MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

As a regular reader of this blog, you know by now my passion for testing small things that can have a big impact on the click-through-rate and ROI of my Google AdWords campaigns. I love doing this for a few reasons.

1) I know that most of our competitors are too lazy to bother

2) I know it takes little time

3) I know that these tiny changes can have a huge impact

Here is another case study. This time, I simply tested the impact of finishing my ad with and without an exclamation mark!

I thought it might make a difference but I was stunned and amazed once I saw the results. The image below shows the detailed results of the two Google AdWords ads that we tested.

As you will see, the Google AdWords ad without the exclamation mark had a click-through-rate that was 3.3 times higher than the one that did. This is a very powerful Google AdWords optimization tip. Will the results always be that dramatic? No, and sometimes you might even find out that the opposite is true. It all depends on the keyword that you are buying and on the overall ad copy of your Google AdWords ad. However, once again this example shows that testing can go a long way!

Last 5 posts by

• Do you think SEO in other languages is easier? - September 18th, 2008
• Google Slap - How to recover from a Google Slap? - September 8th, 2008
• What Does Your Order Button Say? - August 29th, 2008
• Will Knol Rule The Search Engines? First Analysis Indicates...It Just Might - July 23rd, 2008
• Are small businesses dropping out of AdWords? - July 23rd, 2008

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

If you want to see what's in the private lab...

Ask yourself... which part of your business would you most like to improve?

I can send you 7 tactics related to your specific needs, if you like.

You don't have to buy anything, just take it as a backstage pass into our private course.

Will it give you the solution you've been waiting for?

There's only one way to find out.