This is the 3rd post in the SEM Beginner Series, the first introduced click-through rate (CTR) and the second, cost-per-click (CPC). This series of posts is intended for those new to search engine marketing who are looking for some guidance to help identify, monitor and adjust the key performance indicators (KPIs) that determine how successful a PPC campaign is.

Why is Ad Copy Important?

Ad copy is important because it delivers that crucial first impression potential customers are going to have of your business; it's what will make or break their decision to click on your ad and visit your site.  Just as you would with any promotional copy, you want to ensure that you're casting your products and/or services in the most appealing way possible so that users will be enticed to click on your ad to learn more, or hopefully, make a purchase.  

When it comes to SEM ad copy, you want to make sure you're being as relevant as possible to the keywords that you're going to associate to your ads.  Wherever possible, be sure to include those keywords within your ad copy, most notably in the title (stay tuned for next week's SEM Beginner post on dynamic text for more on this).  The more targeted and specific your ad copy is, the better results you should expect in terms of click-through rate (CTR) and conversions. advertisers should know exactly what they're going to find on the landing page of the ad they clicked on based on your ad copy.

Ad copy best practices include using action words like "shop", "buy", "browse", calling out any sales or promotional offers going on and creating multiple variations of ad copy so you can review your adCenter reports to see which ones are most successful (those with the highest CTR) and utilize those learnings in other ad groups.

Ad Copy and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Ad copy in and of itself isn't a key performance indicator, but when examined holistically as part of the larger campaign, it can sometimes act as a symptom to help diagnose problems with low CTR or low conversions.  The more specific and relevant your ads are to your keywords and the landing pages they direct users to, the better these metrics should be.  The more general and generic your ad copy is, the higher the chances that you'll need to make revisions to improve your CTR and conversions. 

Troubleshooting Tips

Now that you understand why ad copy is an important part of your SEM campaign, visit the below links for ad copy related optimization tips and tricks:

Getting Started with adCenter: Ads

Five Tips for Creating Successful PPC Ad Copy

Ad Copy Testing: Systematically Improving CTR

Optimizing for Editorial Before Uploading

Campaign Optimization Quick Reference Guide

adCenter Essentials and Paid Search Optimization Links List

Five Tips to Improve your Microsoft adCenter ROI

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments field below, or else visit our forums.