Is It Okay To Use Your Business Slogan In An Adwords Ad?
Sure, using slogans in your Adwords ad sounds like a good idea. Slogans, by design, are short, catchy, and memorable, intended to creep into a prospect’s mind as a constant reminder of your product’s unique selling proposition. Makes sense, then, that if you insert it into an Adwords ad, it should do its job of stealing the prospect’s attention and leading them to click on your placement, wouldn’t it?
While the logic does seem sound in theory, practice has shown this to be a less than precise assessment. In fact, it’s often a large ways off the mark. Split-tested next to a well-crafted ad that focuses on offering specific benefits, demonstrating value, or addressing a prospect’s concerns, it will almost always fall short. Why is this so?
Slogans Can Be Cryptic
Imagine Wendy’s running an Adwords ad with nothing but their brand and tagline “Where’s the beef?”
Doesn’t exactly provide any information that’s likely to help your shopping decisions, does it? What about Panasonic and their slogan “Ideas for life” coming out when I’m searching for 50-inch TVs? Nothing about that tells me they have the product I am looking for. How about searching for the newest Lebrons and seeing an ad for Nike and “Just do it?” Again, nothing of enough substance to makes you want to follow the link.
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Good slogans are intended to be memorable and easy to repeat, all while leaving the consumer with a positive image of the brand. This is all well and good for positioning the brand and capturing mind share. When trying to convince searchers to hit a link and buy your product, however, they don’t exactly make for the most compelling argument, especially when questions the prospect has about the offer remain unaddressed.
People Aren’t Searching For Slogans
Say, a customer who has previously bought from you before sees a slogan-centered ad you’re running. The person sees the brand name, the slogan, and a brief mention of the specific product being searched for. Chances are, this individual who already knows your brand has already seen and heard your slogan. What they’re unable to find is more information about the offer in your ad as it relates to their specific search query. In this scenario, the slogan doesn’t really do anything to add clarity to what the prospect is looking for, leading them to look somewhere else that provides just a little more in the way of information.
Things are likely to get even worse with someone who is completely unfamiliar with neither the brand nor the product.
They see the brand, the slogan, and a call to action, but nothing in the way of answering any lingering questions about what a product is, what a store offers, and what kind of advantage they’ll get choosing this offer instead of the one on the link right below it. Slogans may give insight into some of those concerns, although in many common scenarios, they simply don’t.
It’s Worthwhile To Test
Will business slogans ever work in PPC? In some cases, yes. With the right search keywords and the right slogan, it could very well turn out as your best-performing ad. If you think your slogan has the potential to do this for your Adwords campaign, then test it by all means. Do not, however, rest your faith on that catchy tagline blindly. No matter how much you adore that clever slogan you’ve been using in the last five years of your business, it’s just one potential tool in your Adwords copywriting arsenal — one that you should be testing side-by-side with ads that do without it.
