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A HighRankings Forum thread has discussion around a topic I have never seen before. Should you ever consider using abbreviations in a title or description of your search ads? Here is the question from the advertiser:
I'm writing a PPC headline and would like to know about abbreviating a word in the title instead of spelling it out completely.For example; 'flr' instead of 'floor'...Reason is to save space in order to fit copy all on one line.
I would say that this would be a no no, in this case. But in some cases, you might be able to pull it off. Stock symbols work in many cases, some abbreviations are really well known, such as FYI.
The issue isn't with Google not allowing it but your CTR dropping due to people not understanding your ad. If your CTR drops, your quality score may drop and it may result in paying more for a ad position you would have otherwise paid less for. Plus, often, a lower CTR leads to less sales.
But as nethy said, it is something you can experiment with and see if it works for your campaigns. Just watch it carefully and be ready to pull the plug if you notice a drop in your metrics.
Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.
Comments:
Justin Seibert
02/12/2009 02:36 pm
Not crazy about the example mentioned above, but yes, there are definitely times you can abbreviate, which I feel confident in saying because of testing. Generally, it needs to be a really well known abbreviation and you shouldn't clunk up the ads with multiple abbreviations.
Forrest Bivens
02/12/2009 03:48 pm
I agree with your assessment, especially the testing part. One other observation-because of trademark infringement policies (i.e. Google enforces this the most) with some company names, there are times you have no choice if you need to get that name into the ad. Keyword research will let you know which abbreviations are being searched for.
Al
02/16/2009 02:15 pm
We abbreviate state and well known region identifiers in our ads and have had plenty of success with it.