Ad text optimization (ATO) is the process of improving the performance of a text
Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertisement on search engines by improving its
Click Through Rate (CTR) performance both in terms of volume and quality of response, that is “more buyers, less browsers”. ATO is an element of
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic (known as "natural" or " organic" results) rather than di ...
, where the subject is discussed in greater detail.
According to Search Engine Journal, “AdWords text ads are small and in some ways unassuming – when you think about testing landing pages it’s obvious that there are elements that could make a big impact, but it’s sometimes less intuitive that ad text tests can and often do have an equally big impact on results.”
Work method
PPC Ads are triggered to appear on
search engine
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...
pages when Users search with keywords which match those selected by the PPC Advertiser. When PPC Ads are clicked on they take the User through to a designated page on the advertiser’s website and a fee is paid to the search engine for the click. At the heart of Ad Text Optimization (ATO) lies a specialist type of direct response
copywriting
Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or ...
which can be augmented by an Ad Text Optimization (ATO)
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...
that measures the response effectiveness of Ad Text copy. For Users the benefit of ATO is to make PPC Ads more relevant to their searches. For advertisers ATO is delivers more clicks, leading to more sales and increased
return on investment
Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is a ratio between net income (over a period) and investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources at a point in time). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favourably ...
(ROI), and search engines benefit by offering their user customers more efficient search experiences.
ATO and Quality Score
Many search engines,
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
being the most notable example, reward more efficient PPC ads with higher
Quality Score
Quality Score is a metric used by Google, Yahoo! (called ''Quality Index''), Facebook (called Ad Quality) and Bing that influences the ad rank and cost per click (CPC) of ads.
To determine the position of the ad on a search engine, each ad is a ...
s, which are measured by higher CTRs. The higher the Quality Score of a PPC ad the lower the bid price the advertiser has to pay each time a User clicks on the relevant Keywords that triggers the PPC ad appearing. Higher Quality Scores combined with your CPC bid equals high Ad Rank (Ad Rank = CPC Bid * Quality Score), which result in PPC ads appearing higher up in the Users search results. ATO can play a key role in increasing a PPC ad’s Quality Score, and Google publishes its overview of ATO on its elearning centre, saying that “ad text plays a crucial role in determining the success of your AdWords advertising.”
ATO and SEO
ATO in PPC advertising is viewed by many in marketing as the equivalent of
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for natural search in that they both improve the visibility of websites.
ATO and Advertising
Recently in the UK, PPC Ads have come under the scrutiny of the
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). This has been commentated on by many in the marketing and advertising fraternity as evidence that PPC Ads now constitute an established part of the marketing mix. According to the UK’s Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), search is now a significant advertising medium in its own right with the paid search market worth almost £2.15 billion in 2009 representing 60.7% of online advertising spend in the UK.
[Internet Advertising Bureau - Internet marketing news 2009] PPC Ads make up the lion’s share of this market and some argue that its future growth will in part be fuelled by ATO becoming an ever more integral part of the writing of PPC Ads.
References
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Compensation methods
Pricing
Online advertising methods