Ad copy is a major component of Google Ads. Copywriting is a technique as well as an art to convey your advertisement message to customers in a most meaningful and attractive way, so that it increases views and clicks on your ads and website which also gives you an extra edge to showcase your concerned products, services and business.
Given below are the common mistakes that may occur while writing ad copy, which should be eliminated.
1. Unnecessary capitalization of words
We could identify that while writing Text Ads, a lot of copywriters make a common mistake by capitalizing some words in upper case and leaving some words in lower case. Which doesn’t fall within the rules and guidelines of writing Text Ads in Google Ads. The basic rule of creating text ads is to capitalize only the first letter of every word both in the Headlines and Description rather than capitalising the whole word.
To make comprehensive and relevant Text Ads you should use correct formal language, avoid spelling mistakes and follow the Google Ads guidelines for writing Text Ads.
Example:
2. Improper use of punctuations and symbols
It is very unprofessional to use improper punctuations and symbols while writing Text Ads, which creates confusion and misinterpretation amongst customers and make no sense. It is the foremost mistake that a lot of copywriters tend do while writing Text Ads. When you are involved in a technical writing, using proper punctuations and symbols becomes mandatory.
Inclusion of punctuations (Commas, Full stops, Exclamation Points etc.) in a sentence, not only gives precise meaning to the content but it also enables customers to read and understand Text Ad’s message properly. It is suggested that it is worth-while using symbols and punctuations in a sentence because, it doesn’t unnecessarily increase your words count but gives room to the words in a sentence, so that readers can read and understand it easily.
Example:
3. Not Using correct character limit for each field
The prerequisites of commencing any professional work starts from thorough study of rules and principles. According to the rulebook of Google Ads for Expanded Text Ad writing, there are four basic fields that are required for creating text ads which are mentioned below:
• Headline: Every Text Ad constitutes of three headlines (Headline 1, Headline 2 & Headline 3). Apart from the first two requisite Headline fields, the addition of the third Headline field is optional. The character limit for each headline is 30 and the first letter of every word in the headlines should be capitalized in Upper case.
The mistakes that should be avoided while writing Text Ads’ Headline are absence of keywords in the headlines, irrespective of Ad Group, repetition of words/keywords, using irrelevant keywords, exceeding maximum character limit, not using company’s/products’ name etc.
It is essential to write short, unique, informative and two different but relevant Headlines. Using relevant keywords and phrases makes your headline attractive to customers, which increases views and clicks on your Ad and website.
• Description: The purpose of this field is to describe the brief information given in the headlines and to communicate Ads’ particulars to customers in detail. According to the recent changes in the guidelines of Expanded text ads, the inclusion of second description field provides extra space to advertisers for describing more information about the ad.
The maximum character limit of the description field is 90 and it is mandatory to capitalize first letter of every word. Description should be written in the context of the headlines and concerned products or services. It is suggested to use call-to-actions and existing offers.
Mistakes to avoid in the description field are; not using brand’s name, regardless of Ad group, absence of Call-to-action and offers, repetition and irrelevant keywords, exceeding maximum character limit, use of improper punctuations etc.
• Display URL field: Display URL gives a brief idea to the searchers on which page they will land after clicking an Ad. Google Ads uses domain of the final URL and displays it as an Ad’s Display URL. Display URLs are shorter than Final URL and when Display URL combines with landing page, it becomes your Final URL. i.e. If display URL is www.xzy.com, then final URL might be xyz.com/contact. It is vitally important that customer who views and clicks your Ad, goes to the right landing page. So, in order to that, using relevant and correct URLs becomes necessary.
• Path field: Path field is a segment of Final URL that lies between the Headline and description field. This field gives potential site visitors the exact idea, on which exact page they will be taken to once the Ad is being clicked.
The path field should contain the basic information of your Ad, concerned products and services. The character limit of this field is 15 and generally it is an optional field. i.e. www.xyz.com/contact_company/address is the display URL and contact_company and address are Path text.
