Online advertising comes in many forms, and almost all of them will require unique wording and messaging. If you’re regularly producing and managing paid ads, then you know it’s a trial and error game - which can be frustrating when you have to keep going back to create additional ad copy. Some ads will naturally perform better than others, but at the start of a campaign, it’s not always clear why. Being able to trial different ad variants en masse is crucial in helping you nail down what your audience responds to.
Google Ads & Search PPC
Any Google Ad tip that makes ad creation more efficient, streamlined and manageable is a great asset to any online marketer. This blog is only looking at the Google Search Network, which are the ads that appear at the top of Google search results. This is what the format looks like when you go to create a search ad.
The main thing to pay attention to here is the format. While you don’t necessarily need to use all of the headlines and descriptions, you’re missing out on an opportunity to attract users if you don’t. Either way, you’re going to need a lot of different headings and descriptions saying a similar thing.
What is Bandersnatching?
Cue the term ‘Bandersnatching’ - the art of creating infinite variations of ad text and messaging. Bandersnatching is a great way to approach new and old campaigns alike. It’ll help you to understand what messaging your audience prefers, and makes it much slicker to produce creatives. You’ll end up with a list of suitable text for your ads that can be used interchangeably across the Google Ad fields.
Our example & what to consider
In this example, we’re creating ad copy for a women’s boot shop aptly named Belinda’s Boots. They’re running a 10% discount sale on their boot range and want to secure conversions using this promotional discount.
What do we want this example to achieve?
- Attract high CTR (click-through-rate) on ads; this shows us that it’s relevant to the audience seeing it
- Convert people who click the ad; this shows us that the ad matches the on-page content and the price point is competitive
- Get customers to use the 10% discount code; this helps to understand the impact of a discounted offer on sales volume
- Increase the online exposure of Belinda’s Boots
What to consider
- Keyword research shows what your customers are searching for online
- Headlines should relate to the keyword research
- Are there any niches about what you’re selling? That’ll help you hit the right audience.
- Although the targeting will be set to females only, the user doesn’t know that - so it’s good to include gender in some of the headlines
- Write the same sentence from different angles. For example, cheap boots, budget boots, good value boots all refer to a cheaper variant of boots, but could all mean a different thing depending on how it’s read.
- Do you want to include their brand name? If they’re well known, it could help.
- Just because there are search terms for something, don’t include it if you don’t sell it. Don’t sell black boots? Don’t include black boots in your ad text.
Once you have your campaign in mind and you’ve conducted research, here’s how to approach Bandersnatching
Step 1 - Set up your document
Set up your document with sections that match Google ads. There’s no need for headline 1, 2 and 3 - they’re all limited to 30 characters, and you can prioritise them when it gets to building the ad.
Headlines
- …
- …
Descriptions
- …
- …
Display path
- …
- ...
Step 2 - Brainstorm the ad copy
Just like brainstorming, get all of your ideas down on paper. Worry about character limits, spelling and sentence structure later.
Headlines
- 10% Discount Ending Soon
- 10% Discount For Online Orders
- 10% Discount On All Boots
- 10% Discount Shop Now
- 10% Off At Belinda’s Boots
- 10% Off Boots Online
- All Boots On Offer
- All Styles & Colours Online
- Ankle Boots For Women
- Belinda’s Boots
- Black Boots
- Black Heeled Boots
- Boots Sale
- Browse Belinda’s Boots
- Buy Fashion Boots
- Buy Knee High Boots
- Buy Suede Boots
- Chelsea Boots For Women
- Claim Your 10% Discount
- Designer Women’s Boots
- Discount Women’s Boots
- Fashionable Chelsea Boots
- Fashionable Footwear
- Fashionable Knee High Boots
- Fashionable Range Of Boots
- Fashionable Women’s Boots
- Female Chelsea Boots
- Flat Boots For Women
- Fur Lined Boots
- Grey Boots
- Heeled Boots Online
- High Heel Boots
- High-Quality Boots
- High-Quality Knee High Boots
- Knee High Leather Boots
- Knee High Suede Boots
- Laced Up Boots
- Ladies Heeled Boots
- Ladies Leather Boots
- Ladies Over The Knee Boots
- Ladies Suede Boots
- Ladies Wide Fit Boots
- Leather & Suede Boots
- Leather Ankle Boots
- On Trend Women’s Boots
- Over The Knee Boots
- Patterned Women’s Boots
- Shop Black Boots Online
- Shop Boots For Women
- Shop Heeled Ankle Boots
- Shop Ladies Boots
- Shop Now For 10% Discount
- Stylish Footwear
- White Boots
- Wide Calf Boots
- Wide Fit Boots
- Women’s Ankle Boots
- Women’s Black Boots
- Women’s Flat Boots
- Women’s Heeled Boots
- Women’s Leather Boots
- Women’s Suede Boots
Tip: Headlines are, more often than not, the first thing that draws users’ attention. It needs to be punchy and relatable.
Description
- 10% off all boots - offer ending soon!
- 10% sale for online customers for a limited time.
- 10% sale for online customers.
- Browse our collection of ladies boots.
- Check out the 2019 range of women’s boots.
- Classic colours and styles on women's boots.
- Discount on all boot orders.
- Explore the Belinda’s Boots range.
- Fashionable women’s boots in all styles.
- Find the missing piece to your outfit.
- Gertrude’s boots, your new women’s shoe shop.
- Have 10% off women’s boots on us.
- Ladies boots in every style.
- Let Belinda’s Boots help you find your next pair.
- Looking for your next pair of boots? Shop now.
- Shop now for your exclusive 10% discount.
- Shop now to redeem your 10% boot discount.
- Shop the Belinda’s Boot collection.
- Stylish women’s boots for all seasons.
- Suede and leather boots in all styles.
- We stock high-quality boots for women of all ages.
- Women’s boots for every occasion.
- Women’s boots in every colour.
Tip: Descriptions can be longer in character length, so save wordier sentences for this part of the ad if there’s something you’re struggling to say in the headlines.
Display path
- womens/boots
- ladies/boots
- womens-boots/discount
- ladies-boots/all-styles
- boots/latest-styles
- latest-boots
- new-styles/boots
Tip: The display path isn’t as important as your title and description, but it might just be the thing that attracts a click. Don’t get too hung up with creating multiple options for this one.
Step 3 - Build your Google Search Ads
Once you’ve got your ideas down and reviewed them all to make sure they fit in the character limits and make sense, you’re now in a place to start building your ads. As a reference, we’re able to create over 5000 variations of our ad using the above.
Not all of those 5000 will be good, but you’ll have an idea in your head of what sounds better or looks more catchy - so try them out. There’s a learning stage with every ad campaign, and being able to produce new ads quickly removes the frustration of finding out what wording your audience responds to.
There we have it, one of our final ads created from the ideas we put down in our document. We can now go on to create additional ads using the same process with ease.
Bandersnatching pointers
- Use pipes ‘|’ if you’re inserting small sentences into a single headline section. For example, ‘Grey Boots | Stylish Footwear’.
- When writing descriptions, write shorter and longer versions of the same sentence. You’ll be mixing and matching your ideas together into a 90 character limit space, which can sometimes be awkward.
- Your display path is an opportunity to focus on a particular selling point. If you know your audience react well to a wide range of styles, include ‘all-styles’ in the display path.
Paid search marketing help
Bandersnatching will only help you with the text side of the ads. There’s a lot more to consider (landing pages, audience targeting, negative keywords etc.), so it’s never a bad bet to get a digital marketing agency onboard to give you a hand.
