Online advertising is a competitive and dynamic field, where you need to stand out from the crowd and attract your target audience. How can you design better online ads that capture attention, convey your message, and inspire action? Here are some tips to help you create more effective and engaging online ads.
Before you start designing your online ad, you need to have a clear and specific goal in mind. What do you want your ad to achieve? Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, drive sales, or something else? Your goal will determine your ad format, content, and call to action. For example, if you want to increase brand awareness, you might choose a banner ad with a catchy slogan and your logo. If you want to generate leads, you might choose a lead generation ad with a form and an offer.
In my experience, optimizing for the highest conversion value has proven to be the most effective strategy. Why? Because it's not just about getting conversions, it's about getting valuable conversions. Let's say you're running an e-commerce store. Two conversions might look the same on the surface, but one could be a $10 purchase and the other a $100 purchase. By optimizing for the highest conversion value, you're teaching the algorithm to prioritize the $100 conversions. This approach has consistently delivered the best ROI for my clients. Want to know more about this? Feel free to drop me a message!
Another important factor in designing better online ads is knowing your audience. Who are you trying to reach with your ad? What are their needs, preferences, and pain points? How do they behave online? What are their interests, hobbies, and values? By understanding your audience, you can tailor your ad to their needs and expectations. You can also use audience segmentation and targeting tools to deliver your ad to the right people at the right time and place.
I've seen many campaigns where the ad was beautifully designed, but it didn't resonate with the target audience. For instance, if you're targeting tech-savvy millennials, a traditional banner ad might not cut it. Instead, a quirky, meme-style ad could work wonders. Remember, it's not just about what you want to say, it's about what they want to hear. Ad relevance can significantly boost your campaign performance. Want to learn more about creating relevant ads? Feel free to message me!
Online ads can appear on different platforms, such as websites, social media, search engines, or mobile apps. Each platform has its own specifications, guidelines, and best practices for online ads. You need to know the platform you are using and design your ad accordingly. For example, if you are using Facebook, you need to follow the Facebook ad policies and use the Facebook ad manager. If you are using Google, you need to follow the Google ad policies and use the Google ad words tool.
Each platform has its unique user behaviour patterns. For instance, users on LinkedIn are in a professional mindset, while Instagram users are looking for visually appealing content. I once helped a client shift their campaign from LinkedIn to Instagram, keeping the same message but changing the ad design to be more visual. The result? A 60% increase in engagement. Understanding platform-specific user behaviour can truly make or break your ad campaign. Want to dive deeper into this? Drop me a message!
For better online ads, you should strive for simple and clear design. A catchy and relevant headline that summarizes the main benefit or offer is essential. The body copy should be compelling and concise, supporting the headline while providing more details. A strong and clear call to action is also necessary, telling your audience what to do next. Additionally, a consistent and appealing color scheme that matches your brand identity and contrasts with the background should be used. Furthermore, a high-quality and relevant image or video that attracts attention and shows your product or service is important. Lastly, a simple and legible font that is easy to read on any device should be employed.
Creative ad copy is key - in your ad design and in your ad text. I like using copywriting frameworks like Before-After-Bridge to convince people to click. It's about painting a vivid 'Before' (problem), an enticing 'After' (solution), and your product as the 'Bridge'. This consistency reinforces your brand message, making ads more effective. The creativity comes from how you tell this story. Tell it in a way that resonates with your target audience and you'll attract more clicks and improve your Quality Score, reducing your CPC. Want to learn more about using copywriting frameworks for creative ads? Drop me a message!
To design better online ads, regular testing and optimization is essential. You can use A/B testing to compare two versions of your ad and determine which one performs better. Additionally, analytics can track and analyze the metrics and data of your ad campaigns, such as impressions, clicks, conversions, etc. To gain further insight, you can also collect and review feedback from your audience and customers about your ads. Through testing and optimization, you can identify what works and what doesn't, and make improvements accordingly.
I find the best strategy to optimize ad performance is to start by setting up your ad campaigns already for continuous testing. I use a campaign structure where I'm constantly split testing different campaign optimisations, targeting options, ad creatives, and ad copy. So instead of launching lots of new campaigns, everything gets tested against each other in the same campaign. Then I periodically review the data to understand which ones outperform others. I then allocate more budget to these high-performers and turn off the underperformers. This way, I'm always optimizing for the best results. Want to learn more about how to optimise your ad campaigns with continues testing? Shoot me a message!