4. Absence of Ad Extension
You could do everything right in order to validate your Text Ads, right from the selection of Keywords and keyword match type and running your Text Ads through Google Ads but you are still failing to get enough views or Click-Through-Rate (CTR). This is just because of not optimising Ad extensions in your Ads.
Including Ad extensions in a typical Google Ads Ad format gives you an extra edge and space to communicate additional information related to your product, service and business with customers. Inclusion of extensions in your Ad attracts potential traffic, which increases ad’s views and Click-through-rate (CTR). Ad extensions includes call extensions (contact details), location information (Address), sitelinks, specific pages of your website, rating and reviews etc.
5. Missing out on Spell check
Missing out on spell, relevancy or quality check can spoil your work and could force you to re-write your whole ad copy once again. So, if you want to eliminate these errors from your Ad copy, you should definitely try these steps.
Using these error defining steps, notifies you about the mistakes in your Text Ads and suggest areas of improvement and correction, which ensures the quality of your Ad. Analysing these steps become so important for your Ads because occurrence of any such errors would lower your Ads’ quality and hence decreases your Ads’ Rank.
Escaping out on spell check is a huge blunder in the context of writing ad copies. As we all know there is a limited space for posting your ads, so it becomes imperative to use that space correctly and in a most efficient manner. This is the most usual mistake, that should be cross-checked twice or thrice before posting ad campaigns. You just need to follow these steps of spell check:
6. Missing out on Keyword Relevancy check:
Skipping out on keyword relevancy check could hamper your Ads’ quality score and Ad Rank on Google Ads in the case of low Ad relevancy. Keyword relevancy plays a pivotal role while writing Text Ad copy. Using relevant keywords can increase views, clicks and bring potential customers to your website. The keywords which you use should be relevant to the content of your ad and to the nature of your concerned business, products or services.
To increase the productivity and ROI (Return On Investment) of your company website and to provide quality experience to your customers, it becomes so important to fully utilize the given limited space and make such Ads that connects with the needs of the customers and searched keywords.
• Irrelevant Keywords: Irrelevant keywords obstruct your Ads from being triggered and getting views and clicks. Copywriters should keep it in mind to eliminate such irrelevancy and to use relevant keywords. Irrelevancy, whether in words, phrases, keywords or even in URLs make no sense to the customers and even to the online business of your company.
It is observed that many Ads get triggered from irrelevant searchers and from irrelevant locations, this mostly happens due to use of irrelevant keywords or content in your Ads or website. Irrelevancy reduces your Ad’s quality and degrades its Ad Rank in Google Ads.
7. Duplicate entries
Basically, Duplicate entries pertains to the amount of content and keywords within or across domains that either are completely equivalent or resembles each other. Sometimes duplicity is being done intentionally in order to manipulate site’s ranking and bring more traffic and sometimes it occurs accidently.
For the utmost utilisation of limited space, identification and replacement of duplicate entries in Text Ad copies are very essential. Duplicates and repetition of keywords do not make sense to customers who generally compare Ads, products and services with existing online competitors. To remove duplicates and make distinct yet informative Text Ad copy, you should follow these steps:
8. Not matching Ad to your landing page or URL
“Failing to match your Ad to the landing page or URL is just like, failing to bound your words to a meaningful rhythm or failing to give right direction to a courageous effort”.
Landing page or URL defines the web address of your Text Ads. It is very important to enter right landing page of your Ad because it takes customers to the page where they end up after clicking an Ad. In order to match your Ad to the landing page URL, there should be a relevancy between both. And as per Google’s guidelines, landing page URL and your display URL must contain the same domain name.
Conclusion
“Pay Per Click (PPC) ad copywriting is a direct conversation with the customers”. So, with the sight of delivering quality work and services to the customers and increasing Return on Investment (ROI)) for your website/business, you should emphasize more on the rules and guidelines of Google Ads of writing Text Ads and above given points enlightens the same to reduce the mistakes while writing Text Ads