It’s a sad fact of business life that many organizations simply aren’t able to make a successful ad. While this is usually down to a simple lack of resources, it can also be amplified by a lack of creative ideas when seeking to improve results.
It doesn’t matter whether you put your business ad in your local newspaper or online – the only thing that matters is your return on investment. If you spend hundreds of dollars on an ad and get low to no engagement, you’ve essentially just wasted your money.
Which, considering all the other cool things you could have done with that lost money, is pretty annoying!
One of the smartest moves a business can make in understanding how to create a successful advertisement is to focus on the mistakes that other people make. That’s not a carte blanche to go around criticizing other people’s advertisements.
That’s kind of dumb, especially if the criticism is destructive, rather than constructive!
Instead, analyzing other business’ mistakes is a great way to learn what those mistakes are so that you can avoid them in your own business. Knowing the ad mistakes that other people make also helps you to understand why some strategies just work.
In this article, I’m going to take one of the most common misconceptions out there today and show you why it’s not effective, and how you can learn from this to start creating successful ads of your own.
Let’s get started!
Bigger Ads Don’t Mean Better or More Successful Advertisements
This misguided rule – clearly invented by men ? – is one that smaller organizations often gobble up.
After all, huge companies will splash out for entire billboards and make record profits that year. Smaller companies might follow suit, thinking that having that huge billboard in the city center is going to make them megabucks.
There’s just one problem: it’s not a targeted advertisement. Billboards are actually about brand recognition, not sales. If you’re a small, no-name brand, then this isn’t going to sell for you, and it won’t really help your awareness.
It will leave people scratching their heads and wondering what that ad was all about, but five minutes later, you’ll be gone with the wind as something else takes their attention.
Instead, you want to think about who your target audience is and where you might find them. For instance, let’s say you sell diet products. You could run an ad in the local newspaper – or in a health magazine or blog.
Which ad will get you the most traction to become a more successful advertisement?
The Smart Way to Start Your Next Successful Ad Campaign
Before you even design your next advertising campaign, you need to have a clear idea of who your target audience is. What are their fears? Desires? Where can you find them, and how can you get your message across to them that you can help them?
When answering questions like these, try to remember one key principle: customers don’t buy products and services – they buy solutions. Your job as a business is to show people that you have the solution they need, whether you’re selling hairbrushes or low-fat pizza.
Remember, people reading your ad might have no idea who you are, what you do, and what you sell. All of this needs to be translated into an attractive message that gives your audience the information they need to buy. If you know your target market inside out, then creating a successful advertisement is a lot easier.
Motivation Is a Driving Force Behind Every Successful Advert
Let’s say that you’ve created an ad that successfully gets your message across to your perfect buyer, you’ve found the best place to post your ad, and you’re ready to launch this ad campaign.
Watch out world, here we come!
Just remember that you need to give anyone viewing your ad a reason to act – to do something. The good news is that this is a pretty easy part of the process to remember: just use a CTA (Call To Action). Ask people to visit your store now, or to call up, or to do something.
A clear, confident CTA combined with a well-targeted ad in the right place can do wonders for a business, simply because it has all the right ingredients to get your perfect buyer’s attention.
As you can see, building a successful advertisement isn’t rocket science, brain surgery, or even quantum physics. It’s simply knowing your target market, designing an ad that appeals to them, and putting it where they will see it.
Need help in crafting the perfect message for your next successful advertising campaign? Get in touch with me today to get started!
