Ok, for anyone involved in the web, it is hard not to pay attention to Google. But humour me for a moment.

Cafepress Sitelinks - courtesy of Google

Google has been rapidly changing the rules in relation to who gets attention in the search engine result pages (SERPs). In some niches, a #1 ranking in the organic search results might *just* mean you are visible below all the other stuff on the SERP. Google AdWords results, Google Places results and so on.

This isn’t exactly new. If you read Aaron Wall’s excellent SEOBook.com blog, you would have seen his chart asking Where Did Google’s Organic Search Results Go?. That process – called out in 2009 – has been steadily progressing, and the 2011 version is not pretty for organic search … The Sales Engine.

So, if you are paying attention to Google, you might want to spend more time paying attention to all the different ways you can use AdWords to get your share.

Read it and pay attention: Ads Are Just Answers

Attention sure ain’t free.

Paying Attention to Google

When you are running an AdWords campaign you get to display a short ad that is triggered when specific keywords are searched. The amount you bid and the Quality Score assigned to your ad determine where your ad appears and how much you pay for each click.

An AdWords ad has limits on the number of letters you can use for your ad:

• Title: 25 characters
• Line 1 and Line 2: 35 characters
• Display URL: 35 characters

Writing effective copy that fits within the limits is not easy.

There are heaps of expert advisors who will take your money to tell you how to craft a brilliant ad. But then again Google themselves provide five important tips for writing ads:

• Include a call-to-action.
• Clearly describe what is unique about your product or service.
• Place your business name in your ad text.
• Put your most important keyword in the title.
• If you sell to a precise location, name the location.

In the course of launching a new campaign, a client asked me why using the keyword in the title was important.

There are several reasons. When someone is searching on red roses, if your ad has red roses in the text, those words will be bolded. And if the keyword happens to be in the title, the keywords are large and bold.

The bolding of the keywords is a big benefit for your ad. If your ad has a bolded title, you are more prominent than your competitor ads that don’t have bolded keywords.

And keep in mind what is being bolded – exactly what the searcher is looking for (which has a pretty good chance of getting their attention).

But using the keyword in the title has other benefits. The ranking of your ad and the price you pay is affected by the Quality Score assigned by Google, and using the keywords in the title may help improve your Quality Score.

The calculation of your Quality Score is pretty complex, but if you want to know the knitty gritty then read these articles:

• About the Quality Score
• How the Quality Score is Calculated

So there are a few ideas on writing titles for AdWords advertisements. And if you only remember one thing, remember this: if you can, use the keyword in the title of the ad!

Writing titles for AdWords advertisements