Inside the 2009 Web Copywriting Intensive … Featuring Andrew Palmer, Pay-Per-Click Advertising Expert
By Monica Day, AWAI Roving Reporter

Boy, did I want a rewind button for Andrew Palmer’s presentation yesterday! He covered Google Adwords – and the pay-per-click revolution – in rapid-fire speed over four hours.

And every ounce of it was useful information for anyone who wants to specialize in writing copy for the web.

If you – or worse, your client – don’t believe in the power of PPC advertising to build a list, check out this stat. It’s the 2008-09 Ranking for Name Collection Sources according to one of the industry’s top online publishers:

1. Paid Search (PPC)
2. House Names/Paid Names
3. Affiliates, Syndication, & JVs (Editorial & Sales)
4. Organic Search Pages
5. Web Site Home
6. External Lists
7. External Web Sites
8. Co Registration

Pretty impressive for a program that’s only been around since 2002!

You may never become an expert in running PPC campaigns, but you’ll need to have a good working knowledge in order to deliver the copy your clients need to take advantage of this powerful business-building tool.

According to Andrew, there are two questions you need to ask your client before you deliver even one word of copy to them:

1. What is the strategy for your PPC campaign?
2. What are you trying to achieve?

It’s important to keep in mind – and to make sure your client understands – what the goal should be: conversion. A successful PPC campaign doesn’t just deliver names – it delivers names that convert into buyers. That’s a critical distinction that both the copywriter and the client need to understand when coming up with the strategy. Otherwise, PPC ads become a very expensive way to build useless lists.

Once you make sure the client has a good handle on their strategy – and you deliver the copy that you think is going to work best for them – your job is done, right?

Absolutely not.

In fact, you’ve only just begun! The real name of the game in running successful PPC ad campaigns is to test everything … the headline, landing page, best keywords, ads … everything.

In fact, you might be surprised to know that the best time to test something new is when you have a successful control. Most companies are happy to sit back and rake in the names – and the cash – when their campaign takes off. But it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Because eventually, returns diminish – and when there’s no new control waiting in the wings to pick up the slack, you’re back to square one.

And to give you an idea of how valuable PPC ads are to clients, let me tell you what happened this morning …

Andrew was asked to sit in with a group of attendees during their writing session this morning. They broke up into small groups and re-worked their ads using what they’d learned.

The result?

Three ads were deemed good enough to use right on the spot! Rebecca Matter handed out checks to the three lucky attendees, while Andrew stepped into the next room and put the ads on Google to start testing them!

Now, that’s what I call real-time copywriting.

The conference is winding down. I’ll have one last report for you tomorrow – featuring Heather Lloyd-Martin and a whirlwind of information on SEO copywriting techniques. Plus a wrap-up – and maybe just a little bit of dirt on the after-hours things you missed! After all, I’m not just your eyes and ears in the room – and there has been plenty of fun over lunch and dinner, too.

“This event was incredible! I now understand why so many websites fail to attract buying customers and how to fix that problem. Plus, I know how to market myself to the hundreds of thousands of potential clients desperate for help.” – Pam Foster