Do you want to pay lower CPCs?
One of the best tricks in the book for increasing search ad relevance (which leads to a higher quality score which in turn leads to lower CPCs) is to use something called “granular headline 1s.”
What are granular headline 1s?
Granular headline 1s refers to matching the headline 1s in our PPC ad copy to the keywords we have selected on an individual basis. For example, if we have the keyword [college degrees], our headline 1 will be “College Degrees.” If we have something more complicated like [medical college degrees], our headline 1 will be “Medical College Degrees.”
We can also make slight alterations to the original keyword text in order for the headline 1 to be more marketable. It will sound like something we’re selling rather than something a person is searching for. For example, if we’re selling a guide about the stock market and somebody searches [stock market strategy], we can show an ad that begins with “Learn Stock Market Strategy.”
We may encounter the problem of keywords that are over 30 characters, which is the limit for headline 1s in AdWords and Bing Ads. We must then decide what is best to remove from the keyword text when turning it into a headline 1. Let’s say our keyword is [how to read trading charts]. That is too clunky and long, so we can replace “how to read” with “Master” and our final headline 1 will be “Master Trading Charts.” There is no one right way of doing this but there are core principles to follow in almost every case.
Why bother creating granular headline 1s?
Creating granular headline 1s can be a very long and laborious process involving substantial manual work. But we have a very good reason for investing all this time, and that reason is Quality Score!
Quality Score can be the main difference between a campaign that surges above the competition and another that gets left in the dust. Quality Score consists of 3 main elements: landing page experience, expected CTR and ad relevance. The ad relevance portion of this formula is directly impacted by granular headline 1s.
As we make our headline 1s more granular, our ad copy becomes more relevant in the eyes of Google, which increases our Quality Score. Expected CTR is influenced by granular headline 1s as well. After all, users are more likely to click on an ad that specifically mentions what they’re searching for. Let’s go back to our dog food example. A person searches for dog food and sees two ads. One begins with “Dog Food” while the other one begins with “Pet Supplies.” Both websites are selling dog food, but the user is much more likely to click on the “Dog Food” ad because it is directly related to their search query.
Quality Score is also one of the key components in the formula that determines the CPCs we pay in PPC auctions. The higher the quality score, the bigger discount Google gives to the advertiser. Low quality scores, on the other hand, get penalized. Google does this to prevent marketers from bidding on keywords that are not related to the products being sold, since this will have a negative impact on the search engine user experience.
When to not use granular headline 1s
There are a few cases where we should avoid using granular headline 1s. They are mostly related to legal and compliance issues. Any time we have a competitor or a trademarked term as a keyword, we have to resort to using a generic headline 1. It would be illegal to advertise on terms containing intellectual property, and the consequences for doing so can be severe.
Another example is terms that are against Google’s policy for what’s permitted in ad copy. These include medical terms such as “medication,” “pills,” or “cure.” Terms that are sexually suggestive or offensive are also not permitted in ad copy. We can still bid on these terms as keywords in most cases; we just can’t place them in the actual ad copy.
Recap
To recap, the granular headline 1s strategy is an incredibly efficient method of raising our account’s average quality score. It boosts ad relevance as well as expected CTR. This directly lowers our CPCs, which plays a huge role in the efficiency of our ad spend. The granular headline 1s strategy is therefore recommended under all cases that are legally compliant with federal laws as well as Google policy.
