The magic of contextual advertising on Google, Panama, MSN, or other paid placement channels, is that advertisers can target and tailor ad messages to a search just performed by a potential customer. With high quality of keyword research available, the ability to target and track leads and ROI grows every day. It’s no small wonder that the focused nature of paid Internet advertising has brought many industries to their knees.
What’s the Sale Proposition?
As in all advertising, there are many ways to communicate the sell-proposition and value of your product to your target market. Common tactics include touting the difference between your product and similar ones (points of differentiation), the benefit of a product, the consequences of NOT using a product (like anti-viral software), the quality of your customer service, and (last but not least) the economic benefit of dealing with your company instead of others.
Get your Free Money Here
One tactic that often works in a pay per click ads is appealing to the customer’s sense that there is palpable economic to gain by clicking on your ad as opposed to others. One company I’ve been working with since 2002, selling career college educations, wrote sold tens of millions of dollars from a minimal 6 figure media-but simply by including verbiage regarding financial aid in every PPC ad.
Ad testing revealed that another client selling legal services, ostensibly a high-road suite of products, generated the most qualified leads by including language in the PPC ad regarding their “sliding fee structure.” Sliding fee structure means that customers pay based on their actual income as opposed to a fixed rate.
Another company we work with has found success by creating printable serialized coupons where potential customers are offered discounts which are communicated at the PPC ad level. When customers click on the ad they might have heightened intent as a result of a perception that they will get somehow free money for visiting the site.
Make Classy Financial Promises and Keep Them
Words are important. The key to offering financial incentive to customers is not making the ad’s sales pitch seem fly-by-night. Avoid using words like “cheap” or “free” in favor of “value” or “fair price.’ Financial promises at the PPC ad level can’t be hyperbolic, dramatic, or make wild promises. Nothing in life is free and your audience is smart enough to understand. There are very few too-good-to-be-true deals which are real.
Make promises you are able and intend to fulfill. Whereas a well conceived advertisement communicating financial benefit can help you earn customers, bait and switch tactics (or outright lies) can ruin your company’s reputation quickly. Just don’t do it.
Testing It
Communicating financial incentive to potential customers at the PPC ad level is one tactic which can help your campaign convert impressions (how many times your ad is displayed) to traffic (visitors to your site) to sales. Google, Yahoo, and MSN all allow ad rotation for testing purposes. Try creating a PPC ad which tests a customer’s financial gain regarding your product and see if it works.
