MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

If you have been fol­low­ing the recent test results that I have been pub­lish­ing, you will have noticed that two of my favorite key­words to use towards the end of a Google ad are “Free” and “Guar­an­teed.”  In addi­tion, I just shared two weeks ago that “down­load” can also be a killer keyword. 

So, in this test I decided to pin test two of my win­ning ad for­mu­las against each other to see which one would win.  Here are the two ads that I tested.  The only dif­fer­ence in the two Google AdWords ads is:

“Down­load Free Lessons” vs. “Guaranteed”

 As you can see from the above test results, “Down­load Free Lessons” clearly beat the los­ing ad that con­tained the key­word “Gauranteed.”

My hypoth­e­sis is that “Down­load Free Lessons” wins because it com­mu­ni­cates two ben­e­fits that the other ad does not.  First, it clearly states that users can get some­thing for free.  Sec­ond it states that users can get it instantly (i.e. down­load the free lessons). 

In the end, how­ever, it is impos­si­ble to tell which ad is going to be bet­ter, which is why we always rec­om­mend to test after test after test.  That is the only way to beat your com­peti­tors in AdWords.  Well, you need a lot more than just test­ing but test­ing is def­i­nitely a key part of a win­ning Google AdWords strategy.

Learn more about Google AdWords:

• 5 Days to Suc­cess With Google AdWords
• The Defin­i­tive Guide to Google AdWords

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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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