altE. Writing Ads

Ad Components

Recall
from the previous module the four components of an AdWords ad — the
headline, description, display URL, and description URL. Each ad within
an ad group can serve to test what aspects of your ads resonate with
your target audience more than others.

Yet, with maximum
lengths of 25 characters for a headline and 70 characters for a
two-line description (both including spaces), it can pose a challenge.

We’ll
go into much greater detail on writing ads later in this course. For
now, the following approaches to creating an ad will always benefit you
as an AdWords advertiser:

  • Be concise with both your headline and description
  • Include keywords in your ad whenever possible
  • Include in the text a benefit you offer to the Google user
  • Include in the text a call to action
  • Follow Google’s editorial and other policies for AdWords ads (covered in the previous module)
  • Be sure your destination URL is an actual URL for your website
  • Track the performance of your ads to see which ones generate the best results in terms of click-throughs and conversions

Disapproved Ads Tool

All of the above points are pretty much under your control except one: Google’s policies.

It’s
difficult to comprehend Google’s editorial policies fully until you’ve
attempted to run an ad. Fortunately, Google provides a tool to help you
make certain your ads are in compliance with these policies.

The Disapproved Ads Tool is found under the Campaign Management tab in a section called “Analyze Your Performance.”

  1. Clicking
    on the Disapproved Ads button will generate a listing of those ads in
    your campaigns that Google has disapproved for one reason or another.
    (Google will also send you an email notifying you of any disapproved
    ads.)
  2. Click on Details next to the disapproved ad,
    and you’ll get the reason(s) why the ad was disapproved. While an ad
    can be disapproved because the campaign associated with it is paused or
    deleted, it will also tell you if the ad text is not in compliance with
    Google’s policies.
  3. Clicking the Edit Ad button will take you directly to the text so you can make edits and resubmit them to Google for review.