MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

Here is a pow­er­ful PPC tip that you can imme­di­ately put to the test:

Ask prob­ing questions!

Why are peo­ple search­ing on Google in the first place? To find answers! So, phras­ing your pay per click ad in a ques­tion can some­times lead to a dra­matic boost in your click-through-rate. This works espe­cially well when peo­ple are search­ing for “infor­ma­tion” instead of “products.”

In other words, hav­ing a phrase such as “What is a Dig­i­tal Cam­era?” would prob­a­bly not work. How­ever, in areas such as self improve­ment, or self help, phras­ing your ppc ads in a ques­tion can have a HUGE pos­i­tive impact on your click-through rate.

Here is a detailed example:

The only dif­fer­ence in the fol­low­ing two ppc ads is that in the first we used a ques­tion in the title and in the sec­ond we used a pow­er­ful claim. This ad was for the key­word phrase “self healing.”

CTR = 3.10%, Impres­sions = 516

CTR = 0.9%, Impes­sions = 330

As you can see from the results listed above, ask­ing a ques­tion boosted our CTR by a whop­ping 244%! Will you get these improve­ments in your click-through-rate all the time? Of course not. How­ever, ask­ing prob­ing ques­tions can be another pow­er­ful idea to test when refin­ing and tweak­ing your pay per click campaigns.

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About the Author

Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay where he conceived of the strategies that led to the investment in Craigslist, the launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition of Skype. Mike has an MBA from Stanford and previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is also a certified Google AdWords Professional.

Check out other posts by Mike Reining

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