Google Ads

 1. Headline

Headlines are your first chance to make a connection. A great headline is clear, to the point, and interesting. It needs to match the user’s search intent, so should contain important keywords. Headlines should also touch on customer pain point to increase the chances of a click.

2. Description

Your description is where you make good on your headline’s promise. It’s where you show why clicking your ad is worth their time. Keep it brief but compelling. Highlight the following:

• Benefits
• Unique selling points
• Any special offers

If you can, create urgency (think limited-time deals) to give people a reason to click now.

3. Display URL

The display URL is the web address users see when they look at your ad. Even if it’s not the exact page they’ll land on, it should make sense with the message in your ad.

Here’s an example of a Google Ad URL: www.yourbusiness.com/leather-jacket

Your ad for leather jackets on sale should have a URL like this to reassure users they’re in the right place, potentially increasing click-through rates.

FYI, the average click-through rate for Google Ads campaigns was 3-5% in 2023.

4. Ad Extensions

Google Ads allows you to add “Extensions” to your ad. Here’s a list of all the extensions that you can add to your ad.

• Sitelink extensions (shown above)
• Callout extensions
• Structured snippet extensions
• Image extensions (shown above)
• Call extensions
• Lead form extensions
• Location extensions
• Price extensions
• App extensions
• Promotion extensions (shown above)
• Automated extensions (this includes “Seller Ratings” shown above)

Note: Once you have created these elements and activated them, Google may only choose some of them to display on your ad at any one time. This can depend on the position of your ad (top of page typically sees the most ad extensions) or the extensions that receive the best engagement rate.

4. Call To Action

The Call-To-Action (CTA) tells people what to do next. Make sure it’s crystal clear and action-packed—whether it’s “Shop Now,” “Get a Free Quote,” or “Sign Up Today.” A good CTA stands out and pushes users to act immediately.

Rules for writing strong copy for Google Ads

When you’re crafting your Google Ads copy, it’s crucial to stick to Google’s guidelines and best practices. This will keep your ads in line with their standards, but it’ll also help your campaigns perform better (pro tip: stopping fake clicks also helps your Google ads perform better).

Here are 6 general rules to follow for great Google Ads copy:

• Rule 1: Fully utilize your character limits. Google keeps things tight! Headlines are capped at 30 characters, while descriptions get a bit more room with 90 characters each. The path fields (add-ons to your display URL) max out at 15 characters. Read more: How to maximize Google Ads character limits
• Rule 2: Use punctuation and symbols. Google allows common punctuation—like commas, periods, question marks, and exclamation points—but you can’t use special characters like brackets, underscores and asterisks. Additionally, spammy symbols will perform poorly, or might not even get approved in the first place. According to a Wordstream study, exclamation points appear in 48% of top-performing branded text Google ads. Use them to drive home the point!
• Rule 3: Focus on relevance and compliance. Your search ads must be relevant to the product or service being advertised. This is especially important for sensitive topics like gambling. You can also explore all of Google’s ad policy requirements here.
• Rule 4: No keyword stuffing. Google hates keyword stuffing. Moderation is key.
• Rule 5: Capitalization. In our experience sentence case or title case copy can give Google search ads a clean polish and makes them look more professional.
• Rule 6: Dial in your ad groups. Make sure you organize your ads based on a shared theme or set of keywords, which will allow you to create hyper-targeted ads. This improves ad relevance, and increases your Quality Score, leading to better ad performance and lower costs. Keep your ad groups focused by limiting the number of keywords per group. Ideally, aim for 10-20 closely related keywords per ad group to maintain precision. The more specific the ad group, the more relevant your ad will be to the searcher, and that’s what Google likes to see.

How to write effective copy for Google Ads that gets results

Provide clear, relevant copy

Search ad copy should be clear, grammatically correct, and relevant to the offer. Every other ad you’re competing with will have these basics and you don’t want your copy to underperform.

We’ve also found that keeping your copy at an 8th grade reading level is best for performance.

Why? Because 50% of American adults cannot read a book written at an 8th grade level, according to the Washington Post. Plus, simple, direct copy is best for holding users’ attention and guiding them to your CTA.