There are many crucial elements that make up a PPC campaign. One of them is the landing page, since this is the last ‘domino’ to fall before you finally gain a conversion from the web user. Another significant aspect is the advert itself, since if you have a poorly optimised advert, you will either get a low CTR or the traffic you do get will not be as contextual as you would have wanted it to have been. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to make sure that the PPC advert you choose to use is a good one to say the least so your campaign doesn’t ‘stumble at the first hurdle’. Here are some mistakes you should not be making when it comes to creating your PPC search advert.
 
 

The ‘Too Good To Be True’ Advert

There is no way of knowing if your advert sounds too good to be true or not (which is why you should have some people to ask to get a second opinion). If your advert sounds too good to be true, it will suffer since most things that sound this way end up being false. Web users have got a stereotype for these type of adverts that there is always a catch and it is better to just not click the advert and save yourself the heart’ache of finding out this advert was in fact too good to be true. Therefore, your click thorugh rate will suffer.
Remember that your advert should have honest information and not beg the web user to visit your landing page. You want the web user to be self-interested – the advert is only there to entice them that bit further into a click.
 
 

Forget a Call to Action

The majority of, if not all, descriptions in PPC should include a call to action  (if these things are not mentioned in the title already). This is because:

• Call to actions take up a minimal space of an advert.
• They give the web user a command which is sometimes needed to get them to click onto the advert.
• They are a source of encouragement for a conversion later on.

As well as this, if you are selling something to the web user, you can always offer a financial incentive too. For example, if you are are a comparison website, you could include the average savings web users make from using your service. Even though we are coming out of a recession, people are still tight and anyway people can save money they will.
 

Over-Cluttering an Advert

Another reason for a low CTR is from over-cluttering an advert. This is mainly due to having too many characters used in the title and description and then the addition of two to three ad extensions. What you need to remember is that web users have a short attetntion span. If there are three adverts that look like yours (are over-cluttered) the web user will not read any of them. Sometimes, short and simple will prove more effective. Apple’s PPC adverts are always a great example of this: