Text ads aren’t sexy. They look bland, aren’t colorful and often read like they’re being shouted by annoying salespeople. But the simple fact is that many businesses use them to drive site traffic and sales.
We spoke with Michael Gold, search engine optimization specialist and co-founder of Midtown SEO, about how marketers can optimize their text ads to make them more appealing to search engine users. Check out his tips below.
Use Groups of Related Keywords
There are a number of best practices when setting up your search campaigns, and you can use tools, s uch as the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, to research and choose the best keywords.
When you’ve settled on your set of keywords, create advertisements that focus on each group of related keywords. “A unique advertisement should be written for each group of closely related keywords,” Gold advises. “Those keywords that match text in the advertisement will be displayed in bold, hopefully catching the search engine users' attention.”
In the Neiman Marcus and Forever 21 ads above, the user searched for keywords “Stuart Weitzman Sandals” and “Discount Fashion,” respectively. The two retailers included these keywords in their ads, so those words are highlighted, drawing a bit more attention to them.
Create a Clear Offer
“The text in the ad should create a clear offer,” says Gold. “The search engine user should know what to expect once they click on the link. S ome examples of appealing...
