Crafting Compelling Ads: Tips & Ad Copy Examples From Top Brands

While Organic Search is the most profitable channel, Google Ads still has its place in the modern digital marketing campaign. These ads can help you raise awareness, cement your brand’s position in the market, and generate revenue while your Organic Search efforts build momentum.

While setting up a Google Ads account only requires a few clicks and a payment source, generating real results takes a careful touch, and your ad copy plays a considerable role in your campaign’s success.

Over the years, VELOX's paid search team has worked with hundreds of clients, achieving an average of 400% Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) when taking over an existing Google Ads account.

Along with optimizing the campaign’s targeting, keywords, ad groups, and other goals and parameters, our ad copy helps improve ad quality and ultimately generates more conversions.

Here’s a quick overview of the anatomy of a Google text ad, along with some ad copy examples and tips to help you improve your ads.

Google Ads were first introduced in 2000 (then known as Google AdWords), and although new features have come and gone, the format has remained relatively the same (although how a campaign is managed is a different story). Even so, before diving into the best ad copy examples, it’s good to review the primary elements of a text ad.

We’d also be remiss not to mention AI in Google Ads. As with practically any tool these days, AI has found its way into Google Ads, and you can use it to create ad copy. Ideally, this can help save time and resources and allow you to experiment with different headlines and descriptions. It’s handy for breaking through writer’s block, but it’s generally not recommended that you use it in the final ad copy.

With so few characters to work with in a given ad, it’s important you make each one count, and AI lacks that human touch needed to captivate and engage searchers. Plus, if all of your competitors use AI to write ad copy, it’s easier for your brand to stand out in SERPs.

Here are some ad copy best practices that have helped us generate the best ROAS for our leading clients over the years.

Being Google Search, people are typically looking for something specific. Whether it’s a skincare product made with certain clean ingredients or a hand truck that can lift a certain amount of weight, they don’t want to go from one site to the next in an endless search.

To help them along the way, you should tailor your Google Ads copy to your key product attributes and try to match that with the search query by including keywords in the headline and description.

This is typically the most conventional way to craft Google Ads copy, but there are some finer points. Most importantly, you don’t want to overwhelm users with a list of product features for your entire collection. Instead, you should tailor one ad to one product to limit distractions and zero in on a specific searcher.

Here’s an example of an ad from Primally Pure targeting people looking for beef tallow skincare products:

This ad is clear, with a keyword in the headline and the description, ensuring it will show when someone is either researching the benefits of beef tallow in skincare or looking for a specific product. The description also highlights the product’s benefits, with sitelinks below making it easy for a user to go from search results to an informational page about beef tallow and the product collection featuring the ingredient.

Emotion is a powerful thing, and advertisers have been targeting consumer emotions for centuries. Even in the digital space, appealing to a searcher’s needs, dreams, and wants can pay off if done correctly.

The key is to stay positive and encourage people to imagine themselves in a better position with your product or service. Here’s an example of an ad we’ve run for Democracy Clothing:

This ad plays on the emotion of wearing a pair of jeans that fit just right, and encourages people to embrace who they are and their shape. This is a huge selling point for Democracy Clothing and is the core of its brand identity. The ad isn’t just selling jeans; it’s selling confidence in oneself.

Along with the description, this is one of the best PPC advertising copy examples to showcase sitelinks. These additional assets make it easy for searchers to go directly to a specific collection, which is why it’s important to upload them when creating ads. They take up space, which is great for boosting visibility, while also enticing the searcher to click and explore.

Too many brands fail to capture their unique voice in Google Ads copy. This is especially true if you exclusively use AI to write your ad copy, as your description will sound almost identical to any other brand using the same tool. It might be clear to searchers what you sell, but not who your brand is or why shoppers should choose you.

While you may not have much space to work with, it’s possible to embrace your brand’s unique voice and personality in a Google text ad.

Here’s a good Google Ads copy example from GASP, a bodybuilding apparel brand with a huge personality:

There’s no denying who this description was written for and what GASP stands for. It’s short, to the point, but instills that this is a serious brand for serious lifters. And even if someone doesn’t click the ad, it still garners impressions, which can help with brand awareness in the long run.

Plus, the headline still features a special offer with additional sitelinks below the descriptions for quick and easy navigation, proving that you can balance personality and key selling points in a single ad.

Whether you’re selling an affordable product or a luxury good, everyone loves saving money. Google Ads is the perfect place to highlight your current promotions to entice searchers to give your brand a try, especially if you have offers for first-time customers.

Here’s an example from UNITE Hair:

This specific ad is not so much about building the brand as it is about attracting price-conscious consumers who might need an extra incentive to try a new haircare brand. In a hyper-competitive industry like haircare (along with skincare and beauty), these promotions and incentives could be the difference between a customer buying your product or clicking a competitor’s ad.

Make sure you have an organized and up-to-date promotional calendar and keep your account updated. This requires careful management, especially during busy shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or during specific seasons. The last thing you want is to unintentionally deceive a shopper because your sale ended, but you didn’t update your ad copy. This takes some extra work, but promoting sales and special offers is always a good idea.

Even if you think you’ve written the perfect ad, clicks and conversions are what matter most, so if you aren’t generating results, it’s time to try something new. You should continually A/B test your ad copy and let the data be your deciding factor, not your personal opinion of the copy.

Google makes it easy to A/B test different ad variations through Experiments, and you have control over a variety of variables. This allows you to see what performs best, and our paid media team uses this function often to help generate the best results for our client campaigns.

Nothing about Google Ads management is “set and forget.” It takes careful, 24/7 management to get the maximum return on your ad spend. Copy is just one piece of the puzzle. How an account is set up can significantly impact its performance, as a streamlined account is easier to work with than one full of convoluted or redundant ad groups.

You also need to do extensive keyword research to ensure you’re targeting the right queries, determining their match type (broad or exact), and implementing negative keywords to avoid paying for irrelevant clicks.

In addition, it requires a full team to manage a campaign during a busy online shopping day like Cyber Monday or during seasonal gift-giving holidays like Mother’s Day. You and your competitors are all vying for the same clicks on these days, so you need to stay on top of your account to ensure your ads and sales are live and performing and to make sure your budget is spent correctly.

For all of these reasons, many brands have found value in partnering with a Google Ads agency to manage their account.

If you need an experienced paid search team to manage your Google Ads account, partner with VELOX. We’ve worked with hundreds of brands over the years, helping them produce tangible results from their Google Ads campaigns.

As a Google Premier Partner for over 9 years, we’re recognized for our quality of service and the results we deliver for clients. On average, our clients see their ROAS skyrocket to 400%, with $1 million in new monthly revenue as a result. We offer 24/7 management services and provide real-time reporting, highlighting the metrics that matter to your business.

Contact us today to learn more about our paid search services.