Ad Copy and What Qualifying Your PPC Leads Means

If you’ve ever written ad copy for online search before, you know that it’s just as much a science as it is an art. And there are many blogs, eBooks, and courses out there solely dedicated to writing ad copy. They detail all the tips and tricks to create ads that generate more impressions and clicks from users. This includes things like addressing the user, including a call-to-action, and focusing on benefits. When done correctly, you’re told that all of these things can help to increase your Quality Score (Google’s estimate of the relevancy and quality of your ads) and click-through-rate.

But when everyone is so focused on click-through-rate, it’s easy to forget the real goal of online advertising: profit. You’ve chosen to advertise on search engines to bring more users to your site that will make a purchase, increasing your revenue and overall profit. And when you don’t align your ad copy to this goal, you’re probably wasting money on your ads. Your click-through-rate can be through the roof, but if these users are not buying anything, then what was the point in the first place?

This is where qualifying your PPC leads comes into play.

What Does Qualifying Your PPC Leads Mean?

Not all clicks are created equal. Say, for instance, you sell women’s clothing. Your products are well-made from the highest quality materials, are timeless shapes and silhouettes, and are meant to be worn for years as basic pieces in a women’s closet. Now say a user searches for “women’s jeans” and an ad for your online store pops up. This is great! Unless it isn’t. Say this searcher is a teenager with little money to spend on clothing and they are looking for inexpensive, trendy items that your store just doesn’t offer. Do you want them to click on your ad? The honest answer is no.

Sure, you can write an ad that this user will click on, increasing your click-through-rate, but is it worth it? This user isn’t a quality lead and will undoubtedly leave your site without purchasing something and the cost for that click was wasted.

This is why you need to tailor your ad copy to weed out any users who are not in your target market, leading to clicks that are more qualified, informed, and relevant for your business. Qualifying your PPC leads will help bring in more users who are actually interested in what you have to offer, spending your online advertising budget more effectively. So, what are some ways you can tailor your ad copy to bring in qualified leads?

Include Price

One of the first ways you can qualify your PPC leads with your ad copy is by including the price of your products or services. This doesn’t have to be specifically a number (or it can be), but try to inform the user if your products are more expensive or affordable. In the example mentioned above, say the ad copy mentioned words like “high-end,” “designer,” or “premium.” These words would help the user identify if this is what they are looking for or not.

Sometimes it’s easy to think that by including price, you will be losing out on customers. This is true especially if you are priced higher than your competitors. However, this typically means you offer more benefits and features, so be sure to mention that as well! This will help weed out those bargain shoppers trying to find the cheapest option. Instead, it will bring in more qualified leads who may have done a little bit more research and are willing to pay more for a superior product.

On the other hand, if your target market is those low-end shoppers, you don’t want to waste money appealing to users who are looking for a higher-priced, higher quality product. Figure out how your ad copy can relay this information to searchers so that the users that are clicking on your ads are better informed on what you are offering and are more likely to make a purchase.

Don’t Solely Match Searcher Intent

Matching your ad copy to the searcher’s intent is often lesson number one in ad copywriting 101. Marketers advise this because it helps the searcher understand ad relevance in relation to their query, making them more likely to click. However, what if the products and services you offer don’t exactly line up with what the user searched for? Should you still write an ad that pretends to match the searchers intent exactly? Probably not. If the user clicks on your ad, they will most likely immediately leave the page after not getting what they expected.

This is especially useful if you are in a new industry that doesn’t have a lot of search traffic for niche, long-tail keywords so instead, you are casting a wider net with broad terms. For example, imagine an ad for a holistic health care provider shows up when a user has searched for “health insurance plans.” The intent of the user is to find more information on traditional health insurance coverage. The holistic health care provider’s online ads should not match this intent, but instead, explain to the user that they offer an alternative solution to health insurance. This way the user won’t be surprised when they click on the ad, knowing beforehand what to expect. Don’t get us wrong, user intent is still important, just don’t pretend to match it if you don’t! Instead, tell the user how your service or product can be an alternative.

Rely on Your Landing Page

When writing any ad copy, you want to make sure the information provided in the ad matches the information on the corresponding landing page. This helps qualify your PPC leads by explaining what you are offering. When your ad copy doesn’t match your landing page, users are caught off guard when they click on the ad and see different information on your website. This often leads to users immediately leaving your website and going back to the SERP. You always want to help users understand what it is you are offering, even in the limited space of search ads.

Quality Score vs. Qualified Leads

So, although the digital marketing community often touts increasing click-through-rate and Quality Score, we believe that focusing on qualifying your PPC leads is more important. And sometimes this means a slight drop in those metrics. But is it better to have 100 clicks with 10 conversions or 50 clicks with 20 conversions? If you are using your ad copy to weed out any unqualified leads and cater to more relevant users, you’re doing it right in our book. Here at Firetoss, we focus on getting you the business that matters. If you want to discuss how we can improve your SEM strategy and bring in more qualified leads through search ads, contact one of our digital media specialists today.