MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

Google Adwords rewards high-performing ads with special placement above search results. Take a look at the screenshot below. Lower performing ads show on the right and top performers show above the search results.

In the screenshot above you're looking at ads that show for the keyword "speed reading".

Now here's what you should know. The way you write the URL for your ad can make a dramatic difference depending on whether your ad is showing on the side or on the top.

When your ad is on the side it's usually better to capitalize keyphrases in your URL. In other words

www.SpeedReadingBook.com will usually perform better than www.speedreadingbook.com.

But once your ad makes it to the top position you're gonna have to change your URL tactics.

Take a closer look at the top position ads for speed reading.

The first 3 listings are ads. The final, fourth listing is a search result.

Notice that each of the 3 ads use a different way of writing the URL?

The first ad is of the type www.url.com.

The second is url.com

and the third is www.Url.com

The actual search result lists the url as www.url.com

Now remember - the less your ad looks like an ad - the more clicks you get. Take a look at how Google shows urls for search results.
It's always www.url.com

So if your ad is showing above the search results you'll get significantly better click-through-rates by listinng your URLs as www.url.com (As in the first ad).

In our test of two similar google ads showing in above the search results. The one with www.url.com outperformed www.Url.com by a huge margin of 20%.

Nice!

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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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