Online Advertising

Nashville online advertising Online advertising can be very frustrating, but it can also be very rewarding. By utilizing Google Adwords and Facebook Ads, you can target the right audience and pull them to your website where your product or service is highlighted.

First we need to talk about what constitutes an online ad and what it's composed of.

Online Ad Terminology

  • Headline

    The headline is the bold, underlined portion of the ad at the top. It's linked so when a user clicks it, they are taken to the site that the ad is targeting.

  • Copy

    The copy is a fancy word for text.

  • Characters

    Characters are the individual letters, spaces and special characters like apostrophies, commas and dashes that make up your ad. You're usually limited to around 30 or so characters. A new line acts as 1 character.

  • Display URL

    The display URL is the web address that you display to the users. It may not be the exact address that the user is taken to, but it usually is the main URL of the website.

  • CPC

    CPC is the "Cost Per Click" that the search engine charges advertisers when a visitor clicks on an ad. CPC can range from a few cents to several dollars. The position of your ad (at the top or bottom of the list of ads) depends on how much you're willing to pay for that ad.

  • CPM

    CPM is the "Cost Per Thousand Impressions" of your ad, meaning, you get charged for every 1,000 times your ad shows up on the side bar of the search results. For brand recognition and high-volume ads, CPM can provide a competitive rate over CPC ads.

Getting the Click

With 30 or so characters and possibly a small image, you're not going to sell anything with an online ad on Google, Bing or Facebook. It's simply not enough time to convince an already skeptical audience to purchase your product or service.

That's why you're looking for the click and nothing more. If you can get that, then the landing page will do the rest.

So how do you write an ad that generates a click? Great question. Let's look into that.

How to Write Great Online Ads

Writing great ads requires practice and testing. You want to know your audience and to represent your product in a way that accurately sets expectations for your visitors. The worst thing you can do is misrepresent what you are trying to sell with inaccurate text. I've borrowed a few points from GoogleLady.com about writing great copy for your ads.

  • Ask Questions that intrigue your audience.
  • Offer Instructions to inform your audience.
  • Tell a Story that meets your audience where they are. "How I Learned Spanish in 5 Days" or "My secret to Losing 20 Pounds in a Week" are great examples of story copy.
  • Generate Trust to attract a skeptical audience.
  • Use 3 Dots to indicate that there's more information once they click...
  • Think as a Googler and you'll create keywords that show up more often.

Converting Your Customers

When you get searchers to click on your ad, your next goal is to get them to take some kind of action on your landing page. The landing page will use images and text similar to your ad to create continuity. Then you find a way to answer these three questions for your visitor immediately:

  • Where Am I?

    Visitors need to know where they are by being able to see a logo and site name. This is the first step in generating trust.

  • What Am I Supposed To Do?

    By giving your visitors where they are and what they're supposed to do by seeing an obvious call to action. The call to action should be a clearly visible button or image or large text that uses action text. An example would be "Get a Quote" or "Buy Now" or "Learn More Now" or "Join the Movement". Visitors will become customers when they know exactly what they're supposed to do.

  • Why Am I Supposed To Do It?

    You've gotten your visitor to click the ad and see the Call to Action, but now they need to know WHY they are supposed to click that button. Use informative text and any kind of authoritative awards to indicate that you're a trustworthy source. Use a button for your online store that indicates the user's information will be kept safe. Implement images that meet the emotional and mental needs of the visitor. If you're selling a weight-loss pill, show before and after pictures. The "Why" would be that you can lose weight fast.