expertSEM

You might be thinking, How many mistakes can one person make in just 70 characters? Check out this ad and tell me if you would click on it:

My guess is no. And that’s not just because the display URL seems to say that the wrinkle creams have gone wild. It’s because “wrinkl” in the title is spelled wrong. Who would give their money to a company that can’t spell their own product correctly?!

Even if you make just one spelling mistake or slight grammatical error (I would never, ever buy a product if their ad copy contained a period outside of quotation marks, I’m just saying), it can significantly decrease your click through and conversion rates. With graphical ads, a miniscule typo might be overlooked if the image is distracting or compelling enough. Not the case with PPC ads; because they contain only text, the mistakes are much more obvious and potentially detrimental.

Be sure to review each and every word of your text ads before pushing live. Follow these helpful proofreading tips:

• Patience, My Dear – Wait a few hours or even overnight, if possible, before reviewing your ads; give yourself a rest period so you can review them with fresh eyes.
• Tag Team – Ask a colleague to review them as well—don’t forget, even the best writers have proofreaders and editors.
• Shout it Out – Okay, maybe don’t shout, but read your ads aloud in a monotone voice. Reading aloud forces you to slow down and allows you to hear flaws in the rhythm of the text. If you have close office quarters, find a quiet spot where you won’t bother anyone.
• Move Away from the Excel Doc – I implore you, do not write your first draft in Excel! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve proofed a colleague’s work created in Excel and found numerous errors that would easy have been fixed with spell check. It may be an extra step in your process, but writing in Word then transferring to Excel can save you from making costly mistakes. But remember: take all green squiggly underlines with a grain of salt; spell check makes mistakes, too.

Those 70 characters leave a lot of space for mistakes, but there’s really no room for them. If you want your PPC ads to be successful, make sure to scrutinize every letter of text and proofread with an eagle eye.