When it comes to adverts, you’ve got to stay one step ahead of the game. So how do you do this when it comes to PPC? You should stand out, kind of like the picture to the left!Well, I’m going to go over three ways today. The first is with humour. There’s a great pub over here, which is signposted from the road. What do you suppose the sign says?

“Great food, great sales, great service”, or something like that is what you’re expecting right? Nope. Sorry to dissapoint you, but it actually says:

“Grumpy landlord, bad food and warm beer.” Now how many more people do you think look at that, and then go there? Reverse psychology is a VERY powerful tool.

Another great example, which was actually a PPC campaign was The Rich Jerk. I’m sure you’ve seen the ads, which say something to the effect of “I’m much better than you and make far more money than you, poor people offend me, you offend me, why should I waste my time on you?” etc. Again, this is using the tactic of grabbing attention by being ridiculous. So use humour. Just like The Marmite Effect which was discussed before. The second way is to tell people tangible benefits, in specific terms. For instance, rather than saying “You can make £15,000 a month”, why not say “Copy the idea that made me £1,036,798 in one year!”

Because you’re using a specific figure in the second example, it becomes more “real” to the reader, and as a result, becomes more believable and creates a higher CTR (Click Through Rate).

The final, and most cheeky way, it to counter-result. So if someone does a search for Online Business, have your ad say something along the lines like:

DO NOT START AN ONLINE BUSINESS Until you have read this

This kind of slogan is VERY powerful, as it is telling the person NOT to do what they’re looking to do. That grabs their attention, and then hooks them into reading the rest of the ad.

Tomorrow we’ll finish up our study on PPC with a look at how you can find out who among your competition is the greatest threat, and how to constantly beat them.

Until then! Pete