Thursday, April 24, 2008

PPC Management - Tiny Little Differences

By Kirt Christensen

Your headline is only the first place you can grab your customers. You can still let your ad viewer know that you've got what he wants and convert him to a customer, but you need to activate the salesman within you.

Check out the difference between these two ads:

Popular Ethernet Terms

3 Page Guide-Free PDF Download

Complex Words-Simple Definitions

www.bb-elec.com

0.1% CTR

And then:

Popular Ethernet Terms

Complex Words-Simple Definitions

3 Page Guide-Free PDF Download

www.bb-elec.com

3.6% CTR

The first ad had 1/36th of the amount of clicks than the 2nd did. How did that happen? Is there some kind of secret? If you examine the ads, you see they both have precisely the same words. Than what is the difference here?

The first ad listed features and offers first, benefits second. The second ad listed benefits first. This secret of PPC management is just as true in long-copy print advertising as in those little thumbnail Google ads.

Offers and features detail what it is your product does or is. They tell what your offer includes, and how rugged, or large, or tiny, or complete your product is.

But then benefits list what any advantages there are emotionally, what does a buyer get from using the product.

Your feature list for an ebook may include things like this:

10 unchanging principles

20 chapters, 180 pages of substantial information

72 photographic illustrations

Easily understood charts and graphs

One step at a time guide

A gripping account, report, or a personal experience

Introduced by Donald Trump

And so forth

On the other hand, when you list your benefits, you let your customer know exactly how what you have written can benefit them. There may be some points that fall in the gray area between benefits and features:

See a 38 percent gain in as little as 40 minutes.

By applying any one of the 14 proven techniques you can see the immediate results.

Elevate Energy Level, Make Lean Muscle, Melt Away Fat, Increase Strength, Endurance and Flexibility all at once.

Find out how you can use mistakes made, as a method to build your skills quicker.

Receive compliments from friends and associates when they try to find out (with envy), "What has happened to you?"

Trying to fit all this content into one little Google ad is not possible. However the concept of splitting the ideas into groups of benefit and feature is a sound one.

Your Google ad is about benefits (emotional payoffs) more than anything else. And when you describe benefits and features both, it virtually always serves you to put benefits first.

The passkey into the kingdom of successful PPC Management is not a degree in writing or being a great copywriter, but it is being able to convince the client that you have something of value that he wants or needs. Stating the cause in clear and simple terms, put the benefits first and test, then you can see the response.

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