Using Google Adwords for Testing Direct Mail Copy

At first thought, you might think Google Adwords and direct mail are two completely different monsters — and they are — but Adwords can play a critical role in testing copy.

Here’s how…

Google Adwords is a pay per click engine. You set up some ads and then bid on which keywords you want your ads to appear when searched for.

For example, if Ballantine used Google Adwords, we would bid on the keyword phrase “direct mail services”. So whenever someone does a search on Google for “direct mail services”, our ad would appear in the search results (in the sidebar)

Well, within Google Adwords (under Campaign Settings) you have the ability to evenly rotate and test different ads.

And an add is comprised of a main headline and 2 lines of copy. So you can set up two different ads with different headlines and copy and see which one gets the most clicks.

You can probably see where I’m going with this…

I’ve read that copywriters are now using Google Adwords to come up with winning headlines for direct mail copy.

For example, say you’re writing a letter for a client and you have two headlines you really like, but you’re not sure which one to use.

Convert both headlines into Google Adwords ads and send targeted traffic to them. Once you have some decent data, plug the numbers into this free tool to see which ad is the definite winner:

—> http://www.SplitTester.com

It’s safe to say the winning ad is the better of the two headlines.

I’ve also read that you should have at least 20 clicks on each ad before you determine a winner…and the more clicks the better obviously.

If you’re only bidding say 25 cents per click, this testing method of using Google Adwords translates into a very inexpensive way to turbocharge your copy’s headlines.

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