Choose your words carefully: Financial services edition How word - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Choose your words carefully: Financial services edition

How word choice can make or break pay-per-click search ads

Somewhere in here there are winning word combos for financial services search ads. (There are also losers.)

Account Banking Best Brand Call To Action DKI Fees Financial Financial Cooperative Interest Rate Interest Rates Loans Location Mortgage Official Online Savings Secure Services Superlative Yield NoVar Account Banking Best Brand Call To Action DKI Fees Financial Financial Cooperative Interest Rate Interest Rates Loans Location Mortgage Official Online Savings Secure Services Superlative Yield NoVar

The researchers at Bing Ads recently tackled a couple of big questions about performance for PPC Financial Services ads.

What combinations of words in the title and description get the highest Ad Quality ranking?* Does this change depending

• n what device the audience

is using?

* Ad Quality is a calculation which factors in both the clickability (the likelihood of an ad being clicked, agnostic of position) of the ad and other indicators of ad quality . Ads with better ad quality not only have a better CTR, they get rewarded with better ad ranking and lower CPCs than other ads with lower ad quality.

Microsoft Confidential

We analyzed

55,000 ads

running on the Bing Network.

These ads generated 180 million impressions.

1 ad on the Bing Network reaches

163 million searchers 5.6 billion monthly

searches on the Bing Network

We limited our study to

January 2014.

Then we broke the financial services vertical into 5 categories.

Financial Institutions Insurance Loans and Lending Credit Cards Credit Reporting

The phrases and/or words we analyzed had to appear in ads from at least 10 advertisers. We analyzed more than 20 of the most commonly used words/phrases. We analyzed word choice and clickability across devices: PC, mobile and tablet.

Some words of caution…

What works really well for one category may perform poorly for another.

There is no prescriptive set of ad copy that will generate the same results across devices. People use different devices for different things – they don’t look for the same info on their PC as they do on their phone.

Across the board, in every category, you’ll get a significant lift in clicks if you add Sitelinks to your ad.

Here’s how to read a heatmap

Ad Ti Title le

Great Bad Insufficient Data Good

Ad Descrip

scriptio tion

Account Banking Best Brand Call To Action DKI Fees Financial Financial Cooperative Interest Rate Interest Rates Loans Location Mortgage Official Online Savings Secure Services Superlative Yield NoVar Account Banking Best Brand Call To Action DKI Fees Financial Financial Cooperative Interest Rate Interest Rates Loans Location Mortgage Official Online Savings Secure Services Superlative Yield NoVar

Personal Banking usbank.com Official site

Ad title Ad descr script iption ion

Insufficient data Great Good Poor

Account Banking Best Brand Call To Action DKI Fees Financial Financial Cooperative Interest Rate Interest Rates Loans Location Mortgage Official Online Savings Secure Services Superlative Yield NoVar Account Banking Best Brand Call To Action DKI Fees Financial Financial Cooperative Interest Rate Interest Rates Loans Location Mortgage Official Online Savings Secure Services Superlative Yield NoVar

Financial Institutions ad performance heatmap ̶ All devices

Financial Institutions: Top word combos

Mobile TITLE DESCRIPTION Online Location Official Fees Online Fees DKI Location NoVar Superlative Tablet TITLE DESCRIPTION Official Loans Official Online Online Loans Banking Official Official Fees PC TITLE DESCRIPTION Account Secure Official Loans Official Online Online Loans Account Official

Ads with “official” in the title do well on all devices.

Insights by device

PC users click on ads with heavyweight financial services involved including “accounts” and “loans”, which matches the desktop mindset. Mobile users are, predictably, looking for

• location. They’re also

clicking on ads with “fees” in the description, which might suggest showrooming. Tablet users respond to the same words that are important to PC users AND mobile users, demonstrating the adaptability of the device and intention.

Ad title Ad descr script iption ion

Insufficient data Great Good Poor

Brand Call To Action Car/Auto Cheap/ Affordable DKI Financial Cooperative Free Insurance Insurance Plan Interest Rates Location Official Online Param Quotes Superlative NoVar Brand Call To Action Car/Auto Cheap/Affordable DKI Financial Cooperative Free Insurance Insurance Plan Interest Rates Location Official Online Param Quotes Superlative NoVar

Insurance ad performance heatmap ̶ All devices

Insurance: Top word combos

Mobile TITLE DESCRIPTION NoVar NoVar Superlative Online Car/Auto NoVar Insurance Plan NoVar Cheap/affordable Superlative Tablet TITLE DESCRIPTION Official Online Official Car/Auto Official Location Official Cheap/affordable Official Call to Action PC TITLE DESCRIPTION Official Online Official Free Official Quotes Official Cheap/affordable Car/Auto NoVar

When it comes to Insurance, ads with “Official” in the title draw a lot of attention with both PC and Tablet users, but not with Mobile users at all.

