(Note from Rand: Tonight, I introduced Mystery Guest to the wonderful world of AdWords. Needless to say, she went a little wild. This one's just for fun, folks.)
Rand asked me for some help with AdWords content. But I really don't know how to grab someone's attention in two lines. That is, without being really crass. So it got a little PG-13 in our apartment this afternoon, what with the liberal use of words like "Viagra" and "Yo Mama" jokes (the latter of which, quite tragically, did not make this post. They were a little too mean).
So, obviously, we had some fun and goofed off, but I think we highlighted something fairly important (no, seriously, we did). In the end, it's sort of impossible to tell what works and what doesn't. You just need to try things out and see what Google accepts. And what's hilarious. And if you're lucky enough to find both? Well, you hang on to that Ad like Stinky Ivan to his mule.
The ads that weren't approved:
Rejected: No text on 2nd line
Rejected: Use of "pharmaceutical term"
Rejected: Use of banned term ("Idiot")
Rejected: Infringement on copyright (use of term "Google")
And some ads that Google, shockingly, approved:
Note from Rand: Next week, we will try to put together some blog posts on AdWords optimization (and after that, dive into Panama & AdCenter, too). BTW - Please do share your favorite AdWords ads in the comments. We'd love to see them.
UPDATE: I'm really tired tonight, so no 2am blog posts, but do check out this post from Adam Doppelt of Gurge on how Yahoo! Slurp misbehaves - really interesting stuff. Also, Brian White has a good tip on how to send search queries through email without confusing the recipient and Vanessa has 6 great questions for Facebook. I'm with you, Neil, she really should be more popular with the social media crowd?
2027: As Rand and Mystery Guest relaxed in their Bel Air mansion, they reflected on the last 20 years. It was hard to believe that their multimillion dollar empire began with a simple idea: the AdWords drinking game. One night they had experimented with wacky ads to see what would be approved. The next day, inspiration struck: turn their hilarious evening of fun into a full-fledged drinking game. The royalties from that first game funded the other collaborative games that eventually became the best-known games company in the world.
Matt, Matt. If you think your plan to keep SEOs out of your hair by getting everyone drunk playing adwords drinking games is going to work. You need to think again. ...ori shomethiong. WHy's my monitorw blurrrry?/
Actually, I think my current employer's contract means that all game content I create belongs to them. :)
CHICK SWALLOWS!
Click your mouse to see our birds
www.sexsellsbirdsandanythingelse.com/Im-broke-bitches
LOL - fantastic post MG. Really love some of those ads "See? Burned." - that had me laughing for a LONG time.
My suggestion:
.edu links for free!
We wouldn't. Would we?
Lol - of course not.... ahem.
www.seomoz.org/black-hat
or
guaranteed no 1 rankings
for any keyphrase
only $20000 / month
www.seomoz.org/click-on-this-and-die
or
you momma's so fat
you only clicked on this ad
cos you didn't get dinner.
www.seomoz.org/tools
OOOO.. Go back and get the Scorpians ad reapproved!!!
All you have to do is put something, anything in that bottom line. Adwords turned it down for lack of content there.
Would work just fine (and be awesome at attracting any C-level execs that partied during the 80's)
Classic.
Very funny stuff but I suppose you would have to have a good sense of humor...
...
Like a really, really good sense of humor.
Good stuff.
BTW you may want to look at Reuben's recent blog post: Black People on Ebay Again which inspired these Hilarious but Unfortunate Search Ads.
We Wrote This Great Ad
for you and know you will really
love it but Google just rejects us
www.seomoz.org/robot-denied
I honestly think that outrageous ads like these could perform superbly.
Rand, are any of these still running? We would love to hear the CTRs.
I couldn't help but think the same. I usually don't click on ads, but I think I would have clicked on most of these. If you can make me laugh like that I figure there must be something worthwhile on the other side.
I think the problem lies in getting people to read the ad properly. People don't really read anything - they skim everything. The bolding of ads based on search terms combined with Google's quality score stuff angles strongly towards the straight-forward ads.
I think humour could work well (in some niches) if you can combine the regular copywriting skills of being relevant in so few characters with the funniness but that's very hard.
