3 Things to Avoid When Writing Ad & Marketing Copy

By Guest Blogger Leave a Comment Mar 7 2

Hey Everyone,
PPC Ian here. Today I’m thrilled to share a guest blog post by my good friend Francesca StaAna of AdMedia Online Ad Network. I’m a tremendous fan of AdMedia, their blog (in fact, I just guest posted there), and their entire team. So, when it came time to run the latest and greatest guest post here on PPC Ian, Francesca came to mind at the top of the list. I wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Francesca and AdMedia for the awesome guest post. Without further ado, let’s jump into the things you should avoid when writing marketing copy!
All the best,
Ian

AdMedia

When it comes to creating ads and marketing materials, most people strive for stunning graphics and attention grabbing images. And while there’s certainly nothing wrong with that (your ads need to look awesome, after all), graphics can only take you so far. It’s important to note that design is only half the battle and you need to pay just as much attention to the actual content of your ads.

Unfortunately, some people seem to have forgotten this, which is why a lot of ads and content on the web miss the mark when it comes to converting their audiences.

Below is a list of the top “DON’Ts” that advertisers need to be wary of. Be sure to steer clear of these mistakes whenever you’re writing content for your ads and other marketing materials:

(1) Putting cleverness over clarity – Keep in mind that main reason why you write anything – whether it’s ad copy, a blog post or an email – is to communicate a message to the reader. You don’t write to blow people away with how witty you are or to show off your wide vocabulary (at least not in the real world); you write because you want to get a message across so that the person on the other end would take the necessary call to action.

With that said, it’s essential to put your audience and your key message first when it comes to writing the content of your ads and marketing materials. While it’s perfectly okay to be witty and to inject some word play into your copy, don’t do it at the expense of what you need to say.

The challenge here of course, is striking that balance between being overly witty and insipidly direct. Be as clever as you can be, but make sure that the core message of your content doesn’t get lost in all that creativity.

Exceptions: There a few situations that can excuse people for being clever instead of clear. Trying to build up curiosity by being vague or mysterious on purpose is a good example of this.

(2) Being self-absorbed – Resist the urge to talk about your product/service too much, and instead focus on addressing the needs of your readers. While it may be tempting to go on and on about how great your company is, or how many awards you’ve won, remember that your readers don’t necessarily care about those things. What they do care about though, is making their lives better, more fun, or easier.

Keeping asking yourself the question of what’s in it for THEM? Determine the needs and wants of your customers and write your ad copy in a way that addresses those desires.

(3) Stressing features over benefits – Features pertain to a product’s or service’s unique aspects or components. Example: Rear bumper sensors found in new luxury vehicles.

Benefits on the other hand are the outcomes or underlying perks brought about by features. For instance, being able to park more quickly and easily is a benefit brought about by the rear bumper sensors mentioned above.

Recognize that there’s a huge difference between features and benefits, and when it comes to sales, highlighting the latter has proven to be more effective. When advertising your product or service, aim to go beyond the features.

List the components of whatever it is that you’re advertising think of what customers will get out of those features. You should then focus on selling those benefits and experiences rather just promoting a product’s functions.
Do you see these errors in the advertising realm? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Author Bio: Francesca StaAna is from AdMedia, an online advertising network that connects advertisers to consumers through multiple channels including search, display, social, mobile, and more.

PPC Account Assignments As A Narrative

By Guest Blogger Leave a Comment Jun 19 0

Hey everyone, PPC Ian here. Today, I’m thrilled to share a guest post from my friend Todd Mintz from PPC Associates, Silicon Valley’s SEM Agency. You can read all about Todd in his bio at the end of the post. Todd, thanks for the great post and I hope you all enjoy.

“Buy the ticket, take the ride.” – Hunter S. Thompson

PPC Associates

I’m going to have a new paid search client assigned to me shortly. Each client offers a distinct set of challenges and objectives, but the general framework of every new engagement remains the same.

I will be dropped into the middle of an ongoing narrative, and I’m not only expected to learn the characters and become part of the story but actually take control of the plot and create a positive outcome where temporal happiness and satisfaction is achieved.

