Vote for the Best Ad

We were so impressed with the creative ad entries that we received for the Google Adwords Creative Writing Contest, that we decided to add a runner up, and we want you to choose!

We selected 10 of our favorite ads and would like you to vote for your favorite creative ad. All you have to do is:

• Visit: http://www.aims.co.il/blog/creative-google-adwords-ads/
• Click on the ad that you like
• Rate the picture by selecting the number of stars you want to give the ad
  
• Fill out your email (so we can enter you in the draw)
• Click the send button
• Confirm your vote via email.
  (You will receive an email requesting confirmation up to 5 minutes after voting)

Voters will be entered into a draw where 1 lucky winner will win a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.
The entrant whose ad gets the most votes will win a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.

Contest ends on August 1, 2010.

Tips for getting those creative juices moving

Due to stiff competition it is critical to write ads that perform. I hope these ideas will help you increase your Adwords campaigns performance.

• Try writing the opposite
  • For example:
    • Instead of: Get the Fastest Computer
    • Write: Don’t get a Slow Computer
• Put the words in the opposite order
  • For example:
    • Instead of: Free Shipping & Returns
    • Write: Shipping & Returns Free
• Tell the Truth – If your product is expensive, figure out a way to turn that into an advantage
  • For example:
    • Pay More & Worry Less
• Explain why you shouldn’t use the product
  • For example:
    • To Get Fat Don’t Buy

Have any ideas that will help others? Know where some Adwords copywriting resources are? Send them to me at ron@aims.co.il

Have a good idea for an ad?

You can win a great prize by joining our Adwords Copywriting Contest

Additional Resources:

Funny ads which can help get your creative juices flowing http://blog.xnepali.com/funny-text-ads-might-not-be-that-creative-but-funny-they-sure-are/

Adword tips with realworld examples http://www.googlelady.com/416/10-killer-headline-adwords-tips/

You now know why you should test increasing bids during unseasonably good weather–read the previous post if you don’t know why. However there are local exceptions. Yesterday I caught the middle of an interview on the BBC. The interviewee explained that whenever there is good weather in Iceland, people take time off from work. If this is the case–increasing bids may not help since no one will be online.

Good weather can influence the success of your Google Adwords campaign. However you may have to turn your strategy upside down in Iceland. Photo credit: Martino!

Further proof that localization should be part of your Google Adwords, MSN and YSM ad campaign strategy.

Many companies are annoyed that competitors advertise with their brand names in their ads in the search engines. This is known as piggybacking. It is different than conquest buys where the advertiser uses trademarked names to trigger their ads but the brand name does not appear in the ad itself.

Most search engines like Google have policies against piggybacking but allow conquest buys in many cases.

Not all systems are perfect but from the example shown in the Wall Street Journal on this subject (June 4, 2008 European Edition) it looks as if the guilty piggybacking ad is using Google’s automatic keyword insertion feature. This is where the advertiser chooses keywords to trigger the ad and the exact keyword used by the searcher is inserted automatically in the ad by Google’s Adwords system.

So it seems that Google hasn’t been able to get its own automatic feature to abide by its guidelines. A case of the machine not listening to its human masters.

We recently checked to see if the companies (Marriot International Inc, InterContinental Hotels Group PLC,  American Airliness and Northwest Airlines) in the piggybacking article still had the same problem. Turns out they do not. Could it be that the Wall Street Journal article somehow convinced the machine to stop the piggybacking?