The problem outside of very niche areas is that you are catering to a broad cross-section of people and 'funny' is hard to combine with 'widely appreciated'.
I think it can work, but it's hard!! We should launch a 'make your google ads funny' day. If searchers got used to the fact that ads might be funny, they might take more time to read them and it might be worth doing. Who wants to organise a campaign?
I've often wondered why nobody gets entertaining with their ads. Why not? Humor is one of the best ways to connect with people.
I guess most companies are just too damned stuffy. . .
Congrats on having an actual sense of humor, MG and Rand. These were actually funny when so many attempts at humor in advertising are not. I'm thinking in particular of a certain web-based travel company that markets themselves with a clutsy lawn decoration that I'd like to run through a wood chipper. . .
Hilarious post; I agree, you should definitely try to get the Scorpions ad re-approved.
My favorite ad that I've seen in awhile was typing in 'jesus christ' to see what churches had done SEO. This was back when eBay was still running their ads on Google. About 5 or 6 slots down the page was the standard all-keyword eBay ad --
"Looking for Jesus Christ? Find anything you want on eBay!"
Yeah when eBay was blowing money hand-over-fist on PPC you could really lighten up your day with some quality search terms..
"Arson - Available on eBay" always brought a tear to my (and my bosses) eye.
I just put the Scorpians ad up for an accounting firm.. Instantly approved.. I'll update on the CTR in a few days.
My favourite is eBay advertising on stolen caravans:
https://www.blogstorm.co.uk/blog/ebay-selling-stolen-caravans/
"Great deals on Stolen caravans Compare, select and save!"
I'd really like to be more creative with AdWords. Unfortunately, the funny ads don't work. Its the direct to point ads that are best. That's why dynamic keyword insertion exists.
Oh well.
I've also had poor results with humor in AdWords.I'd be interested to see how that varies by vertical though.Humor for bar = goodHumor for funeral home = not so good
Is mystery guest post. Is good. Mule live.
That was genius,
SEO humour I could share with my collegues for once
Simply amazing. Never ever have I seen such adword tryouts... You just gave me some new ideas... I look forward to reading your updates to this
You are not doing much AdWords, do you? Google is not reading the ads prior approval (except from GoogleGuy, obviously ;) ). Eventually they will though and if it is too much over the top, they will go (the $1,000,000 question is: What is TOO much?).
Funny ads though.. who knows, they might would work, depending on the landing page. They get for sure some attention. How did they convert? That might be something for the follow-up post. :D
Carsten - as we noted, this is just for fun. We didn't run any of these ads. As others have said above, funny ads usually have very poor CTR.
Hey Rand,
Oh, it was just fun, really? just kidding. hehe
But now seriously (seriously :) ).
Funny ads have a lower click through rate. That makes sense, if the funny is like funny as in "makes me smile" or "chuckle".
Now if you go really over the top, barely not crossing the line that Google has to take the ads down, it might yield different results.
"Married with Children" did not become popular because it was "funny", it became popular, because it was so bad funny that it became "funny" in a very different sense, more like hilarious. A type of "funny" that makes people actively respond to it .
You have to get the turn on the landing page though to get them back to reality to be able to convert them.
This is a wild guess of mine. I don't know if anybody did every try something like that. Certainly not something for a big brand advertiser to try out. I am just thinking out loud. :)
I make no claims to having experience with the PPC side of things, but I'm surprised funny ads wouldn't work more. Is it that humor doesn't work well or is it more that humor is sometimes hard to get across?
I would think if you genuinely made someone laugh you could get a click, but it would be hard to make someone laugh. I would also think that in some verticals or with some demographics humor would work very well.
Again it's just a hunch on my part since I don't have the experience and data to back this up.
sometimes when i am at work and very bored i read really old posts here. today i read this one.
and it made me laugh so hard i almost peed.
thanks! :D
OMGsh - I can't stop laughing!
Hey You on the computer! - that was the best one. :)) Cool stuff. You guys rock. :))
MG thank you so much for the laughs. Perfect for me too since I'm reading on Friday.
Did anyone notice MG might have written the two best posts this week? When does the permanent gig start?
