Recently I had the chance to listen to a presentation by Marcus Sheridan (@TheSalesLion on Twitter) as he spoke about content marketing. He’s a very dynamic speaker and he had some very thought provoking ideas about how marketers should be educators more than salespeople. Good stuff and you should look him up if you’re into content marketing or inbound sales.
However, he had a slide where he pointed out “The BIG Five” things that people are looking for online:
- Cost
- Problems
- Versus
- Reviews
- Best
He mentioned these in the context of producing content to address these areas in your niche/industry, but I looked at that list and saw a great template for awesome testing.
Cost
When you’re buying online (something everyone does these days) the price is a very large consideration. However, for many products and services the price isn’t something you can just put on the page. The correct price is “it depends.” Even in that situation you need to address the issue. A couple ad-copy-length ideas:
“We Meet Or Beat Competitors’ Prices” (low price leader)
“Best Bang For Your Buck” (value)
“See Pricing” (transparent & direct)
This last one can be very compelling in industries where pricing is usually opaque. Just make sure your page delivers on the promise.
Problems
Many advertisers use this language and address the pain points related to the product/service. This is pretty straight forward.
Versus
This is difficult in PPC because most competitors name brands will be trademarks that you’re not allowed to use in ad copy. However, your product/service likely has key differentiators that you can emphasize as a key comparison:
“A vs. B – What’s Better?”
“Why Choose A Over B? Here’s Why”
Reviews
I know many PPC managers that actually use “review” or “reviews” as a negative keyword and shy away from this because the customer is too early in the funnel. Marcus shared the statistic that 70% of a purchase decision is made BEFORE the zero moment of truth (moment they first contact your business). This is an area that gets you into the discussion while that 70% is being formed.
AdWords has a review extension if you’ve got a good 3rd party review you can use. The policies are pretty strict and approval can be tough, but if you can get it you have a review right with your ad and it doesn’t take any of your precious characters.
Best
If you’re the best at something, make sure to tell people and tell people why. You’re probably already doing this, so this is just a reminder that being the best is something to be proud of.
Conclusion
Your ad copy needs to pull in the click and if you can tap into these 5 areas you’ll get more clicks by communicating with potential customers on their biggest concerns/interests.
