming up with creative headlines and catchy callout extensions for your pay per click ads, but that’s not to say you can’t do it. Writing truly effective copy comes from understanding your target audience, and what they are looking for when they turn to the web.
Marketers often get caught up in writing ad copy that only includes the message we want to convey, and often forget about how we want the users to feel when the ad appears in their results.
To write good, conversion-friendly ad copy, you want to find out what your potential customers are looking for, and use that in your copy to persuade them to take your desired action.
When you start tailoring your PPC ad copy to your audience, rather than your objective, you’ll see results. Sincerity is the key to persuasion!
Conect with users through language
Being informative doesn’t have to mean you just stick to cliché, factual text that commonly appears in ad copy either. Evoking a response from your user with something more bespoke, and in your tone of voice will make you stand out. Address your audience by using second-person possessive adjectives such as ‘you’ or ‘your’ to connect with them on a more personal level.
As we’ve said before, knowing what your audience is searching for can not only influence the success of your ads but also your business as a whole. Including commonly searched phrases or questions within ad copy is a great way to show the user you have the answers they are looking for.
Writing for your audience
It can be challenging coming up with creative headlines and catchy callout extensions for your pay per click ads, but that’s not to say you can’t do it. Writing truly effective copy comes from understanding your target audience, and what they are looking for when they turn to the web.
Marketers often get caught up in writing ad copy that only includes the message we want to convey, and often forget about how we want the users to feel when the ad appears in their results.
To write good, conversion-friendly ad copy, you want to find out what your potential customers are looking for, and use that in your copy to persuade them to take your desired action.
When you start tailoring your PPC ad copy to your audience, rather than your objective, you’ll see results. Sincerity is the key to persuasion!
Conect with users through language
Being informative doesn’t have to mean you just stick to cliché, factual text that commonly appears in ad copy either. Evoking a response from your user with something more bespoke, and in your tone of voice will make you stand out. Address your audience by using second-person possessive adjectives such as ‘you’ or ‘your’ to connect with them on a more personal level.
As we’ve said before, knowing what your audience is searching for can not only influence the success of your ads but also your business as a whole. Including commonly searched phrases or questions within ad copy is a great way to show the user you have the answers they are looking for.
Personalisation
Personalisation in your ads makes users feel more important and allows them to connect with the brand and develop feelings of familiarity and trust.
From Google’s perspective, doing this may even indicate high relevancy and result in an improved quality score, higher ad rank, and a lower cost-per-click. It’s a win-win situation in everyone’s eyes!
Create a sense of urgency
There are other techniques that can be used to evoke emotion within your users and have been shown to increase conversion and click-through rate. Provoking a sense of urgency by using clear call-to-actions such as ‘limited stock’ or ‘last chance’, amplifies the need for the user to act now and creates that well-known feeling of FOMO that strongly influences consumers today. In fact, it has been suggested that 60% of consumers make purchases, typically within 24 hours, because of the FOMO phenomenon.
Include a call to action
Effective PPC ads will also usually contain a strong call to action that tells users what they can expect to do when they reach your landing page, and makes it clear what the next steps are.
For example, if you are selling a product, consider including CTAs such as ‘buy’, ‘purchase’, ‘shop now’, ‘order’. If your goal is to drive leads, think about CTAs such as ‘enquire now’, ‘contact us’, ‘call today’, ‘sign up’.
Testing what works
Perhaps the most important point of all is to remember that the best ad copy often comes with testing – the first ad you write will not necessarily be the one that works the best or the one that attracts the most customers or conversions. It is good practice to regularly test and experiment with different messages, promotions and landing pages to see what works best for you. There are however a few points to remember with this:
- Ensure that you have two ads running to test one against the other.
- Keep an old ad live (the best performing one) and create a new version to test alongside this – this helps to preserve quality score and also allows you to benchmark performance of the new ad copy.
- Ensure that your ads are set to ‘rotate evenly’. By default, AdWords will optimise ad rotation based on performance, however you can change this setting to rotate your ads equally. This will allow for a fairer split test.
