No matter how perfect your search engine advertising strategy, poor copy can sabotage your efforts from the beginning. The good news: the basics of good ad copy aren’t rocket science. The bad news: you still have to put in the effort.

In the end, though, simplicity is key. Here’s the why and how.

First Thing’s First: Don’t Deviate From Copy Fundamentals

As dynamic of a field as search engine marketing is, good ad copy doesn’t really change. We get the temptation to overcomplicate things — innovations and changes are constant, so search engine marketing approaches change accordingly super quick. Much of what was true in this field five years ago is already passed by.

But sometimes you have to nix the instinct often present in those digitally-based industries to be so focused on innovation that you just reinvent the wheel and, in the process, create a wheel that’s worse. This is true here; the fundamentals of copy are the same as they’ve been for a very long time.

It’s a common occurrence at Fujisan where we inherit an account with mediocre copy. The reasons vary, but one of the most common issues include advertisers leaving out content relevant to the landing page in favor of catchy but uninformative or vague copy.

It can be hard to decide the best direction to go considering search engine ads’ limited character space, but there are a few ways to ensure you have it down. The first step…

Headlines: The Most Important Factor

Headlines are the bread and butter of your ad copy. They’re the most recognizable aspect of your ad and the part users are most likely to view. In short, if your headline sucks, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of your copy is.

Location of Headline

A good headline will include easy-to-identify keywords. This is two-fold — it both catches people’s attention and will have a better performance in the search engine itself.

And, while this might sound cliche, it needs to provide some sort of hook. This doesn’t mean you need something over-the-top and dramatic. In fact, please don’t do that. All it’s about is providing some sort of clear enticement — in as few words as possible, why should someone care about you? What do you have to offer? Do you have new seasonal stock in? Is your customer service available 24/7? Are a lot of items marked way down? Let people know.

One particularly good hook technique is some sort of call to action; when people already have enough information to take the next step — whether by already having the background knowledge or you including this information in the headline — it’s imperative that you make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

This can also kill a bunch of birds with one stone. For example, something like “Try our free demo” gives users an incentive (the ability to try something for free), an action (clicking here to get started), and information regarding the landing page (they’ll be taken to a site with more information where they can sign up). A good CTA is an efficient way to crush it.

Lastly where headlines are concerned — keep them relevant!

This sounds like a no-brainer, but sometimes putting together an ad can make you lose the forest through the trees. Don’t get bogged down in trying to jam too much into copy. Doing so will usually end up with an overload of information that isn’t strictly necessary, distracting the user, making them less engaged, and, in the end, less likely to interact with the ad.

Beyond the headline, you’ll move onto…

Descriptions: Their Significant Role

The secret with descriptions? Where search engine ads are concerned, they’re the easiest part of the copy-writing process

That might sound counterintuitive; after all, descriptions take up the most space and contain the most words. But that also means that each word is a smaller percentage of the whole than in the headline and subsequently has less stakes. Contributing even more to the diminished weight of the description, however, is the fact that people have mini attention spans when online. The headline catches eyes; but past that, you can’t assume most people will read all, most, or even any of the description.

Location of Description

Really, the value of the description is just as much about its existence as its content — sometimes the existence is even more important than the words themselves. Besides providing exposition, their primary benefit is making your ads occupy as much real estate as possible.

That being said, while their content doesn’t matter a bunch to many or most people, that doesn’t mean you can just neglect the content. Besides the fact that crappy copy in the description can be noticed by more focused humans no matter how many others skip over it, the content of the description also affects the ad’s performance in search engines.

Thus, it’s important that the description is as relevant as possible to your keywords and landing page. Furthermore, important expository details that don’t fit in the headline should be included here, as should a call to action if there isn’t one in the headline.

We recommend writing at least three different ad variations per ad group. Once they’ve been running for a few months, you should have enough data to determine what qualities perform best in your ads and how to build upon them.

Altogether, writing effective ad copy is simple. It takes attention to detail that you shouldn’t neglect, but you don’t need to (and shouldn’t) overcomplicate it. By sticking to the fundamentals and making sure your bases are covered, you’ll create a solid foundation on which to improve search engine ad campaigns.