A basic narrative structure has three components: Setup, Conflict, and Resolution. Unless the account is brand new, chances are that most of the setup has happened well before the new account manager comes on the scene…and even with a new account, one could say that the setup that led up to the agency engagement occurred when the business was formed.

Now, if the setup was conflict-free and everyone was happy and content, the business wouldn’t need to engage an agency (or a new agency, as the case may be). The conflict facing the business could be any combination of poor PPC results coupled with failed relationships with consultants, less than stellar employee management/oversight, competitor conumdrums, overall lack of knowledge and experience, or a combination of all the above.

Much of the earlier pre-engagement narrative will be anecdotal to the new account manager. He/she must build relationships with each of the stakeholders in the story which will, in effect, be creating minor subplots leading to the creation of a solid structure for the plot to proceed comfortably without costly detours.

The expertise of the new account manager is his/her ability to write a positive outcome to the tale. What makes up account manager expertise? Part of it is his/her technical ability to manage the accounts in a profitable manner that meets the aims of the business. Part of it is to manage the personalities that are part of the process…getting them to contribute to the effort to the best of their ability while making sure they feel valued as people and as teammates. Part of it is to manage the internal stakeholders in the agency…in my case, our wonderful production staff, our design team, and the other office personnel who might interact with the account. Finally, part of it is totally out of the account manager’s control…things such as marketplace events or client circumstances that might impact the paid search efforts but can’t be helped by the consultant.

The skillful account manager can take any plot circumstances and weave an ending that can satisfy all the characters as well as most audiences. Hopefully, the ending will be “totally groovy and far out” for everyone involved, and all can live happily ever after.

Once in a while, the narrative doesn’t end in the manner hoped for…in those cases, everyone can learn from the poor outcome and take those lessons to apply to the next narrative…where I will be dropped into the middle of an ongoing narrative and I’m not only expected to learn the characters and become part of the story but actually take control of the plot and create a positive outcome where a sort of temporal happiness and satisfaction is achieved.

Todd Mintz

– Todd Mintz is a Senior Account Manager at PPC Associates, a digital marketing firm with offices in the Bay Area and downtown Chicago. Todd has over 10 years of experience in search marketing and has used Google AdWords since it began. He also is very visible in the SEM social media space and is a curator/contributor at MarketingLand and one of the founding members of SEMpdx (Portland’s Search Engine Marketing Group).

Images in this post © PPCAssociates.com

The San Francisco Giants and Online Marketing

By Guest Blogger Leave a Comment Apr 25 0

Baseball Hey everyone, PPC Ian here. Today, I’m thrilled to share a fun guest post from my good friend Hillary Read, Marketing Manager at PPC Associates. Let’s jump right into it…

With baseball season upon us and San Franciscans sniffing rawhide, it’s time for a fun blog post: if the Giants starters were SEM channels, which would they be? (Based on Ian’s recent weekend musings about trips to AT&T, I’m guessing he’ll like this topic.)

One fan’s take:

Tim Lincecum – All the rage. The people’s choice. A merchandise-moving combo of style and substance. And like Timeline and its page-loading issues, Timmy’s fastball doesn’t get there quite as quickly as it used to. Yeah, he’s the Facebook of the starting five.

Matt Cain – Steady. High-performing. Reliable. Consistent. He’s not the flashiest choice, but he sure gets the job done. Sounds like AdWords to me.

Madison Bumgarner – He’s young, he’s developing, he’s already had a big impact, and just about everyone (Giants check-writers included) is betting on him going from star to superstar over the next year or so. Madison = mobile.

Ryan Vogelsong – He’s been around for a while (longer than you’d think). And while his performance used to be underwhelming, he’s better than he’s ever been, thanks to a trickle of adjustments and improvements, including better (retargeted?) control. Display it is.

Barry Zito – He was a whole lot more valuable 10 years ago, and just when you’re ready to write him off for good, he pulls out a gem and keeps hope alive. Do you Yahoo, Barry? (They also love him on Pinterest.)

Batter up…

– Hillary Read is the Marketing Manager at PPC Associates and is thankfully not in charge of any SEM accounts. But she is a huge baseball fan.

