Tips on PPC Advertising and Landing Pages

The 2006 PubCon session on Ad and Landing Page Site Reviews was a classic.  Christine Churchill moderated and Kevin Lee of Did-It, Brad Geddes of LocalLaunch.com and a few others had some great comments.

I made notes on just the things that I was not already familiar with and I’ll pass them along in this post.  I’m sorry that I don’t remember which persons said which.  Therefore, I won’t be able to credit them appropriately.  But it was a great session with some great info.  Here were my favorite comments…

1.  Putting your phone number in your Google or Yahoo ad is generally not a good idea, according to testing them have done.  The one exception is if your phone number is a really good vanity number, such as 1-800-HippoIM.  In that case, it may build credibility and cause more people to click on you.  It’s doubtful that they will call you without first clicking on the ad, though.

2.  If you want something to stand out on your landing page, make it a specific color and don’t use that color anywhere else.  This seems obvious, but it’s a good reminder.

3.  In competitive areas, try NOT using the keyword in your ad.  It just may make your ad look different and therefore get more clicks.  Highlight your competitive difference instead.  (Free shipping, etc.)

4.  Use Hyperlinked words in your copy to increase stickiness.  It’s sort of funny that people will probably not read the text, but they’ll click on the link anyway.

5.  Try local campaigns, even if your business is not local.  It causes Google to put the local region in your ad.  Extra ad space.

6.  If you want people to call your phone number, don’t just put your phone number in your header.  People tend to get “header blindness” as they look through your site, similar to “banner blindness”.

7.  If you have an important call-to-action, be sure to try using a button instead of just a text link.

Nice ideas.

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