7 Ways to Run Ads that Convert

A website without a conversion rate is like a car with no wheels. It will take you absolutely nowhere! Setting up ads for your website is easy, however running them to generate sales is not. Frankly speaking, generating sales from your ads requires a lot of techniques and steps that you should follow in order to convert your website visitors, into potential customers and buyers. Running ads on social media and google are valuable pieces of your marketing strategy whether you own a small or large-scale business. That’s why it’s very crucial to have the right tools and knowledge of which type of method will fit with your ad campaign.

This article is designed to help you generate ads that convert. It covers all of the necessary steps, and it's up to date with current best practices.

Target the Right Keywords

To increase the chances of your conversion, you need to select the right keywords. In digital marketing, keyword is the term used to describe the words the user types every time they search in a search engine. The first step to choosing the best keywords for your audience and industry is to think like your potential customer. Ask yourself: What would your customers search for if they were looking for hiking backpacks?  In short, the more specific you are with your keywords the better the outcome of your conversion rate will be. Also, don’t forget to include synonyms of your chosen keywords, or even plurals and exact product names.

Target the Right Audience

When you start your ad campaigns, remember to target the right audience at the right time. You need to grab your potential customer's attention at the time when they need you the most. Find out your audiences’ demographic, location, goals and motivation, interests, etc…  The more specific you are, the better the outcome of your conversion will be. But always remember, don’t try to assume the above-mentioned aspects of your potential customer, otherwise your ad campaign and your efforts will all be in vain. To get to know your target audience more, you can always interview your existing customers or ask them to fill in a survey.  

Always use CTA (Call to Action)

If you’re not using a CTA, you’re doing everything wrong. CTAs are a very important aspect of your marketing strategy since they encourage your audience to take instant action. Without a compelling and persuasive CTA, your audience might not purchase your product/service and is highly likely to leave your website site without accomplishing any task. A call to action in marketing can be an image, text, or even a button. So make sure your call to action includes action verbs along with your main keywords to have a conversion-friendly CTA. Again, let’s bring the example of selling hiking backpacks. If your main keyword is “ hiking backpack” make sure to add an action verb such as “ Buy Cheap Hiking Backpacks” This will make your ad copy more action-oriented and will maximize the number of conversions.

Apply the Eisenberg Hierarchy of Optimization

Another thing to do is to focus on the Eisenberg Hierarchy of optimization if you want to increase your conversion rate. What is the Eisenberg Hierarchy of Optimization? Similar to Maslow’s hierarchy, Bryan Eisenberg came up with a hierarchy specifically developed for website optimization. In both Hierarchies, you start from the bottom and try your best to reach the top of the pyramid. You can’t reach the top if you haven’t succeeded in all the needs below. If you follow the 5 steps in order from bottom to top, which are Functional, Accessible, Usable, Intuitive, and Persuasive, watch how you will guarantee more leads and sales.

Functional

If your website is not functioning properly, is slow and doesn’t load within a few seconds, or has broken links, incomplete CTAs, and ad texts, then all your efforts will be gone to waste. If you’ve got at least one of those problems, you need to consider fixing them before you start your ad campaigns. And by the way, without fixing the functionality of your website, you cannot proceed to the next levels of the pyramids.

Accessible

Make sure you have a website that is easily accessible with a great user experience and interface. One of the core keys to optimization is to enable users to easily browse your website without facing any difficulties. A website with simple, minimal, and clear navigation is all that you need in terms of achieving accessibility. Also, make sure your ad copies’ font sizes are clear and big, and the colors are pleasant to the eye. Moreover, if your ad copy says for instance, “ 25% discount” make sure the discount is accessible on all devices be it phones, computers, tablets, etc…  

Usable

Your Ad copies and CTAs must be visible and usable to your customers. For instance, if your ad copy says “25% off on all backpacks” then the 25% discount should be usable for all backpacks. With that being said, the landing page must be an extension of the ads you create. 

Intuitive

Ask yourself if your message matches your ad copies. Does your ad have what the user had in mind when they searched for “ buy cheap backpacks”? Are your ads capturing your customers' attention? Do visitors to your website know why they are here and what they are actually buying? Or can they easily purchase your product or service?  If you don’t have an answer to these questions, you should dedicate yourself to improving how intuitive your ad copies or even website is.

Persuasive

Finally, the last step is persuasion. This is where all creativity should go in order to persuade and convince your customer to buy your product or service. You do this through your ad copies. For your ad to be convincing, you need to influence your visitors to click on the ad. That’s why your call to action must be clear, straight to the point, and convincing.

High-Quality Landing Page

Everything relies on how perfect your landing pages are. Every single page should be user-friendly and intuitive to the visitor. Keep in mind that your ad and your ad text should be relevant to your landing pages. For instance, if your ad text says “get 20% off on backpacks” then your landing page must allow your visitors to get 20% off on all backpacks. There are many websites that help you build landing pages.

A/B Method to Test Your Ads

Budgeting is an essential part of your ad campaign. That’s why you need to make sure every penny you spend is worth it because ad campaigns can get really costly. In order to eliminate ad costs, you can use the A/B method to pick and choose which method is working better. A/B testing, or in other words, split testing is a tactic that uses 2 different ad copy variations to determine which one is performing better in converting users. Feel free to try different ad copies, change images and colors, try having different call-to-actions, etc…  In this way, you’ll know which version had higher conversions.

Why Advertise on Social Media?

Latest studies show that there are 4.48 billion social media users around the world equating to almost 57% of the total global population. With that being said, it’s highly likely that your potential customer is on social media. That’s why always consider advertising on social media if you want to reach a wider audience. Use platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, or Youtube as they are the most popular ones but also keep in mind that each platform has its own unique audience. Moreover, social media marketing does not require a large budget, in fact, advertising on social media is an efficient way of reducing your marketing costs. With social media marketing, you will also increase your brand visibility hence it will improve the conversion rates of your existing traffic. In short, with the right social media marketing strategy, not only will you have higher conversion rates but also an increase in traffic, improved brand loyalty, and tools to measure the efficiency of your campaigns.

Why Advertise on Google?

Imagine NOT using the oldest and the most popular search engine to ever exist on the internet for your ad campaigns… Studies show that Google receives 5 billion search queries a day. Advertising on Google runs with a pay-per-click advertising platform that helps generate leads and eventually increase your sales by allowing your website to appear alongside top-ranking search results when searching for specific keywords. Google Ads in fact has a diverse ad options to fit different types of business models whether it’s a large or small business scale. With Google Ads, you can bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or even videos. It can place ads both in the results of search engines like Google Search and on non-search websites, mobile apps, and videos. Therefore, don’t hesitate to choose to advertise on Google for your Ad campaigns. With the right marketing strategy, you will for sure have extra traffic, drive clicks and eventually convert leads.

To conclude, setting up ads takes a lot of your time and effort. However, with the right rules and methods, it shouldn’t be a problem.  It’s understandable that there are a lot of strategies and rules involved in the process, however, upon testing, trying, and applying the right strategies you will eventually be able to reach high-converting rates.