The Ministry of Truth in Advertising

By Guest Blogger Leave a Comment Mar 3 0

Hey Everyone,
PPC Ian here. I’m honored today to share a guest post for you from my good friend David Rodnitzky, CEO of PPC Associates. What is PPC Associates? It’s Silicon Valley’s SEM Agency. David just spoke at SMX West 2012 and did an amazing job! Without further ado, let’s jump into today’s guest post…
All the best,
Ian

The hero in George Orwell’s 1984 has a simple job: rewriting history. He scours over old newspapers (at the direction of the ironically named “Ministry of Truth”) and changes stories to make it appear that the government is doing an incredible job. For example:

PPC Associates

As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a ‘categorical pledge’ were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April.

To the citizens of Oceana – whose only source of information is the government – this ongoing manipulation of the truth creates a sense of incredible progress:

The fabulous statistics continued to pour out of the telescreen. As compared with last year there was more food, more clothes, more houses, more furniture, more cooking-pots, more fuel, more ships, more helicopters, more books, more babies — more of everything except disease, crime, and insanity. Year by year and minute by minute, everybody and everything was whizzing rapidly upwards.

You might wonder, what does this have to do with search engine marketing? Well, a lot, actually, and the fact that you don’t immediately recognize it as such only further proves my point!

Consider the following changes to AdWords over the last few years and see if you notice any similarities:

The addition of many-per-click conversions;
The addition of view-through conversion tracking;
The addition of multi-channel funnel reporting in Google Analytics;
The addition of “top versus side” reporting;
The addition of “impression share” reporting;
The addition of “minimum first page bid” reporting.

To me, all of these reports serve one purpose: to convince you to spend more money with less regard for your actual ROI. Take view-through tracking, a metric that counts a conversion when a user sees – but does not click on – a display ad and later converts at your site. Do you have any proof that this user was influenced by the display ad? Generally, no – but Google wants you to think twice about disabling display ads with no actual conversions but plenty of “view through” conversions.

Top versus side reporting is another example. Mike Nelson wrote an awesome post outlining how to use top versus side reporting to improve your ROI, but I suspect that most AdWords users see too much “side” position as an affront to their manhood and spend more per click not to increase performance but to increase their own vanity.

It’s worth noting that tools like multi-channel funnel and view-throughs never existed in AdWords or Analytics until Google decided to snap up DoubleClick and YouTube. Suddenly, last-click data (i.e. paid search) needed to share the spotlight with first-click data (display, video, etc.). No doubt if Google+ takes off, we can expect to see a lot more integration of “social conversions” into AdWords and Analytics.

Google’s long-term plan is to create a single dashboard that integrates AdWords, YouTube, Analytics, Google Affiliate Network, DoubleClick Display, and Mobile in one place. Perhaps this will be given to advertisers for free (like Analytics and AdWords currently are), or perhaps this will have a nominal fee associated with it (like ad serving or campaign management through DoubleClick). Either way, the true benefit to Google will be the ability to control how advertisers determine success.

As long as Google controls the reporting and analytics, Google can heavily influence how advertisers measure success. As such, as new Google products and channels roll out, Google can increase advertiser adoption by creating new metrics that validate investment in these products.

Now, before I get an agitated call from one our fabulous AdWords reps (thanks for the cupcakes last week, Elizabeth!), I want to note that I don’t blame Google for trying to influence advertisers through their reporting tools. As noted, all of these tools can be incredibly useful for advertisers if applied properly, and it’s hard to argue with the price!

If anything, the point of this post is to caution advertisers to think carefully about how you define success, rather than blindly accepting what your vendors – Google or otherwise – tell you is a winning strategy. There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. At the end of the day, the one metric that never lies is profit. View-throughs, cost per engagement, virality coefficients, and other fancy stats are all interesting enough, but you can’t pay the bills with them. Focus on profit, and no ministry of truth can ever deceive you!

David Rodnitzky is the CEO and co-founder of PPC Associates, a digital-marketing firm with offices in the Bay Area and Chicago. He can be contacted at info@ppcassociates.com.