The following guest contribution comes from Reuben Yonatan, CEO of GetVoIP.
The first step to success with your PPC campaign is getting people to click your ads. We want to leverage human psychology and play off of known cognitive biases to drive clicks. With the tight space limitations imposed by most PPC providers, this means you must motivate people in as few words as possible. Fortunately, there are special words you can use that have a high chance of accomplishing this goal.
Here are some of the most effective ones:
Highly-Effective Trigger Words
- You. Many marketers think that using a person’s name will automatically make their pitches more agreeable. In reality, this tactic often seems pushy and even creepy. Not only that, you don’t know the name of who is looking at your PPC ads, so you couldn’t use it even if you wanted to. Using the word “you” solves both of these problems.
- Instant. People do not like to wait. If you’re offering something that they can get instantly, such as a download or an emailed report, you’ll almost certainly get plenty of clicks.
- Free. Everybody loves to get things for free. If you’re offering something that falls into this category, definitely mention it. People will come to get it in droves.
- New. Many people love to try out new things. Even if your product isn’t instant or free, if it’s new, you’ll attract more clicks.
- Exclusive. This makes people feel like clicking will give them special access to a unique and hard-to-get offer.
- Hurry, today only, and similar words. These all tell the person that they have to act now in order to get a deal. Many people who feel rushed often go ahead and do things that they would normally think twice about. In this case, what they’ll be doing is clicking your ad. Keep the sense of urgency going in your site’s pitch to get these people to go ahead and buy.
- Secret. Everybody wants to get in on a secret. If you are selling information, this is the perfect word to use to get people curious. It also works great for driving newsletter sign-ups. Pair it with exclusive for even greater effects.
- Discover. People like to uncover new things. Spark their sense of curiosity by using the word discover. This can work great no matter what you’re trying to promote. If your product is something fairly common, the reader can still discover a deal on it or a new place to buy it – namely, your site.
- Increase. This can be used for many offers. Whether your customers can increase their attractiveness, increase their wealth, or increase their ability to get to work on time, they all want in on the chance to improve.
- Because. It turns out that most people unconsciously ask “why” whenever a definitive statement or request is made. Using the word “because” primes them to accept your explanation and then do the requested action. In one study, it was found that 94% of people will agree to a minor request if the word “because” is included, while only 60% will agree if it is not. Asking someone to click on your ad is a minor request, so this word should work great for that purpose.
With only 140 or so characters to work with, you probably won’t be able to fit all of these words into your PPC ads. Therefore, you’ll need to pick the ones that make the most sense with your offer. You’ll also need to make sure that they will resonate with your intended audience.
Avoiding Trigger Word Pitfalls
One word to be careful with is free. Even though everyone loves free things and it can be used to your advantage in certain situations, this word doesn’t tend to attract paying customers. This isn’t a problem if you are trying to get people to sign up for your newsletter, get your free report, or do similar things. However, if you want to sell something right away, it’s best to choose a different trigger.
Some caution should also be taken when using words that imply that a person needs to rush. This angle should be backed up with an offer that is truly limited time only. If people see the same ad day after day for weeks, it will lose credibility. Therefore, you should be sure to only run this kind of ad for offers that are really only available for a limited time.
Great all-around words include because, discover, and you. These can be used with pretty much any offer you can come up with – without any worries of unintended results.
Maximizing Your Campaign’s Effectiveness
Once people click your ads, they always expect to see something on the other side that follows through with the words you have used. If you promise that they’ll discover something, have a way for them to do so front and center on your landing page. When you mention a limited-time offer, have it take center stage instead. This lets the feeling generated by your ad carry through to your site, so the momentum toward the conversion is unbroken.
As with all ad campaigns, you’ll need to do a bit of tweaking to get the best results. You can utilize simple A/B testing to understand which words and specific ads are more effective over others. Be sure to use split-testing to see which verbiage brings the most clicks and conversions. Soon, your campaigns will be more profitable and your conversions will increase.
Finally, resist the urge to avoid all changes to ads that are working. Over time, people stop paying attention to things that never change. This makes it so that an occasional refresh of your advertising is good idea. If a change doesn’t work as well as the original, you can always change it back while you think of something else. Constant, incremental improvements will ensure that you’re advertising always stays fresh and effective.
Image Credits
Feature Image:Unsplash / Julian Lozano