MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

One of the things that I enjoy the most in writing my Google AdWords ads is to test different adjectives to elicit an emotional response from the Google visitors. I find it fascinating that changing one word can have radically different results.

In a way, writing ads for Google AdWords clearly shows that words truly are powerful.

They get people to respond in very dramatic ways and more often than not, it is impossible to guess beforehand what will work. Below is another test where we tested two different words. We tested “transform” vs. “improve”

Clearly “transform” is a far more emotional word than simply stating “improve.” As you will see, using such a powerful word significantly boosted the click-through-rate of our ads. However, far fewer people took action. One clear hypothesis is that putting visitors into a mindset of “transforming their life” is a huge promise so when they end up on the following site they are disappointed.

However, if you are more descriptive by using copy such as “improve your life” visitors might be far more inclined to learn more about your product since they believe that your product might truly address what they are looking for.

Here are the detailed results of of our test:

While the power word “transform” boosted the click-through-rate by 44%, the conversion rate dropped by an incredible 75%. Clearly, in this case using the word “transform” in the copy got us a lot more eyeballs but not more leads and customers. This is also another reason why looking at the conversion rate of each ad is so important.

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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

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