Session diving into responsive search ads (RSA) and dynamic search ads (DSA) and whether to delegate creative and targeting choices to the machine or to retain them

1. Man Vs
Machine: Copy
& Targeting
Navah Hopkins – Services Innovation Strategist

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Agenda
• Dissecting ads
• Serving the right people
• What Are Your Customers Asking For?
• In digital marketing since 2008, and PPC since
2012
• Named Top 25 PPC Expert 2018
• Work across WordStream’s Interantional
Agency and Advertiser Customer base
About Me:

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What Do All These People Have In Common?

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They Came From AI

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But When AI Gets It Wrong….

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How Much You Delegate To Automation & AI Strictly
Depends On Your Brand’s Threshold For Risk

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Dissecting Ad Copy

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When We Shifted From Standard Ads to Expanded
Text Ads, 33% of Advertisers Saw A Decrease In
Performance

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Boring Ads Kill CTR

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• Repetitive and templatized
messaging.
• Hiding personality in the
description, where unique copy
gets lost.
• We don’t give our prospects any
direction on where to go or what to
do.
What makes an ad “bad”

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Expanded Text Ads Mean Your Copy Is Due For A
Revisit!
Description text would
have made great
headlines!

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Google Saw This Lack of Care, and Decided to Make
Ads For You

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• All extensions you pay for should
be manually crafted.
• Ratings, locations, and structured
snippets are safe.
Google Will Also Make Extensions

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Can You Tell Which Was Made by AI?

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Can You Tell Which Was Made by AI?
AI AI
Human

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Comparing Metrics Dec. 10 – Jan 8
Top Performing AI Created Ad
• Impressions: 521
• CTR: 11.52 %
• Average CPC: $9.55
• CPA: $30.16
• ROAS: 9.95X
Human Created Ad
• Impressions: 145
• CTR: 4.14%
• Average CPC: $10.94
• CPA: $32.81
• ROAS: 9.14X
Runner-up AI AD:
Impressions: 329
CTR: 6.99%
CPA: $40.10
ROAS: 7.48X

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• Google favored ads it created,
despite mixed performance.
• Minimalist copy no longer cuts it,
AI can do that!
• AI ads look to brand names for
headline text - is that how you
want to invest your copy real estate
Lessons Learned:

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Automation Will Raise The Floor, Not The Ceiling:
Own Your Creative Star Power

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Trends in CTR When Humans Write the Ads
0.00%
1.00%
2.00%
3.00%
4.00%
5.00%
6.00%
7.00%
8.00%
9.00%
Include H3 & D2 Include H3, No D2 No H3, Include D2 No H3 & No D2
Q3 2018 CTR
CTR
50,618 ads
with at least
one click in
Q3

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Trends Human Crafted Headline CTR
0.00%
1.00%
2.00%
3.00%
4.00%
5.00%
6.00%
7.00%
8.00%
9.00%
10.00%
CTR
Q3 2018 CTR
$ Your Free Call Demo We Try Learn
50,618 ads
with at least
one click in
Q3
$: 962 ads
Your: 1758 ads
Free: 2155 ads
Call: 824 ads
Demo: 112 ads
We: 1489 ads
Try: 228 ads
Learn: 153 Ads

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• Look for opportunities to replace
“try” with “learn”.
• Transparency in pricing
outperforms fabricated “free”
offers.
• Focus on the user’s needs over
your brand’s selling points.
Opportunities in Headline
Copy:

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Trends in Human Description CTR
0.00%
1.00%
2.00%
3.00%
4.00%
5.00%
6.00%
7.00%
8.00%
9.00%
CTR
Q3 2018 CTR
$ Your Free Call Demo We Try Learn
50,618 ads
with at least
one click in
Q3
$: 568 ads
Your: 6235 ads
Free: 3218 ads
Call: 2428 ads
Demo: 225 ads
We: 4324 ads
Try: 435 ads
Learn: 781 Ads

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• “Try” outperforms “Learn” in
descriptions, don’t overuse
headline copy!
• Specific copy matters less in the
description than leveraging the
second description
• Prospects expect to get some
insight on pricing in the ad.
Opportunities in
Description Copy:

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Which Ad Do You Think Performed Better?
Ad A Ad B

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• CTR: 38.7%
• Conversions: 129
• CPA: $3.26
• Conversion Rate: 42%
Ad B
• CTR: 6.29%
• Conversions: 33
• CPA: $27.98
• Conversion Rate: 23%

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• Addressed the most stressful part of buying
a car in the headline
• Greeted the prospect.
• Added additional data to help prospect
choose them in description.
Ad B
• Addressed a secondary concern in the
headline.
• Opened focusing on themselves
• Used headline worthy copy in the
description.

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• Engages the prospect in
personalized language.
• A call to action the user can
complete on the landing page.
• Addresses the pain points that
inspired the query
What Makes An Ad “Good”

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Responsive Search
Ads are bound by
data and trends
lack human
flexibility and
brand focus

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When I Was “Shopping” For A Husband…

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Which Ad Won My Click?

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• I’m in Boston
• Extensions give additional context,
but that should have been given in
the headlines.
• Hyper-repetitive messaging doesn’t
sound human. The typo proves it is
human…

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• I’m under 40
• You’re asking me if you’re the best
way to solve my problem…
• “It’s probably not a dating site”
should be headline three

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If I’m Not Your Target, Don’t Show Me An Ad!

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Don’t Let Automated Ads Guess On Demographics
And Other Audiences

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Use Customizers If Your Brand Serves Different
Audiences

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• DKI close variants – time to rethink
them!
• Promising more than you deliver on
your landing page.
• Not honoring audiences and search
trends by location.
What makes an ad “off”

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What Are Your
Customers Asking For?

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We Are In The Business Of Answering Questions:
Know Which Are Worth Answering

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How Is The Most Popular Question

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How SERPS

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How SERPS

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• Self-reliant
• Will be receptive to an expert
• Drawn to tutorials
A person asking “how”

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• Does not address the “how”
• “Expert” hidden in the second description
line
• Copy doesn’t speak to prospect’s desire to
learn
• Addresses the “how”
• Promises a resource the prospect can learn
from moving forward.
• Leaves the door open for the user to
engage in a more transactional manner

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What SERPs

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What SERPs

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• Have a problem, but don’t quite
know what the solution is.
• May believe there is only one type
of solution/answer to their
problem.
A person asking what:

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• Offers a variety of options without naming
any = clickbait
• More focused on themselves and their
process than actually solving the user’s
problem.
• Copy is too formulaic to register as expert
content.
• Addresses the “what” with a single
directed solution.
• Honors the fact that the prospect may
need more education without leaving room
for them to leave.
• Speaks in terms of value for the prospect,
rather than focusing why they’re awesome

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Dynamic Search Ads “Pick” SERPs For You Via The
Sections Of The Site You’re Targeting

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• All keywords are negatives in the
campaign so specific messaging
and bids are protected.
• Targets are broken up by ad group
so you can leverage contextually
relevant messaging in the
descriptions.
• The budget is set with data
acquisition in mind.
DSA will be successful at
driving data and profit if:

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Final Take Aways

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Craft Copy With Audiences in Mind & Don’t Be Afraid
To Exclude Audiences

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Treat Trends in Copy As Guidelines, Owning Your
Brand’s Messaging & Your Intuition

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Embrace Automation For Grunt-Work, Not
Creative/Analytical Tasks

54. © Copyright 2017 WordStream, Inc. All rights reserved.
Thank you!
nhopkins@wordstream.com
@navahf