Create a sense of urgency
There are other techniques that can be used to evoke emotion within your users and have been shown to increase conversion and click-through rate. Provoking a sense of urgency by using clear call-to-actions such as ‘limited stock’ or ‘last chance’, amplifies the need for the user to act now and creates that well-known feeling of FOMO that strongly influences consumers today. In fact, it has been suggested that 60% of consumers make purchases, typically within 24 hours, because of the FOMO phenomenon.
Include a call to action
Effective PPC ads will also usually contain a strong call to action that tells users what they can expect to do when they reach your landing page, and makes it clear what the next steps are.
For example, if you are selling a product, consider including CTAs such as ‘buy’, ‘purchase’, ‘shop now’, ‘order’. If your goal is to drive leads, think about CTAs such as ‘enquire now’, ‘contact us’, ‘call today’, ‘sign up’.
Testing what works
Perhaps the most important point of all is to remember that the best ad copy often comes with testing – the first ad you write will not necessarily be the one that works the best or the one that attracts the most customers or conversions. It is good practice to regularly test and experiment with different messages, promotions and landing pages to see what works best for you. There are however a few points to remember with this:
- Ensure that you have two ads running to test one against the other.
- Keep an old ad live (the best performing one) and create a new version to test alongside this – this helps to preserve quality score and also allows you to benchmark performance of the new ad copy.
- Ensure that your ads are set to ‘rotate evenly’. By default, AdWords will optimise ad rotation based on performance, however you can change this setting to rotate your ads equally. This will allow for a fairer split test.
Use keywords in your copy
Try to include your target keywords in your ad copy at least once. Firstly, this helps show that your ad is relevant to what users are looking for, as the best-performing ads are usually the ones that people find the most relevant.
For example, if someone searches for ‘PPC agency’ and sees an ad that contains the keyword ‘PPC agency’ in the ad copy, they would probably be more likely to click this compared to a more generic ad about digital marketing. There is more chance that the user will find what they are looking for from the more targeted ad.
Secondly, relevance is also not just important for the user, but also for improving quality score within Google Ads. Google takes relevance into account when determining the quality of the ads within a Google Ads account and will reward more relevant ads with a higher keyword level quality score, as higher quality ads that are relevant to the person searching lead to a greater experience for Google’s users.
Having a high quality score can help advertisers in several ways. Ad quality is taken into consideration every time a user searches on Google and an ad enters an auction – this contributes towards a score called ‘Ad Rank’ which determines:
- Whether your ad is eligible to enter the auction at all.
- Where the ad will appear on the page.
- Your keyword’s first page and top of page bid estimate.
- How much you pay for a click on your ad (the actual CPC)
- Whether your ad is eligible to show ad extensions
Target a relevant landing page
As with including the keywords in your ad copy, it is also really important to consider the landing pages that your ads are targeting. If you match your keywords and ads to your landing pages, there is more chance that users will find what they expect when they reach your website – and consequently more chance of them becoming a lead or completing a purchase while they are on your site.
A highly relevant landing page also factors into the Quality Score and Ad Rank considerations mentioned above, so it is really important to think about landing pages to help reduce click costs and improve ad positions.
Target a relevant landing page
As with including the keywords in your ad copy, it is also really important to consider the landing pages that your ads are targeting. If you match your keywords and ads to your landing pages, there is more chance that users will find what they expect when they reach your website – and consequently more chance of them becoming a lead or completing a purchase while they are on your site.
A highly relevant landing page also factors into the Quality Score and Ad Rank considerations mentioned above, so it is really important to think about landing pages to help reduce click costs and improve ad positions.
Get PPC support from the experts
The tactics we have shared have the potential to subconsciously evoke an emotional response in users and change your ad copy for the better. Ensure to write ad copy that resonates with your target audience by taking the time to understand what they truly want when they turn to search engines for answers. Build memorable relationships with users by being humorous, nostalgic, exclusive, and informative, and you’ll see brand awareness and loyalty follow.
If you’d like any help with your ad copy or PPC management, then take a look at our PPC services or get in touch.
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