Google AdWords Keyword Macros

The Keyword macros allows you to display the user’s exact search phrase in the ad text of your Google AdWords ads. It is best practice to include the keyword macro in the headline of your text ad. The reason for this is because the headline of your text ad is the clickable portion. Google AdWords also bold prints the relevant ad text to the users search query, thus making your heading bold printed as well. The user is mush more likely to click on your ad because it stands out from the rest and it is 100% relevant to his search query.

The format of the keyword macro is as follows:

{keyword:alternative headline}

Or

{KeyWord:alternative headline}

The first format will display the user exact phrase as typed in by the user. In the second format you will notice that the first and fourth character of keyword has been capitalized. This format will also display the user’s exact phrase but with every first letter of every single word capitalized. This makes your ad stand out even more. The reason for the alternative headline is because of the ad headline characters limit of 25. If the user search phrase is bigger that 25 characters the alternative headline will be displayed automatically by Google AdWords.

The main purpose of the keyword macro is to drive your CTR rating up. This is usually a shortcut way for a new user to obtain a high CTR. The CTR is an historical figure so the higher you’re CTR in the beginning the longer your CTR average stays high. This will give you the advantage of paying less for a higher ad ranking position on the Google search pages.

One of the downsides to using the keyword macro is that if the user misspells a word it will appear just like that in your headline. In other cases your ad may look relevant to irrelevant users, because of your dynamic headline. This may loose you some money in the beginning but will drive your CTR up. The keyword macros are usually only used for a sort term in the beginning of your ad campaign to get you CTR up.