What are the best practices for writing effective ad copy and landing pages for SEM?

1 Match your keywords and message

The first step to writing effective ad copy and landing pages for SEM is to match your keywords and message. This means using the same or similar keywords in your ad headline, description, and landing page title, as well as conveying a clear and consistent value proposition. Matching your keywords and message helps you improve your quality score, which is a metric that Google uses to measure the relevance and quality of your ads and landing pages. A higher quality score can lead to lower costs and higher rankings for your ads.

2 Focus on benefits and solutions

The second step to writing effective ad copy and landing pages for SEM is to focus on benefits and solutions. This means highlighting how your product or service can solve your audience's pain points, needs, or desires, rather than just listing features or specifications. Benefits and solutions appeal to your audience's emotions and motivations, and can help you differentiate yourself from your competitors. For example, instead of saying "We offer fast and reliable web hosting", you could say "Get your website online in minutes with our hassle-free web hosting".

3 Use clear and compelling calls to action

The third step to writing effective ad copy and landing pages for SEM is to use clear and compelling calls to action. This means telling your audience what you want them to do next, and why they should do it. Calls to action can be buttons, links, forms, or text that prompt your audience to take a specific action, such as "Buy now", "Sign up", "Download", or "Learn more". Calls to action should be visible, concise, and action-oriented, and should create a sense of urgency or exclusivity.

4 Optimize your landing page design and layout

The fourth step to writing effective ad copy and landing pages for SEM is optimizing your landing page design and layout. This means making sure that your landing page is easy to navigate, read, and understand, and that it aligns with your ad copy and goals. Doing so can help reduce bounce rate, increase engagement, and boost conversions. When optimizing your landing page design, consider elements such as a clear and catchy headline that summarizes your offer, subheadings, bullet points, images, videos, contrast, color, whitespace, testimonials or reviews to build trust and credibility, as well as a simple user-friendly form that asks for the minimum information required.

5 Test and measure your ad copy and landing pages

Testing and measuring your ad copy and landing pages is the fifth step to writing effective ad copy and landing pages for SEM. This means experimenting with different variations of your ad copy and landing pages, and tracking their performance and results. Doing so can help you identify what works best for your audience, goals, and budget, as well as what needs improvement. Metrics to monitor include the click-through rate (CTR), the conversion rate (CR), the cost per click (CPC), and the return on ad spend (ROAS). All of these metrics provide valuable insights into how effective your ad copy and landing pages are.

6 Follow the best practices for SEM writing

Adhering to the guidelines and standards of the search engines and platforms used is essential when writing effective ad copy and landing pages for SEM. This will help you avoid penalties, errors, or rejections, and ensure that your ad copy and landing pages are compliant and professional. To ensure this, some of the best practices for SEM writing include using proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation; avoiding misleading or false claims; avoiding excessive capitalization, punctuation, or symbols; avoiding sensitive or controversial topics or language; using relevant and appropriate keywords and phrases; and using negative keywords to exclude irrelevant or unwanted traffic.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?