HOW TO: Create Ultra-Targeted Ads and get Highly Converting Campaigns

Saw this post at WickedFire Forum, link is here . This post is of great value to us PPC Marketers, I heard 1 guy siphoned the info and sold it as an ebook on another forum. Good marketer, bad ethics. Anyways I’m giving this info for free, credit goes to the thread starter:).

Obviously when we’re paying for traffic – we want 3 things:
-as much traffic volume as possible for as little expense as possible (High ad CTR and low CPC)
-we want that traffic to be as targeted as possible. Quality over Quantity folks. Tire-kickers and “just curious”- clickers are a waste of money.
-a very low bounce-rate from our landing page. Ideally, each ad clicker should be led on to do what we want them do to (click our call-to-action, opt in for our mailing list, whatever)

Our ads can greatly impact all of these for better or worse. I’m not gonna talk about the obvious things you already should be doing, like having the keyword in the ad, whether to use caps, question marks, etc. There’s already lots of articles out there on that topic. Go read it if you haven’t.

What I do wanna talk about is what not so many people bother to do – that is, to write ads that connect directly to the current mindset AND personality of the consumer.

BUYER MINDSET

It is common knowledge that people use searches online in one of three different mindframes – depending on their current phase in the buying process. The steps are often identified as:

I’m sure you’ve all gone through these stages when you have bought something online.

How do you know what mindset your traffic is in?
The keywords themselves (you did segment/categorize them right?) should mostly tell you this. Some are obvious, like “night vision binoculars” (surfing mode), “StalkerVision 3000 review” (compare/review mode), “cheapest StalkerVision 3000 free shipping” (buying mode).

For keywords you are unsure of, check out their OCI (Online Commercial Intention) value: Detecting Online Commercial Intention: Audience Intelligence: adCenter Labs

And, check to see what sort of words people were looking for before or after they looked for that word: Search Funnels: Keyword Research: adCenter Labs

PERSONALITY
Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg has pioneered a lot of groundwork when it comes to research of what appeals to consumers. They have almost made this a science, and have written numerous books on the subject. One of my favourites is their classic “Call to Action”, which details how you can get the most out of your traffic – whether it’s through ppc or natural seo.

The 4 classic types of buyers personalities are described as:

-Methodical. Very thorough and slow-paced in researching a purchase. May be sceptical of contests, free shipping and returns – what’s the catch? Likes side-by-side product comparison to make a rational decision. They want to know: How this product/service will help them.
They want accuracy, details, features, hard evidence, superior service, proof, etc.

-Spontaneous. Why should I or should I not order this now? They are spontaneous, appreciates a personal touch, and prefer quick decisions. Responds to sales, discounts, limited stock and time-limited offers. Responds to free overnight shipping (I can have it tomorrow!). Interested in “how many” reviews there are, not necessarily reading them.

-Humanistic. They are slower-paced, have no rush, might ask “who else has used this product to solve my problem?”, enjoy getting to know other users, enjoy real testimonials, shared experiences. Looks for the perfect gift, use gift finders and wish lists. Cares what others have to say. Appreciates live support and human interaction.

-Competitive. Logical, but faster-minded. Likes to be the first to own a product – responds to new items, featured or best-sellers. Doesn’t want to dig for information. He or she is into facts, summaries and some detail – but rather not spend too much time on research.

How do you identify your traffic’s personality?
First of all, what you are promoting should right upfront give you an indication of who your target demographic is. I mean, if you’re selling nursing bras – chances are your visitors aren’t methodical science geeks with their credit card in hand ready to buy! I’d venture to say they are first-time mothers, aged 20-35, with an either a humanistic or spontaneous personality. And thus you need to appeal to them in all 3 buying phases.

Of course, we can’t categorize all humans into just ONE of the four personality types because we all have some traits from each of those – but we can assume that the majority of the demographic likely belongs to one of them.

Check out some of the keywords in your niche and see who’s behind most of the searches. My favourite here is the MSN ad lab tool: Demographics Prediction: Audience Intelligence: adCenter Labs

Last but not least – split-test 4 different ads on the same ad group or keyword. Each ad corresponding to one of the 4 personas. Make sure to set the ads to show evenly. In Adwords, you need to uncheck the setting for showing ads with high CTR more often. We don’t want this when we split-test ads. After you gather some data, you should be able to see which ad tends to get the most traffic for that ad group or keyword – and that my friend, tells you what sort of personality is searching the most!

Time to get targeted!

So knowing this, I developed my own little chart to get the creative juices flowing for writing ads. Keep in mind, these ads are of course only examples and some of them are too long to be approved by any of the top-tier paid SE’s. I haven’t used the most amazing headlines or call to actions here either – but that’s not the point. The point is to show how I word my ads and carefully choose different approaches, depending on who I’m writing to and what they want to hear at the moment.

I proudly present: ImagesAndWords’ Ad-Matrix:

Sending them to what they wanna read. Give them what they expect.
What I like to do is create different landing pages for different traffic. I segment my keyword list based on mindframe, personalities (among other things) and then set up relevant landing pages depending on who I’m presenting it to. These pages (although for the same product or offer) may be completely different in style, formatting, headline, wording, bulletpoints, images, etc.

And there you go. Hopefully this makes it easier for some to write better ads.

Now go earn some dough:).

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Tagged as: pay per click, ppc, ppc ad writing, write better ads