One of the biggest signals for online shoppers are the reviews of your product or service.
What do your customers think of you? Are you responsive in customer support? Do your products last? Do you blow people off at the first sign of trouble?
All of these are valuable pieces of information that you likely want to know and seek out when you’re making your own online purchase decisions. So why wouldn’t your customers?
Answer: they do.
So with reviews holding that much weight, why not lean into that? Why not use them to get ahead of the competition in PPC?
Here are 5 ways you can leverage customer reviews to level up your PPC performance.
Opening Caveat:
I know, I know. We just jumped in and I’m already giving caveats. I get it. But bear with me, this one is important.
Caveat: if you don’t have good online reviews, this strategy is not for you.
Seems like a no brainer, right? It should be. If you don’t have good reviews, you might not want to go flaunting them all over the place. If this sounds like you, stop reading this post and go fix your business.
Ok, with that out of the way, here are the strategies for using reviews.
Ad Copy:
Your ad copy is the first impression you make on a potential customer. They’re going to be reading about you for the first time and you want to make an impact.
Why not let another previous customer do that work for you and share their positive experience?
Ad copy can be customized by reviews in a couple different ways:
First, simply use the language your customers used as a direct quote.
“This is the best plumber in town.”
“Quick, affordable, and showed up on time.”
Depending on the product or service you’re providing, some quick hit statements like that can set you apart from other companies simply talking about their offerings.
The second way you can leverage reviews is to customize your ad messaging even if it’s not through direct quotes. Every so often, take the time to analyze your customer reviews and see if you can find any patterns. What terms are they using? What benefits and features are they highlighting? How can you leverage those reviews to craft better converting ad copy?
Creative for Social & Display:
Text is one thing, but using imagery can be powerful as well. Just like with ad copy, you can leverage the reviews as part of the visuals in your campaigns.
One recent example our friend Duane Brown called out on Twitter is below:
Here you can see Magic Spoon is both showing off the product itself as well as some very short customer reviews.
It’s short. It’s eye-catching. It’s impactful.
Not only that, but they even have the number of reviews and the 5 star logo in the bottom right to help hammer home the point.
Your ads don’t have to look exactly like this, but think of all the ways you can incorporate someone’s reviews into your ads.
Leverage Them in Videos:
Just like the image shared above, you can easily incorporate customer reviews into your video creatives as well. These could be in the form of text, an actor portrayal of the review, or an actual user generated video that someone sends you.
One company I’ve seen do this is Purple Mattress.
They actually have an entire playlist on their YouTube channel dedicated to customer videos.
Some are more heavily produced than others, but all have some form of user perspective on the experience with the company and Purple gets the benefit.
I’m a big proponent of video content and I think once you make it, you should leverage it everywhere. So think about the times your customers have taken videos. What are they highlighting? How can you use those in your marketing campaigns?
Landing Page Social Proof:
This is likely the most common use of social proof, so I won’t spend too much time on it.
But why stop at ad copy and creative? Once someone comes to your site, they might want to have a little more insight into what your customers think about you.
Whether it’s reviews of a service you provided:
Or reviews of the products your company sells:
Customer reviews on your website can help bridge the gap for someone who is on the fence about working with you.
Star Ratings on SERPs:
One final way to leverage your customer’s reviews for your ads is to make sure you’re qualifying for Google Seller Ratings.
Granted, this strategy doesn’t apply to only paid ads, it can make an impact on your organic listings as well, but having these little stars can help you stand out if your competitors don’t.
To qualify for Google Seller Ratings, you must meet one of the following three criteria:
- Google has received/collected 100 unique reviews for the country within the last 12 months across Google Customer Reviews or our third party review partners
- Google and/or its partners have completed a research evaluation of your site; or
- Google has completed an evaluation of your site via Google Consumer Surveys.
Additionally, you must also meet the following criteria:
- Average, composite, rating of 3.5 or more stars for Text Ads
- Currently, Google can show Seller Ratings if the average rating is less than 3.5 stars
- The ad’s visible URL domain must match the domain for which we have the ratings
Once you’ve met the requirements, there’s no further action you need to take. Google will show your company ratings next to searches your company shows up for, but just like other extensions, not always.
Conclusion:
Don’t let the positive reviews your company generates go to waste. They can be highly valuable tools in your marketing toolbox. Rather than sell yourself, let your customers do the work for you!