Hey, what am I?! Chopped liver? :P
You're an Egg McMuffin. And breakfast is over.
BWAH HA HA HA HA. No, I kid. You are wonderful. Please don't hit me.
Those are great. I loved the very first one....keep the 80's metal references coming!
Geraldine you are hilarious! Reading these really made my morning =)
I was LMAO over this one.
I nearly choked on the 'SEO is good... we kill mule...' version :D, seriously funny stuff, and so nice to know im not alone in my sense of humour space... There were a few ages ago that were - suprise! - ebay gems..
- You could buy dead people (eeew)- or brains (as required)- Perhaps a little happiness was in order- or for when things get just too, too dull for words- even nuns were'nt safe on ebay either back then...
GREAT post.. what's next? :)
Briljant! It made my day!
Excellent brainwave, Matt :)
I laughed, I cried... it was better than Cats............................................................ 'nough said.
I was balancing between "these are so great I wish I'd come up with them" and "I'm so SEO-geeky that I probably would have clicked on these" (unsuccesful click attempts don't count-- really, you can't prove anything!)
Seriously funny stuff you two. THose have got to be some of the all time best Adwords ads I have seen related to SEO/SEM.
I found myself clicking on each one as I followed down the list they worked so well! This would be great as a regular thing, or perhaps we could get some comments from other members with their funny ad ideas.
Either way, nice work Mysteryguest. Thanks for sharing your humor with the rest of us and the ones who don't have a very good one!
OMG...LOL! Awesome. :) Rand, you need to let Mystery Guest blog more often.
Brilliant post MG. Please write more!
Rand - we'd like to see more of you guys writing about PPC. I know you've said in the past that it's not your bag so much, but that just means you have a learning curve (which I'm sure you'll share) and I'm looking forward to reading about it.
We're playing around with PPC. Once Scott and I get some actual breathing room at work, we'll tweak our campaigns and will drop some knowledge onto the blog. :)
Yay. Can't wait. Shout if we can help with anything.
The said part is that the "breathing room" comment isn't just a turn of a phrase. Rand actually makes them work inside small plastic bubbles. He's kind of a jerk that way.
I would have choked on my drink! Luckily I wasn't drinking.
I love the dating one. Sure brings back the memories...
One time, my boss made me write a whole load of ads for our eHarmony clone. He decided to bid on everything out there and see what worked, so I had to come up with stuff about serious relationships to go with keywords like "Huddersfield sex parties" and "london swingers".
I had stuff like:
Get laid every night
get a girlfriend today
search now for free
Geeeshhhh -- all MG needed to do was add the infamous .... to the end of her ad copy, and for sure it would have been approved! ;)
I know this is more of a humorous post, but I was wondering if you could fill us in on why Google disallowed those 4 ads. I have an idea on most of them but one of them seems legit. Just curious the reasons that they gave you.
Believe it or not, writing ads like this really can be effective depending on your target audience.
Here are the reasons...
1) Blank space
2) Viagara is both a perscription drug and a trademarked term
3) "idiot stoner cousin" wouldn't make it through. I have a feeling that "stoner" triggered the disapproval and a manual review would can that advert as well. All ad copy has to be PG-13 or better.
4) "Google" is a trademarked term.
https://adwords.google.com/select/guidelines.html << Outlines the rules for you. And if you are ever unsure of an advert, Adwords Editor will let you know (real quick) if it's going to work out for you or not.
Actually, "stoner" was fine. It was "idiot" that got rejected.
Are the other ad's live, or were you just messing around with the posting?
The one about using your mouse button on this ad seems like a "click here" type of request. I'd be interested to see if that gets turned down.
You can definitely get around the restrictions on 'click here' with a bit of creativeness. Though manual reviews will obviously catch them if they happen for any reason.
Now that's just stupid. :~
Aha...nevermind. Didn't suspect that idiot was the culprit. Thanks Rand!
Hilarious! I can't beleive that some of those got through.
You need to post more often. Twice in one week, isn't enough!
Ha - thanks...
Just spit my coffee all over the keyword -> "Only ugly people Search for love online..." - great ad!!
:-)