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.) Call To Action Interest Rates Interest Rate Cooperative Superlative Mortgage Financial Financial Location Account Banking Services Savings Official Secure Online NoVar Brand Loans Yield Fees Best DKI 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 Does this change depending the title and description get the on what device the audience highest Ad Quality ranking?* 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.

We analyzed 55,000 ads running on the Bing Network. Microsoft Confidential

These ads generated 180 million impressions.

5.6 billion monthly 1 ad on the Bing Network reaches searches on the 163 million searchers 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

We analyzed word The phrases and/or We analyzed more choice and words we analyzed had than 20 of the most clickability across to appear in ads from commonly used devices: PC, mobile at least 10 advertisers. words/phrases. 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 Descrip scriptio tion Great Good Bad Insufficient Data Call To Action Interest Rates Interest Rate Cooperative Superlative Mortgage Financial Financial Location Account Banking Services Savings Official Secure Online NoVar Brand Loans Yield Fees Best DKI Account Banking Best Brand Call To Action DKI Personal Banking Fees usbank.com Financial Financial Cooperative Official site Interest Rate Interest Rates Loans Location Mortgage Official Online Savings Secure le Title Services Superlative Ad Ti Yield NoVar

Financial Institutions ad performance heatmap ̶ All devices Ad descr script iption ion Call To Action Interest Rates Interest Rate Cooperative Superlative Mortgage Financial Financial Location Account Banking Services Savings Official Online Secure NoVar Brand Loans Yield Fees Best DKI 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 Ad title Yield NoVar Great Good Poor Insufficient data

Financial Institutions: Top word combos PC Mobile Tablet TITLE DESCRIPTION TITLE DESCRIPTION TITLE DESCRIPTION Online Location Account Secure Official Loans Official Fees Official Loans Official Online Online Fees Official Online Online Loans Online Loans DKI Location Banking Official Account Official NoVar Superlative Official Fees

Insights by device Ads with “official” in PC users click on ads Mobile users are, Tablet users respond the title do well on all with heavyweight predictably, looking for to the same words that devices. financial services location. They ’ re also are important to PC involved including clicking on ads with users AND mobile “accounts” and “loans”, “ fees ” in the users, demonstrating which matches the description, which the adaptability of the desktop mindset. might suggest device and intention. showrooming.

Insurance ad performance heatmap ̶ All devices Ad descr script iption ion Insurance Plan Call To Action Interest Rates Cooperative Superlative Affordable Insurance Car/Auto Financial Location Quotes Official Cheap/ Online NoVar Brand Param Free DKI Brand Call To Action Car/Auto Cheap/Affordable DKI Financial Cooperative Free Insurance Insurance Plan Interest Rates Location Official Online Param Quotes Ad title Superlative NoVar Great Good Poor Insufficient data

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

Insights by device When it comes to PC users are willing to Mobile users are hard Tablet users look for Insurance, ads with click on ads with to pin down in the “Official” in the title, “Official” in the title “quote” in the Insurance category, then drill into specifics draw a lot of attention description, suggesting responding to a wide with the description. with both PC and that the desktop range of relevant Tablet users, but not environment is more words. with Mobile users at all. conducive to a more time-consuming engagement.

Loans and Lending ad performance heatmap ̶ All devices Ad descr script iption ion Cooperative Loan Types Superlative Bad Credit Approved/ Mortgage Financing Approval (General) Financial Payment Lendings Banking Interest Lender Secure Call To Action Online NoVar Brand Loans Param Rates % % 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 Ad title Secure Superlative NoVar Great Good Poor Insufficient data

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

Insights by device Across all devices, PC users are looking Mobile users are Tablet users go “secure” carries for home refinancing responsive to ads with straight to the heart of significance, likely options via HARP specific loan types in things, responding to owing to the fact that (“Financial either the title or both general and loan applications cooperative”). description. specific loan types in conducted online the ad title. require a great deal of personal information.

Credit Cards ad performance heatmap ̶ All devices Ad descr script iption ion Call To Action Interest Rate Offers/Deals Superlative Bad Credit Rewards Services Online NoVar Brand Best % % Bad Credit Brand Call To Action Interest Rate Offers/Deals Official Online Rewards Services Ad title Superlative NoVar Great Good Poor Insufficient data

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

Insights by device The only term that gets PC users are Mobile users respond Tablet users appear high response on all comparing and looking to a variety of words open to possibility and devices, in both title for the best credit card across a range of non-specific in their and description is the situation, responding intent, including “ bad intent, responsive to a brand name of the to words like credit ” , “ % ” , “ rewards ” range of superlatives credit card issuer. “ offers/deals ” , “ best ” and “ offers/deals ” . like “best”, and “top”. and “ interest rate. ”

Credit Reporting ad performance heatmap ̶ All devices Ad descr script iption ion Call To Action Offers/Deals Credit Score Bureau Official Report Secure Online NoVar Brand Param Trial Brand Bureau Call To Action Credit Score Now Offers/Deals Official Online Param Report Secure Ad title Services NoVar Great Good Poor Insufficient data