Google AdWords Tip: Can One Headline Outperform Another Headline by 195%?

January 18th, 2007 by Mike Read more about Google AdWords Tips

The short answer is yes!

Check out this Google AdWords case study below where we have one headline outperform another headline by 195%!

The secret here is that often a headline that is a direct match with the keyword phrase will greatly outperform anything else that you might come up with. This is exactly what we did with the winning headline below.

The above ad only shows up for the keyword phrase “Alex Mandossian” and as a result having a pure headline that contains only the targeted keyword phrase and nothing else turns out to greatly outperform any other option that we have tried so far.

The above also clearly illustsrated the tremendous advantage Google AdWords advertisers can gain if they meticulously split all of their keyword groups and phrases into unique Ad Groups. Yes, that can take time but it pays off. Plus, if you use the Google AdWords Desktop Editor, then editing your Google account becomes far faster too.

NOTES: Conversion rate = sign-ups (i.e. leads)

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

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7 Responses to “Google AdWords Tip: Can One Headline Outperform Another Headline by 195%?”

January 21st, 2007 at 8:24 am John W Ellis
Well said.

I have always been a strong proponent have separate keywords into as many AdGroups as possible. It can be time consuming and meticulous, but it’s the only way get good data on spend.

I would say that the specific changes you made to the ad above may not apply to everyone. But again, that proves your point. Multiple ads and distinct AdGroups, only quality stats can show results.

With Adwords Editor making those changes, including creating multiple ads, it’s now a very simple process.

Thanks,
-John W Ellis
January 21st, 2007 at 4:35 pm Aphasia Software for speech & Language
That seems like a low condidence interval (124 clicks). I.e., I’m not sure that the results are statistically significant (for the Conversion Rate at least).

Also, as a searcher, I tune out a lot of the Overture-generated ads that just have the keyword. You know, stuff like when you search on “aphasia software” (which is a very narrow niche) and you get an ad like

Buy Aphasia Software
at target.com
Lowest prices.

You see enough of the above *I* at least strart dismissing anything that seems a little *too close* to my search.
January 22nd, 2007 at 3:53 am MarkZZ
Very interesting post. I see that your conversion is tracked as “leads/sign ups”. I was wondering how you think conversion rate would be effected on an e-commerce site if you exact match the search query to the title? With e-commerce sites, it would be preferred to have a lower CTR but higher CR. I would guess that CR would be lower without a call to action “buy” in the ad, letting the users know you’re selling the item.

Anyway, nice post.
January 24th, 2007 at 6:18 am sarah
Not only is the result statistically insignificant, but the supposedly loosing ad, may have been more profitable, not only did it get more clicks, but it converted a larger number of sales (23 to the winning ad’s 22, based on the figs above). If this product was selling for a small amount then i agree that the winning ad wins, however if your product sells at a couple of grand, then i would go for the loosing ad every time.

But then i suppose it depends wheather your concerned with conversion rates, or just pure profit!
January 25th, 2007 at 12:06 am vishen
The fact that the winning ad has a higher CTR is statistically significant and the reason the “losing” ad has more clicks is because it was running for a longer period of time. If the winning ad had been running the same amount of time it would have greatly outperformed the other ad.

I a don’t follow your rationale why you would go for the losing ad. The losing ad is a loser, the price of the product does not matter. You are going to sell more with the winning ad.

Perhaps I just should have stated that the time period is for the total period each ad was running but the time is not identical. If it was, the loser would truly look like the dog that it is and it would be less confusing.
January 30th, 2007 at 8:05 pm Jonathan Casuncad
Or you can just use dynamic keyword insertion in your ad Title so your ad’s Title corresponds 100% with the users’ search term (unless it exceeds the 25 character limit. You can configure it to have a default Title just in case the search terms does exceed the limit.
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:39 pm Mike
I am very much against dynamic keyword insertion for the following reasons:

1) If you are building targeted Ad Groups, then the keyword you want to use is always the same by Ad Group so there is no need for it.

2) If your Ad Group is too broad so you need to use dynamic keyword insertion then you should split up your keywords into different Ad Groups

3) In test after test, I can beat the crap out of the results I get with dynamic keyword insertion. It takes more work but it always pays off.

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