The text of a PPC ad should be written to get potential customers to click on the ad’s link to your site.

So when writing a PPC ad, ask yourself the question, Why should people choose my business over my competitors?

Before you start writing, you should type your basic keywords into Google (and other search engines) to find out what your competitors’s ads are focusing on.

How do you stand out from them? Are you a specialist? Do you have a price low enough to mention in the ad? Has your business won a professional award or earned a notable review from a magazine or professional organization?

(NOTE: if you do have an award or review, it should be noted on the landing page, which is the page that the user lands on when he clicks on your ad — we’ll talk about landing pages in a future post.)

Google has policies regarding creating ads — I won’t list everything here, but here’s how the company summarizes them:

Advertising should provide a positive experience to users.

Advertising should be accurate and truthful.

Advertising should comply with laws and regulations.

Advertising should be safe for all users.

Advertising shouldn’t violate users’ trust or privacy.

Advertising should be compatible with Google’s brand decisions.

If Google rejects one of your ads, it’s usually pretty clear regarding the reason. Sometimes the fix is easy — removing an exclamation point, for example — and sometimes you have to write a new ad.