The psychology of language for paid search

The success of your PPC campaigns may depend on the language that you’re using. Here’s how to improve it.

Sophie Turton, Head of Content and PR at Bozboz, delivered an interesting presentation in Brighton SEO, offering useful tips on how to improve your language when creating PPC copy.

According to Sophie Turton,  people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it – that’s what makes a powerful message more effective. Here are her tips on how to use psychology to improve your PPC copy.

The serial position effect

People are more likely to recall the first and last pieces of information they see, otherwise known as the serial position effect. This makes it even more important to craft your PPC copy carefully.

Keywords can help you highlight the focus of your copy, so it’s a good idea to experiment until you find the best ones to use. However, there’s no need to focus too much on their use, as they still can’t guarantee that the language’s effectiveness.

The best way to speak your audience’s language is to try to solve a problem. It has been observed that successful PPC copy tries to find a solution to a problem.

The success lies in the fact that there is an understanding of the target audience, which is proved by providing information that they want to know.

Emotional triggers

Emotions can influence and even determine our decisions. That’s why they can be used to improve PPC copy and make it resonate with consumers.

Once again, it’s vital to understand the target audience to deliver a powerful message. By focusing on the customers’ end game with the right emotional trigger, you’re increasing the chances of conversion.

What’s most important is to remember that your copy should not be about “you”, but rather about “them”. As you’re writing about your target audience, your copy needs to reflect this.

Direct and relevant copy can benefit from the right emotional appeal, and there seems to be a connection between this appeal and your customers.

According to Perry Marshall’s ‘Swiss army knife’ method, there is a relationship between your customers and the elements in their lives.

This relationship can be organised in five steps:

• identify your customers
• identify a thing your customers love
• a thing they hate
• their best friend
• their worst enemy

Once you’ve managed to understand all the above, then the emotional triggers can become even more effective.

Social proof

One of the most effective psychological tricks when creating copy is to involve the power of social proof.

According to Revoo, 70% of consumers place peer recommendations over professionally written content. This means that people have more chances to be influenced by their friends, or even other consumers, rather than a brand.

A good way to use social proof is to include Google Reviews in Adwords. This increases the chances of building trust between the consumers and the product and it may even bring them closer to a purchase.

Moreover, it can be even more effective to back up the claim of social proof and this can be achieved by using review extensions.

Loss aversion

Another popular psychological tip is to focus on the scarcity effect.

According to neuroscience, scarcity can increase the demand for an object, as people seem to have an aversion to loss.

A sense of urgency can increase an ad’s effectiveness – this also plays into the FOMO (‘Fear of Missing Out’) effect.

In fact, it has been observed that ads that use a sense of urgency have up to 32% increase in CTR when a countdown timer is added.

Illusionary truth effect

According to the illusionary truth effect, there is a tendency to believe information to be correct after a repeated exposure to it.

This means that repetition can improve credibility and trust. An appealing call-to-action can make your message easily recognizable. By increasing the memorable experience, you are also increasing the chances for people to return to your message and your products.

A careful consideration of the language in PPC copy can help people remember your advertising and thus, pay more attention to it.

Dare to be different

It’s not surprising that people tend to remember the unusual over the common.

Creative use of language in your PPC copy can improve your message, helping people focus on it.

This can be achieved by:

• thinking outside the box
• using clever language
• staying current with trending topics
• telling a story
• using humor
• being creative with keywords

Takeaway

The language you’re using in your PPC copy can significantly increase the chances of people paying attention to it.

A closer look at psychology and the way it affects people’s perspective can help your PPC copy stand out.

If you want to start testing with the most popular psychological tricks today, start with these:

• Ask “why”
• Prioritize the headline
• Experiment with keywords
• Don’t underestimate FOMO
• Make sure the end destination reflects the initial promise
• Use data to support your offering (but don’t be verbose)
• Be smart and sassy
• Play to emotion and the love of the self
• Always go back to the “why”.

source https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/05/03/the-psychology-of-language-for-paid-search/