Writing Ads for Quora

Back in May 2017, Quora Ads opened up for all businesses. The platform has grown from basic topic and website audience targeting to include specific options such as question targeting (BETA) to interest targeting. The platform has become the lowest CPA channel for many of my PPC clients. While I recommend jumping in immediately to register for an account, there are a few things you should know about writing ads on Quora to make your set up a lot easier. This post will go over three ways Quora’s text ads differ from what you’re used to doing on AdWords. Let’s begin.

Don’t Think About Using Title Case

In the PPC world, AdWords has conditioned us to always write our ads in Title Case. It’s been engraved in our brains to capitalize every letter of every word in the headline. Well if you want to advertise on Quora, you’re going to have to break the Title Case habit.

“Unusual use of capitalization” is strictly prohibited in Quora Ads. It’s not a bad thing once you think about it. We’re on a channel where users are asking questions and getting answers. The ad policy mimics the content policy for regular users. Having the policies parallel each other helps our ads blend in with the rest of the content and seem less like an ad. Also, as a user, the ads are just easier on the eyes than a Title Case headline.

Punctuation Policy Is Slightly Different than AdWords

In AdWords, you are not forced to use punctuation in either the headline or description of a search ad. Quora, however, differs noticably. In Quora ads, you must use some sort of punctuation in Headline and Body Text. And if you click away from the input boxes without adding punctuation, Quora will let you immediately that you need to go back and add some.

Now that we know the main difference in punctuation policies between AdWords and Quora, I can now point out that there are some similarities too. In Quora, just like AdWords, you cannot use an exclamation point in your headlines. Periods or question marks are allowed in AdWords headlines if they’re not repeated and adhere to their true purpose. The same rules apply to Quora. And your Body Text can include any punctuation as long as it’s there.

More Characters = More Conversational Advertising

Here is my favorite part about Quora ads. While the ads are very similar to search ads in AdWords, we get more room to work with. So not only our the headlines 5 characters longer than AdWords, they aren’t broken up into two different lines. This allows us to focus on a robust, marketing message as a headline versus trying to squeeze a keyword into the headline.

Again, think of what kind of platform Quora is. People are looking for answers to their questions. And typically, from my own, non-scientific eye test, I see the longer, robust answers get the higher votes. Use the characters you’re given in Quora! Don’t just copy in a short keyword phrase you might do in AdWords. Be conversational. Be descriptive. With the headline and the body text combined, you have 170 characters to prove value and convince the user to click on your call-to-action. Quora gives you a platform to focus on marketing first so use it wisely.

Start Advertising on Quora

Quora has quickly become my new favorite advertising platform. At least sign up for a Quora business account. You can register, get your account pixel to add to your site, and start collecting audience data without ever having to give your credit card information. I’m confident you will be able to connect with your audience at an extremely affordable rate due to an ad policy that encourages marketing over keyword stuffing.