Fundamentals: your advert is the first thing a searcher sees.

It’s the one key area to

distinguish your business from competitors and attract clicks that convert.

Good ad copy builds brands and drives sales.

The headline is the most important element. You need a call to action. You must use
emotion. You must use repetition. You must use emotion…

There are many rules; test and bend them to suit your situation.

Ed note: don’t listen to someone who tells you ad testing is overrated. They’re just crap
at writing good adverts.

Your advert’s goal is to:

• Align with the searchers query

• Get them interested enough to click
• Fulfil the promise made within the text

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
 This guide is thorough. It walks you through all the different elements you can use in your
adverts. Pick and choose combinations to fit your style and brand, and then go test them.

Ed note: ad writing can be fun. Testing ads is a great way to blow your assumptions and
expectations out the door. Have fun with it, you’ll learn something new each time you try.

The simplest step to take when writing ads is to mimic what someone is looking for in your
headline.

It’s confirmation for the user and it has a positive impact on quality score (ad relevance).

The fact that Google will give you a bump in quality score when you add the keyword to the
advert suggests they agree, it’s just a good idea.

A user’s search will usually become more specific, the closer they get to the final conversion.

Consider the traditional marketing funnel where you have a top, middle and bottom. Then
apply the simple premise of specificity to your adverts and their destination pages.

For example:

Top “pants” Pants R Us | #1 For Superheroes example.com

Middle “hotpants for women” Women’s Hotpants | 7,000 Pairs In-Stock example.com/pants/

Bottom “golden hotpants” Golden Hotpants | Put the Sun to Shame example.com/pants/golden

Adverts that capitalise the ‘First Letter Of Each Word’ in the headline, see a higher click-
through rate on mobile devices. The effect is less apparent on desktop devices.

It rarely hurts performance. Make it your default formatting.

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
Your call to action is a simple word designed to get someone reading the advert to take
action. For Google Ads, that often means a click and then a conversion.

For example: “Best Deals On Pants” or “Try Before You Buy” and “See Our Range”.

Call to actions for your inspiration:

Act Compare Hurry Please Show

Add Discover Join Purchase Sign-up

Apply Don’t Learn Read Start

Best Download Look Register Submit

Book Find Need Request Take

Buy Follow No Rush Try

Call Free Now Save View

Check Get Order Search Visit

Choose Give Online See Watch

Come How Pay Shop You

Many of the words above are imperative verbs.

A verb is a 'doing word'. An imperative verb is one that tells someone to do something,
making the sentence an order or command.

Take the call to action a step further. Turn your headline into a CTA all of it’s own!

Ed note: I use imperative verbs across the God Tier sheet. Think about, check this and
review that. Sorry for bossing you around, but you must follow my advice (I did it again).

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
You should use comparisons in your ads - just don’t mention trademarked names.

Before

After:

You don’t have to name your competitor to call them out. You can highlight a weakness or
failing on their part.

Before:

After:

You will hear advice to “avoid repetition in your ads”. But you should only avoid that advice.

People skim ream. Don’t assume they will read every word of your adverts.

Try repeating the call to action in your headline and description. Test repeating the search
query in your headline and description too. But not in both lines of description – unless it
makes sense to do so.

Repetition: if there’s important information to be said (or action to take), try repeating it.

Ed note: this is also true of your landing page, repeating your top call to action at the
base of the page is often a good way to catch fast scrollers - particularly on mobile
devices.

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
‘You must use all the space’ – nonsense. A bigger ad does not mean better.

Consider this advert for the search “guitar strings”. Just 2 headlines and 1 description:

Also consider this advert is competing with shopping ads (images) top and right of it.

These are very healthy metrics from a simple 2 headline, 1 line description text ad.

Consider what the prospect really wants. What result are they getting?

Before:

After:

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
If someone is searching local or for a town/city/area, you need to mention it in the ad.

For example, here’s a search for a local accountant:

Ed note: this is true for phone numbers too, if you want calls – use local numbers for
each major town/city you target. They can make a considerable difference.

Punctuate - because when other advertisers aren’t using it, you can stand out.

42% 25% 11% 9% 8%

Exclamation $/£/€ Currency

Comma, Question mark? %Percentage
mark! symbol

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
Use recency to persuade and convince searchers you are the right option. Layer recency
with data (numbers) to enhance the response to your ads.

Before:

After:

The lazy option for making your ads relevant. Not perfect, but a quick fix for complex
accounts with varied ad groups or for when rapid deployment is required.

The formula is simple “Buy {KeyWord:Chocolate}”, where ‘Chocolate’ is your fallback text.
DKI can be used in headlines, descriptions and even some ad extensions.

