If you want your PPC campaigns to stand out and make it into those top three spots, these are the copywriting rules you’ll need to follow.

Know What Your Target Market Wants

Lots of businesses approach ad-writing by talking about themselves. That’s a natural thing to do, and after all, you’re an expert on what makes your company great.

This is actually the opposite of what you should be doing.

Customers seek you out because they need something, not because they’re curious about your business.

The best way to get the attention of your target audience is to show them that you understand – and can fix – their problems.

Before you start writing, do this exercise: put yourself in your ideal customer’s shoes.

Think about what kind of problem they’re experiencing, and imagine how they’d search for a solution. Then, write your ad copy as a response to that imaginary customer’s needs and search habits.

Address Your Audience

Use the words “you” and “your” in your ads.

Speaking directly to your audience makes them feel important, and it creates the sense that your business is personable – you want to create a friendly and helpful relationship with customers right from the start.

Use Emotional Triggers to Your Advantage

A bad PPC ad is completely unmemorable. It might be inoffensive and even well-put-together, but if no one ever feels intrigued or moved enough to click on it, why even bother publishing it?

You can avoid being boring in your ads by choosing your words carefully and making your audience feel something. If you know what your target market wants, this shouldn’t be too difficult.

Zero in on the core problem or desire that brings customers to you, and brainstorm some ways to play up the emotion contained in it.

Negative feelings can actually be better stimuli than positive ones, since people are motivated to avoid pain, so don’t be afraid to leverage your audience’s anxiety, anger, or FOMO (fear of missing out).

Some more positive emotions you can use to drive results include hopefulness, relief, and the feeling of being liked or admired by others.

Use Numbers

If you want to draw more eyes to your ads, try adding a number or two.

Figures and statistics have a way of getting people’s attention and have proven to increase CTR.

One way to use numbers is to name your product’s price or advertise a sale.

You can also try featuring a numerical statistic about your business, such as the number of customers you’ve helped.

Use exact numbers instead of round numbers, since people tend to trust exact numbers more.

Use All Your Space

Maximize your ad’s power by packing all the information you can into the available space.

Don’t forget about your display URL and ad extensions, either.

Your display URL doesn’t have to match the actual URL that your visitors will land on – its purpose is to show people what kind of page they’ll be taken to, so creating a custom URL that includes your keywords is a smart move.

Ad extensions can be another valuable way to get more real estate in search results. Don’t rely on them to carry your message, though, since Google can’t guarantee that your extensions will show up every time your ad is run.

Emphasize What Makes You Stand Out

Make your ad more intriguing by setting yourself apart from your competitors.

You don’t have much space to pitch your unique selling proposition to your audience, so try to distill it down into a few words that will make readers want to know more.

Some helpful questions to ask yourself include:

• What does your business do better than or different from anyone else in the industry?

• Have you won any awards?

• Are you running any sales or making any special offers?

• What’s unique about your brand’s image?

Go Local

People like and trust local businesses over big, faceless national corporations.

Emphasise your location in your ads to give people an approachable first impression of your business.

You don’t actually have to operate in just one location to play up a local-business image, either — if you have multiple locations, create separate PPC campaigns to run in different geographical areas, and use specific location-based terms for each campaign.

Also, use local phone numbers in your ads.

Use Strong, Creative Calls to Action

Does the phrase “Call now” actually make you feel any sense of urgency? Probably not.

Instead of resorting to worn-out clichés for your calls to action, come up with something that hits home a little bit more for your audience.

You already know what they want, so highlight that in your call to action.

Kick-off your call to action with a strong verb, too – something like “Get,” “Save,” “Build,” or “Join.”

“Don’t miss out” is a call to action AND plays on emotional triggers, namely FOMO (fear of missing out). Avoiding negativity/pain is often more powerful than hitting positives/good feelings

Don’t Be Afraid to Use Emojis

Emojis are much more than cutesy cartoons. The use of emojis as a communications tool in online marketing is growing fast. 

Recent research into the use emojis in a mobile survey campaign showed that emojis lowered the drop-off rate, improved the level of satisfaction in the survey, and the emoji responses provided comparable data, which means that emojis were accurate in conveying the true sentiments of respondents.

Emojis can be used in your PPC ads to stir emotion among potential customers, grab their attention, and communicate your message in an instant, fun way.

Don’t be afraid to use emojis, but don’t overdo it either. 

Make sure you choose emojis that make sense and support your message.