What PPC Marketers Can Learn From Arnie One-Liners

If I said to you, “I’ll be bock,” in a somewhat menacing Austrian accent, you would most likely automatically associate what I’ve just said with an image of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or, I could say “Hasta la vista, baby,” “Stick around,” or maybe even, “Consider that a divorce.” Either way, these tiny catchphrases are so ingrained into the part of our brains that operates the pop culture recognition segment that they are recognizable even to people who’ve not seen the movies that the quotes are from. Believe it or not, there are things that can be learned from these Arnie one-liners that can be applied to search marketing. You’re sceptical. I know. Allow me to explain. PPC pros face two constant battles: to be seen; to be clicked. There are a couple of aspects to this.

First, you have to get your ad on the search page where it can be seen. Secondly, you have to get those people who do see the ad to choose yours over a variety of other ads that, presumably, are targeting exactly the same person as you are. Which brings us to lesson number one from Arnie.

Arnie One-Liners are Relevant

It may seem obvious, but I have a lot of “Huh?” moments when I go to the movies, especially when they’re trying to be funny. Every Arnie one-liner

is germane, not only to the situation at hand, but often to the movie as a whole, or to an aspect of the plot. The more relevant your ad to the search, the better chance you have of getting your ad displayed to begin with, as your Quality Score will increase with relevance (this, obviously carries over to landing pages, domain name, Meta Title, etc, but let’s just start here, shall we?). You’re also going to get better visibility on the SERP, and, if you’ve managed to stay relevant through to the landing page phase, you’re one step closer to a conversion, which helps with number two of our PPC conundrum. They may even be “bock” another time, as it were, because you’ve promised what you delivered.

Schwarzenegger One-Liners are Impactful

Every part of a movie is surrounded by some other part of that movie. Billy Wilder, one of Hollywood’s great writers said (and I love this quote), “Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go” to describe the means by which one writes a great screenplay. Every Arnie one-liner does just that: it grabs your attention and makes great what might otherwise be a seriously mismanaged amount of B-movie crap that would, in the parlance of today, be referred to as a “straight to Netflix” movie.

Arnie’s One-Liners Are Memorable

You know they are. You can use great, impactful language to attract the attention of searchers in your PPC ads. Don’t be afraid to get creative. The great thing about PPC is that if it doesn’t work, you go with the B solution, to the C solution, and etcetera. Remember the ABCs of PPC: Always Be testing your ppC ads. I’m of a mind that this applies quite well to those who are able to incorporate Display Advertising into their strategies, because you have a little bit more freedom to get creative in this space. Off the top of my head, I can think of only a handful of great online ads that I can remember, so there’s a great opportunity here for marketers to fill in the gaps and create some long-lasting ads that stay in the collective consciousness for as long as “Hasta la vista, baby” has. And, with Display, the more memorable the ad, the more likely you are to have someone perform a search for your product/service/brand and turn that searcher into a conversion. Get in the heads of your target audience. Don’t let them forget about you. Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go (or something slightly less dramatic that has the same effect, if you prefer.) The point of all of this is to say that your PPC ads are your window into the heart of your product/service/brand. You need to capture, not just the attention, but also the imagination of your target audience. So, maybe it’s time to start asking yourself, before every ad you write: What Would Arnie Do?

Mark John Hiemstra

Mark John Hiemstra

Mark John Hiemstra is a content and social media marketing consultant to Acquisio. He got involved in digital marketing purely by accident, and has spent the last several years learning about building relationships with consumers online through the many channels available to those who are willing to get involved. He is loathe to discuss himself in the third person, but can be persuaded to do so, from time to time.

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