Most people think they’ve tested 20 ads. Actually they’ve just tested 2 ads 10 times.
Most people have never explored the possibilities of what they might say in a super-effective Google ad.
In Orlando at Roundtable last week, Howie Jacobson (author of “Google AdWords for Dummies”) walked us all through an ingenious small-group brainstorming process. He began by asking us to “read the diary” of our ideal prospect to our group members. Then, with help from a handout he gave everyone, each group member wrote some ads for the others.
These ads were DRAMATICALLY different from anything we would have written ourselves.
One member helps women with a chronic medical condition. Everybody knows what a typical ad for “Medical Condition X” is “supposed to” look like:
Medical Condition X
Learn About Condition X Symptoms
Treatment & Prevention – Better Health
www.MedicalConditionX.com
Here’s the ad I wrote for her:
My name is Janet
37, Married, Overweight, Exhausted
I feel like the living dead
www.MedicalConditionX.com/tired_all_the_time
See the difference?
If you have any kind of real business online, just ONE effective ad-writing rut-breaker can put $5,000 cash in your bank account this month. There’s no better creativity booster than other human beings who live in different skin than you.
Inspiration is priceless. Creative input from other people is priceless. Do whatever you gotta do, go wherever you gotta go, to get it.
Perry Marshall
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
8 Comments on “Writing Google Ads: Escape the Rut”
Perry
Your ability to put yourself in the mind of the prospect prior to writing an ad is amazing.
Scott
hi perry
great ads – but what if you got banned by google adwords. i did about a year ago not sure why they just said i don’t comply with terms and conditions – i think i had a bad qs. when i set up another account my ads don’t run. who do i contact to plead and beg to?
thanks.
There’s nobody you can plead to. If you’ve promoted stuff they frown on you may be banned. Try Yahoo and Bing – that’s the easiest suggestion
Thanks for the reply, Perry – appreciate it. It’s pretty rare to get a personal reply from people on the internet these days.
Hey Perry,
I love these little anecdotes and stories…you tell them so well! (It’s a marketing lesson in itself)
Quick question – which blogging software do you use on your main page? I like the format of it.
I use WordPress.
Hey Perry, you always hit the nail right on the head, tapping into that prospects inner conversation but doesn’t the url have too many characters?I thought 35 was maximum.
http://www.MedicalConditionX.com/tired_all_the_time
The real URL isn’t “MedicalConditionX” :^>