I’ve come across dozens of great articles over the years about how to optimize paid search campaigns. However, often overlooked is the fact that you have more opportunity to optimize the text ad than you think. In fact, there are many new tools that will help you with this task, especially if you are using Google AdWords. These days you can use keyword dynamic insertion for starters… but you can also customize your URL, employ site links and so much more.

Of course, by far and away the most important aspect is the text within the ad – a high quality ad will have a strong call to action, a catchy relevant headline and body text that contains keywords and relevant action-oriented copy meant to encourage a click through for the right audience. How can you accomplish all of this will so little real estate?

It’s not easy. I’ve been working on refining my craft for about 12 years now and it doesn’t get easier – in fact – it probably gets more difficult each time I try to squeeze out another basis point in CTR or conversion rates.

You’ll need to do a lot of ad copy testing to get it right and be very patient. Use your analytics like Google Analytics to measure the results, along with AdWords reports and conversion/goal tracking.

Here’s a great article on creating a great text ad:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/write-killer-adwords-ad-treating-mini-landing-page/30508/