2 minutes

5 tips for dominating ad copy in a Smart Bidding world

For many, writing compelling ad copy is a walk in the park, but the real challenge lies in ensuring your paid search ads remain high-performing. Particularly in the age of automation with Smart Bidding…

Our Senior Paid Marketing Manager, Jess, recently listened to an insightful webinar from Adthena, and has summarised the top 5 tips for dominating ad copy in a smart bidding world.

 

TIP 1: The evolution of ad copy options with Smart bidding

The key takeaway from this highlighted that any ad you have running that’s over 85 days old is simply ‘stale’. You need to regularly update and check in (depending on traffic volumes) to see which ad headlines are ranked as 'low' or 'poor' and switch these up!

 

TIP 2: Benchmarking your ad copy performance alongside your competitors 

We all know the recently released Performance Max is going to take over from Shopping and eventually Search. However in people's haste to test new formats Adthena stressed they're not stopping to understand their market - You should be stopping to review what your competitors are pushing in their copy and making changes to your own USP's, Product Titles and Prices as necessary/possible. 

 

Adthena slide 1

 

Pole Break

Interestingly most people that attended Adthena’s webinar voted that they hadn't attempted testing of P. Max yet, something we’ve already been testing with our clients at Ortus for a number of weeks now, and have seen revenue increases of 6-62% and ROAS of 7-83% so far!

 

Adthena poll 1

 

TIP 3: Why message matters by segment or market

Using a wide range of CTA's and USP's will increase impressions your ad shows for. Most common CTA's are 'Shop' and 'Now' however, variety is key so make sure to test alternatives such as 'Find', 'Discover', 'Explore' for example!

 

Pole Break

Adthena recommended that ad copy should be switched up at least once a month but no more than weekly where possible. Too much disruption can cause campaigns to constantly be relearning but too infrequent can leave ads outdated and irrelevant. 

 

Adthena poll 2

 

TIP 4: Assessing local markets ad copy at scale

This tip was mostly relevant for the US but there are some transferable points for the UK to note. Ultimately the point was that people who live in cities may have a completely different sentiment than those based in rural areas. Curbside pickup won't be as important to a user in the country, as it will be to someone in the city for example. 

Adthena slide 2

 

TIP 5: How brand ad copy plays a critical part in share of search. 

Whether it's through an external platform or manually checking it's important to be aware of what the key competitors are doing and be as reactive as possible. At Ortus we make sure that we're keeping an eye on how the market is changing which can make a huge difference to our click through and conversion rates. If competition is potentially gazumping our discounts or pushing USP's that resonate better with the consumer we feed this back to our clients so we can work together to stay ahead.

Need a little help with your search ads? Our team can help - get in touch here for a free PPC audit from our experts.