Writing Emotional Search Ads

If your company consists of only two people, one should be a capable copywriter. There is no single skill more important to the success of your digital marketing strategy than copywriting. None, nada, zip. And yes, there are complex technologies required to target and deliver the right content to the right person at the right time but it’s the words that move people, not the technology.

Search ads are like a billboard streaking past the passenger window at 60 miles per hour but with less text, a smaller font, and no pictures.

No copy you’re likely to write will be more concise than a search engine ad. You need to attract your prospect’s attention with a 25 character title, then sell them with an additional 70 characters. Search engine ads make the old Burma shave commercials along the roadside seem garrulous.

The constraint imposed by the length of a search engine ad requires you get to your point with the directness of a .38 caliber bullet. It precludes an ambling list of benefits, alluring images, SHOUTING, even bad punctuation!! You only have a few words to sell the click. How do you make them count?

The common advice offered copywriters includes:

• Emotional appeal
• Unique selling point
• Call to action

Fitting all of that into a search ad is like squeezing a fat lady into small shoes.

Emotional Appeal

People first make their decision to buy based upon emotion. Only afterwards is that decision rationalized. In order to sell, you need to create a desirable image they can inhabit in their imagination. The brevity of search ads may require you convey that emotional context with a single word.

The purpose of a search engine ad is to sell the click and
move your prospect from search page to landing page.

Let’s take hiking boots as an example. I still have my first pair of Vasque hiking boots, now 30 years old—older than most people I work with. They have Vibram soles and uppers stiff as untanned cow hide. I’d have to work them with saddle soap just to get them onto my feet. Mostly they remain in my closet museum, waiting for the apocalypse when I need to cross the continental divide on foot.

What words might emotionally motivate a person searching for hiking boots?

• Wilderness
• Nature
• Beauty
• Adventure
• Escape

Certainly there are more but these will serve. Here are a few ads that might marry emotion to the brand.

Adventure on sale-Vasque (24)
Experience wilderness. Vasque hiking boots. Free shipping. Ends 9/30. (69)

Walk the wild side-Vasque (25)
Escape to the wilderness. Vasque hiking boots on sale. Ends 9/30. (66)

Nature, beauty, Vasque
Wilderness adventure? Vasque hiking boots. Free shipping. Ends 9/30. (68)

Whether these work in the real world will depend upon testing. Everything about digital advertising should be tested against alternatives and measured against a goal.

Unique Selling Proposition

Each of the Vasque ads includes the offer of free shipping. That may no longer be a unique selling proposition for online advertisers. It may be just the cost of entry in the game, depending upon your competitive environment. In the world of search ad copywriting, however, it serves the purpose.

Call to Action

Did you notice the call to action in the three ads? Ends 9/30. It’s an imperative to act before the expiration date, before the sale or special offer ends. And the expiration date should be near enough in the future to prompt immediate action. I suggest it should expire at the end of every week.

Of course, that means you’ll need to update your ad copy every week. Is it worth the effort? Your click through rate should provide a clue.

The purpose of a search engine ad is to sell the click and move your prospect from search page to landing page. A unique selling proposition, a convincing call to action, and emotion – especially emotion – can have a powerful impact even in a search ad.

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