Insights by device

PC users are willing to click on ads with “quote” in the description, suggesting that the desktop environment is more conducive to a more time-consuming engagement. Mobile users are hard to pin down in the Insurance category, responding to a wide range of relevant words. Tablet users look for “Official” in the title, then drill into specifics with the description.

% Approved/ Approval Bad Credit Banking Brand Call To Action Financial Cooperative Financing Interest Rates Lender Lendings Loan Types Loans (General) Mortgage Online Param Payment Secure Superlative NoVar % Approved/Approval Bad Credit Banking Brand Call To Action DKI Financial Cooperative Financing Interest Rates Lender Lendings Loan Types Loans (General) Mortgage Online Param Payment Secure Superlative NoVar

Ad title Ad descr script iption ion

Insufficient data Great Good Poor

Loans and Lending ad performance heatmap ̶ All devices

Loans and Lending: Top word combos

Mobile TITLE DESCRIPTION Superlative NoVar % Loan types Secure Interest rates Financing Secure Loan types NoVar Tablet TITLE DESCRIPTION Loans (general) Param Loan types Param NoVar Loans (general) Superlative NoVar Financing Secure PC TITLE DESCRIPTION Secure Approved/approval Secure Financing NoVar Loans (general) Financial cooperative Banking Secure Secure

Across all devices, “secure” carries significance, likely

• wing to the fact that

loan applications conducted online require a great deal of personal information.

Insights by device

PC users are looking for home refinancing

• ptions via HARP

(“Financial cooperative”). Mobile users are responsive to ads with specific loan types in either the title or description. Tablet users go straight to the heart of things, responding to both general and specific loan types in the ad title.

Ad title Ad descr script iption ion

Insufficient data Great Good Poor

% Bad Credit Best Brand Call To Action Interest Rate Offers/Deals Online Rewards Services Superlative NoVar % Bad Credit Brand Call To Action Interest Rate Offers/Deals Official Online Rewards Services Superlative NoVar

Credit Cards ad performance heatmap ̶ All devices

Credit Cards: Top word combos

Mobile TITLE DESCRIPTION NoVar Superlative Brand Bad Credit % % Call to Action Rewards Brand Offers/Deals Tablet TITLE DESCRIPTION Rewards Brand Services Best NoVar Superlative Rewards Superlative Brand Best PC TITLE DESCRIPTION Offers/Deals Best Offers/Deals Interest Rate NoVar Superlative Brand Best Online Online

The only term that gets high response on all devices, in both title and description is the brand name of the credit card issuer.

Insights by device

PC users are comparing and looking for the best credit card situation, responding to words like “offers/deals”, “best” and “interest rate.” Mobile users respond to a variety of words across a range of intent, including “bad credit”, “%”, “rewards” and “offers/deals”. Tablet users appear

• pen to possibility and

non-specific in their intent, responsive to a range of superlatives like “best”, and “top”.

Ad title Ad descr script iption ion

Insufficient data Great Good Poor

Brand Bureau Call To Action Credit Score Offers/Deals Official Online Param Report Secure Trial NoVar Brand Bureau Call To Action Credit Score Now Offers/Deals Official Online Param Report Secure Services NoVar

Credit Reporting ad performance heatmap ̶ All devices

Credit Reporting: Top word combos

Mobile TITLE DESCRIPTION Call to Action Param Param Call to Action Param Credit Score Param Param Report Param Tablet TITLE DESCRIPTION NoVar Offers/Deals Report Trial Services Call to Action Call to Action Trial Param Call to Action PC TITLE DESCRIPTION Call to Action NoVar Report Trial Param Call to Action Param Credit Score Param Report

Across the board, on PC, Mobile and Tablet, the end result of a search for credit reporting is the same, so similar terms are effective for every device.

Insights by device

PC users respond to the [PARAM] insertion, and this likely works so well in this category because the range of relevant terms is so narrow. Mobile users respond most significantly to a call to action in the title, which matches the immediacy of the mobile environment. Tablet users are unique in responding to “offers/deals” in the description of credit reporting ads.

Microsoft Confidential

Before you pour this awesome info into your search ads, consider

three important things:

ONE Test. Then test again. Test some more.

Testing is critical to understanding your ad copy performance across devices, categories and time periods.

Microsoft Confidential

TWO

Use ad extensions like location and call.

Understand the value of Sitelink lift and the impact it could have on an entire account. Implement and spread to all your ads.

Microsoft Confidential

THREE Scale your execution to all your ads.

Develop a framework for understanding the clickability of your ads and executing top performers on a large scale.

Microsoft Confidential

Details on word choice

Due to the large number of ads analyzed and the significant number of words/phrases surfaced, phrases and words analyzed were sometimes bucketed.

“Superlative” includes words such as “best” and “top”. “Services” includes words such as “ATM”, “checking”, and “merchant services”. Others could be synonyms or same intent, e.g. “brand” includes all major brands in the sub-vertical Most buckets mirror the variation of the phrase itself, e.g. plurals, different tense, etc.