The behaviour is less precise than creating specific ad copy.

dark chocolate bar dark chocolate Buy Dark Chocolate 18

sugar free chocolate sugar free chocolate Buy Sugar Free Chocolate 24

gourmet chocolate truffles gourmet chocolate truffles Buy Chocolate 30

Be careful of two things:

1) if you bid on competitor terms, they can (and will) appear in your ads
2) if the keyword is too long to fit the ad, your fallback word is used instead

Point 2 is where DKI really falls down. A longer keyword infers a more specific search and
therefore stronger intent. However, DKI is likely to fall back to your generic text and show an
ad that simply isn’t as good as it could be.

Ed note: you can use DKI as a shortcut to get things going quickly. Instead of creating
hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of ads, use DKI to fill the gaps. When you see
results, start creating more tailored ads to improve things further.

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
Countdown to an event, sale, launch or promotion. When it’s over, it’s over. Adding the ‘fear
of missing out’ is a powerful persuasion tactic.

Before:

After:

What happens when it’s over?

Your ad will remain active and approved in the ad group. But once your countdown is
complete your ad will no longer run or show in search results. Therefore, you must have a
fallback ad ready to go.

Features are what the product/service is. They highlight the physical, practical or intangible
aspects of your product or service.

Benefits are what the product/service does, and the positive outcome someone gets.

Features:

Benefits:

Both:

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
Often the best performing ads are those with a single focus.

There is always a temptation to include all features and benefits. This can work against you
as it dilutes your message.

For example: “5,000 Pocket Springs – Triple Layer Topper – Ultra-fine Cotton”

Vs: “Your Best Night’s Sleep – Or Your Money Back”.

Don’t just focus on the problem. A problem might be something hard, complex, expensive,
time-consuming, poor experiences, the old way, failure etc. This applies to both products
and services.

Instead, try presenting the solution.

• What solution helps the user resolve their problem?

• What makes the target audience really happy/angry?
• What is their biggest problem?
• What agitates or worries them?
• What is the status quo in your market/industry (and how do you overcome it)?

Before:

After:

Ed note: a great way to learn answers to solutions is to survey your customers. Just like I
did when your purchased God Tier Ads!

What are you trying to fix? What outcome do you want? What made you buy? What do
you hate about Google (identify the status quo)? And my favourite, ‘what, if anything,
nearly stopped you buying?’

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
A prospect is much more likely to trust a product or service that is backed by customers
reviews. Using authority, testimonials and reviews on landing pages is common practice.
What is less common however, is applying that language to your adverts.

For example:

• Authority = 6* Accommodation
• Review = 5,326 Five-star Reviews
• Testimonial = My Knee Pain Is No More
• Trust = 9/10 Dentists Agree

Before:

After:

Ads that work, talk to - and not at - your prospect. If you include awards, at least make them
specific to the customer’s needs.

Check the search results to see how many competitors are shouting about their awards. You
will often see an opportunity to put your award to one side, and instead stand-out with an
alternative message.

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
 *these are un-edited real examples

Ed note: I’m biased - I’ve never particularly liked the ‘look at me approach’ to ads or
writing. But it would be remiss of me to not include the idea here. Also remember, being
shortlisted for an award is not the same as winning!

It reminds me of a pub I once visited in a quaint English village, a plaque on the wall read
“Winner: Pub Of The Year 1997”… my visit was in 2015.

Use pre-qualifying language in your ads (and keywords).

It can hurt click-through rates but when selling a premium product or service, it will save you
wasted clicks. This works both ways of course:

Just $10 Per Month Prices from $5,000

For Small Business Enterprise Solutions

Budget Accommodation 5* Hotel

Cheap Luxury

Always In-stock Custom-made

Amateurs Only Not For Beginners

Second-hand New Only

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
Google seems to favour positive sentiment over negative. They offer a free tool for checking
sentiment in text - https://cloud.google.com/natural-language - simply copy and paste your
ad copy (or that of your competitors) in to the tool:

You can repeat the process for landing pages too.

Having a negative sentiment is slightly worse, but better than having no emotion in your ad
copy. Test positive sentiment in your ads.

Ed note: as a bonus you can watch my video tutorial for this.

If you are going to use puns in your adverts - make them very good or purposely bad. Puns
can add a touch of charm and fun to an otherwise stale advert.

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS
Last, but by no means least - remember to always fulfil the promise in the advert.

If you mention something specific in your ad copy, a feature, a price, an outcome, etc – show
it on your destination page. Continuity is one of the simplest things to get right, and yet it is
often missed.

Before

After:

Destination page fold area:

Ed note: remember to repeat any call to action from your ad copy too. That’s another
continuity easy-win…

THE 23 PILLARS - AD COPY PLAYBOOK | COPYRIGHT © ED LEAKE 2022-23 GOD TIER ADS