How a Copy Writer from the 1800’s can Double the Conversion Rate of your Adwords Ads

How good are your AdWords adverts? Often the case is that you believe they are pretty good. Most Adwords campaigns if they have been running for some time are obviously profitable otherwise you would not continue to run them. But how much juice is left in the tank? How much more could we be getting from the same ad spend? Are some of our competitors paying a lot less than us for the same amount of sales, leads or enquiries?

Well here’s the big news, adverts can always be improved and often just when I think I have cracked it I find something that doubles my conversion rate. In the following short article I am going to lift back the curtain and show you exactly how I found out how to write great adverts. The process is inspired by a copywriter who worked in advertising in the late 1800s, so thank you very much Claude Hopkins.

You see, good marketing is good marketing and regardless of the medium, be it print ads, social media or Google Adwords, human brains have changed little since the beginning of advertising. Copywriting is “salesmanship in print” and it always will be.

So what made Claude Hopkins so great, why was he able to amass a great fortune in the 1800s, and is it really applicable today?

Well yes and here’s how.

Why Was Claude Hopkins Great?

Firstly when Claude Hopkins had a new product to sell he did not sit in a room “being creative” he was not arrogant enough to think only he knew how to sell this product. No instead he became a sales detective and learnt everything there was to know about the product. But more importantly he got out of the office went down into the field and knocked on door after door talking to relevant customers.

He would literally sit with house wives and watch how they made dinner when selling “pork and beans”. He did this until he had a clear idea of what motivated people to buy the product, what the key issue was and what emotion he had to sell to. Often Claude was not just selling a new product that people were already buying but creating new buyer behaviour. You will still know about some of his successes “Palm Olive Soap”, “Quaker Oats”, “Sunkist Oranges” etc…

Why Is This Easier Today?

Luckily today we don’t have to go door knocking as all the information we need is on the internet. Where? Well in customer reviews of course – there’s literally thousands of customer reviews online for practically any product and this is a gold mine of information when selling.

An Example Of The Process

Let’s take a recent example on a small campaign I was running to sell “dressing gowns”. Firstly I went and had a look at Amazon and looked at products like this

http://www.amazon.com/Del-Rossa-Classic-Bathrobe-A0114PURMD/dp/B0046BRL24/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1401142506&sr=8-8&keywords=dressing+gown+women

This product at the time of writing has 107 customer reviews and has an average of 4.5 out of 5. But what we are looking for is the emotional “hooks” needed when selling a dressing gown and these are much more likely to come out when people are not happy – so there is gold in the ratings of around 3 out of 5.

Here are some of the 3 out of 5 reviews

• Had to return this Christmas present I bought for my Lady.. I ordered the Large/XL.. She has other robes that are a size large and has no problems. This robe fits like it was a 2XL.. You could almost wrap it around her twice..!!
• I got a 1x and i swear it is made for giants over 7 feet tall with a waist size of 100 inches. Why is it so big??? And the bottom hem was dirty when i got it. I will say it is soft and the color is accurate and pretty.
• Not all that warm despite the reviews because of the sleazy quality of the fabric- not dense at all, but kind of slippery, cheap-feeling fleece.
• Great bathrobe but huge- and I got the smallest size available. Much too big but soft and comfy nice robe

 

I tend to also use reviews from reviews.co.uk, trustpilot.co.uk and pretty much anywhere I can find lots of feedback. What I then do is start a “swipe” book as I look for “phrases” and the type of language these customers are using. This gives me snippets of copy that customers use when “emotional” and I then use this to create an advert or adverts to start split testing with.

The Resulting Ad

In this case the advert I was running before this exercise was

Bath Robes Online Sale

www.webaddress.com

Great Range of Quality Bathrobes

For Men & Women; Delivered to You

And the final ad was

Bath Robes Online Sale

www.webaddress.com

Quality Bathrobes For Men & Women

Super Comfy, Large Range Of Sizes!

The Results

This new advert has doubled the conversion rate and year on year increased sales by over 1000% on this item. So the advert is really key in the difference between something selling and something bombing. You will also notice that the changes were quite subtle.

Behind The Scenes Ad Breakdown

Breaking down the ad – obviously I did a lot more research than just the above reviews but the word “comfy” kept coming up and in fact I swiped “super comfy” directly from a review. I also kept seeing a lot of information about sizing issues and quality of materials. But in this case the emotional leader is “super comfy” and that makes all the difference. Whilst I might have come up with this on my own given my other experiences selling apparel, going through this process meant I hit it first time.

So in summary writing great copy is not about being inspired, taking a walk in the countryside and getting enthused. We are not painting we are shifting stock and the customer holds the key. Take a step back listen and double your conversion rate.