Online advertising is almost as much of an art as a science. While analytics can tell you a great deal about your audience, the creativity and visual look of your ads must come from you. Here are some tips you can use to make your ads more appealing to potential customers.
1: Create a USP
A USP stands for a unique selling proposition. In many cases, this boils down to a tagline, but it tells customers why your store is different from the competition. Create a USP that stands out and make sure it features prominently in your ad.
2: Add a Tagline to Your Meta Title
When you see an ad on Google or Facebook, you see more than a company name. Usually, the site name is accompanied by a tagline that tells customers what the page does for them. Pay attention to this data and make sure your ad listing gives customers more than just your store’s name.
3: Craft an Interesting Meta Description
Like the meta title, the meta description appears as part of a typical ad. This is usually a short few sentences about the product or service. This information often defaults to the introductory text on a site, so be sure to revise it if you want to target your ads better.
4: Provide a Picture
Facebook and other popular ad platforms allow you to advertise through text, pictures, or both. As many advertisers have discovered on social media, pictures are most effective at drawing attention. Providing a high-quality image with your ad gets more people paying attention.
5: Target Carefully
Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and virtually every other high-traffic website allows you to target your ads to certain demographics. Make sure to use this feature. Doing so allows you to tailor content to a specific audience that is most likely to purchase your product. This will also keep costs down.
6: Make the Ad an Offer
Does a portion of your profits go to charity? Do you offer the best discounts around? Can you help fix a major problem faced by your target demographic? Let your audience know about what the product does for the world around them. That way, their purchase becomes about something more than just getting a good deal.
7: Don’t get too Cluttered
Using a good tagline, a strongly written copy, and a colorful image is important, but don’t get carried away. You should stick to a short blurb and a single image for most ads. Going much further risks making the ad too cluttered.
8: Cater to Mobile Users
Most potential customers will visit your site from a smartphone or tablet rather than a browser. This means that cookie-based ads are useless to you. All of your ads should cater to mobile users.
9: Monitor Block Lists
Most ad services provide a viewer with the chance to rate an ad as not useful or to indicate that they aren’t interested in a product. Monitor these carefully. If enough people from a certain demographic block your ad, you need to consider targeting a new audience.
10: Consider Video Ads
Video ads are more expensive to place than traditional banner or text ads, but they have a higher response rate and build engagement better. These ads work very well on social media, where they often autoplay in people’s timelines.
11: Include a Call to Action
Your meta description should provide readers with a compelling reason to click on the ad and move to your website. This call to action should revolve around a specific need within your demographic, providing a suggestion that your store can meet those needs.
12: Create a Consistent Look
Your ads should have the same visual style and use similar language no matter where they appear. This allows you to create a brand identity for your store which readers will recognize no matter where they see it.
13: Make the Ad a Sponsored Post
Facebook and Twitter allow traditional ads, but they also offer the chance to create sponsored posts. These posts land in users’ timelines, which means more eyes are on them. Consider whether your ad would work better as a sponsored post.
14: Use Simple Language
Your ad will appear to many people, some of whom have a larger vocabulary than others. To make your ad as accessible as possible, use simple, easy to understand language. This language also tends to have a stronger emotional impact.
15: Lead with Numbers
If you’ve got a great deal, let people know the numbers behind it. Show them the discount or the final price that they’ll pay. This lets them know just how much they’ll save by visiting your store.
There are many different facets to a successful ad. No matter what platform you advertise on, the tips above will help you to create the perfect advertisement.
