Ad text

The ad text is the main component of a search ad. Search engines limit the characters in each line. There are also restrictions on what you are allowed to write in an advert. Here are some of the ditorial guidelines from Google AdWords:

•  Heading: maximum of 25 characters
•  Line 1: maximum of 35 characters
•  Line 2: maximum of 35 characters
•  Display URL: maximum of 35 characters
•  No repeated exclamation marks.
•  No word may be written in capitals only.
•  No nonsense words may be used.
•  No claims of ‘best’, ‘number one’ or superlatives may be used unless they can be verified by a reliable third-party source.
•  Product numbers may be used.
•  No phone numbers allowed in the copy.

The elements of a search ad

Basic search adverts all follow a similar format:

Heading

Two lines of advert copy.

Sometimes shown on one line.

www.DisplayURL.com

Ad extension

As you can see, these consist of several elements – the key is to make these work together harmoniously in order to get searchers to click through to your website.

The three main components are:

•  Keyword-optimised ad text
•  The link to your owned property (website, social media platform, content)
•  Ad extensions

Structuring your search advertising campaign

When you start running search advertising, you shouldn’t just create a whole stream of ads – you need to have a plan.

Your AdWords account is your home for all the ads you are currently running, and it should be structured to reflect your business and marketing strategy. Within your account, organise your search adverts in groupings – called campaigns – according to your strategy and the ads you are running. Within each campaign, you should have ad groups – these are sets of ads that have a common characteristic or focus. For example, if you are selling books online, you may have ad groups focused around a specific genre, author, event and special offer, as well as some ad groups around general themes such as promoting local stores, or making online sales.

Structuring your account in this way will help you to easily oversee your advertising spend, determine the effectiveness of your ads, manage your ads and bids, and switch off any ads that aren’t working effectively.

Advertising in search

Search engines display results to search queries based on proprietary algorithms. Each major search engine uses its own formula to determine what results to display for any term. According to PEW Internet, 73% of all Americans use search engines, and 59% of them use search engines daily; on top of that, 91% of people who use search engines say that they find the information they are looking for most or all of the time (Purcell, et al., 2012). With search engines getting so much traffic, and delivering so much value, they need to find a way of generating revenue.

With so many search engines out there, which platform should you choose?

There are some small differences from platform to platform in terms of editorial policy, and each system has a different user interface. There is some theory that different platforms are better for different industries, for example, that Yahoo fares better than Google on travel advertising. However, this is subjective, and most large advertisers will run PPC campaigns on a number of platforms. As with most things in digital marketing, it is all about testing.

Google AdWords is the best known and is considered the industry standard; it allows users to transact in the currency of their choice, is tied to a comprehensive analytics tool, and offers training programmes and certifications. Google AdWords also currently has the best contextual and geographical targeting worldwide, although geo-targeting is also offered by Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads and YouTube video ads (which is closely linked to AdWords).

Search Advertising Key terms and concepts

Term	Definition
Clickthrough	A click on a text ad link that leads to a website.
Clickthrough rate (CTR)	The total clicks on a link divided by the number of times that ad link has been shown, expressed as a percentage.
Conversion rate	The number of conversions divided by the number of visitors, expressed as a percentage.
Cost per action (CPA)	The amount paid when a certain action is performed by a user.
Cost per click (CPC)	The amount paid when a link is clicked on.
Google AdWords	Google’s search advertising program, which allows advertisers to display their adverts on relevant search results and across Google’s content network.
Impression	Each time an advert is shown.
Key phrase	Two or more words that are combined to form a search query - often referred to as keywords.
Keyword	A word found in a search query. For example, a search for ‘blue widgets’ includes the keywords ‘blue’ and ‘widgets’.
Organic results	Also known as natural results. Search results served by the search engine’s algorithm. The search engine does not charge website owners to list these results.
Paid search advertising	Usually refers to advertising on search engines, sometimes called PPC advertising. The advertiser pays only for each click on the advert.
Quality score (QS)	A measure used by Google AdWords to indicate how relevant a keyword is to an ad text and to a user’s search query.
Return on investment (ROI)	The ratio of profit to cost.
Search term	The keywords a user enters when searching on a search engine.
Search engine results page (SERP)	The actual results returned to the user based on the search query.
Sponsored results	Search engine results that are paid for by the advertiser.