Digital ads are everywhere, but not all of them are effective. How can you write digital ads that capture attention, engage emotions, and persuade action? In this article, you'll learn six tips to create persuasive digital ads that stand out from the crowd and convert your audience.
Before you write anything, you need to know who you're writing for. What are their needs, wants, pain points, goals, and motivations? How do they search, browse, and consume digital content? What are their preferences, behaviors, and expectations? Use tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and customer surveys to gather data and insights about your audience. Then, create buyer personas that represent your ideal customers and use them to guide your ad copy.
Curiosity is a fundamental human trait. Everyone is curious. Content that answers questions and defines what is good in there for them is more likely to be engaging and informative. It can also help to build trust and credibility with the reader Start with a clear understanding of your audience's needs and interests Use clear and concise language that is easy to understand. Avoid jargon and tech terms that your audience may not be familiar with Be honest and transparent about the benefits of your product or service. Don't oversell or make promises you can't keep. This may lead to bad reviews and it may backfire your campaign Interactive, relevant and contrasting visuals will make your content more appealing and, pick the right audience.
Very simple... Step 1. (the only step) Keep it simple, but informative. I'm not great at fishing, yet the principles of a good fisherman apply to a good digital ad. - Catch the attention of the fish (the scroller) - Attract the fish (however you can) - Snare it and ensure you've got it hooked (perfect landing page) Now you're a better digital ad creator and perhaps a fisherman.
Knowing your audience is the key to great ads: ? Understand their pain points & desires ? Understand what their life looks like visually ? Understand their lingo ChatGPT is great for doing research: "Tell me the top problems of this audience, and tell me what are the consequences if they do not solve these problems."
One of the best ways is to create a user persona of your target audience. Understand their needs & pain points. Now, once you know that, try to link the two in your ad copies. & make it sound less salesy and more personalised & conversational. This will work on any ad platform! Hope it helps:)
Knowing your target audience and what problem you're looking to solve for them, is most of the work. They want value provided to them to convert. Buyer personas aren't just a marketing exercise, they're defining your code audience.
Your headline is the first thing your audience sees, and it determines whether they click or scroll past your ad. A good headline should be clear, concise, and compelling. It should communicate the main benefit, value proposition, or solution that your ad offers. It should also spark curiosity, urgency, or emotion to entice your audience to read more. Use power words, questions, numbers, or testimonials to make your headlines more persuasive.
Ad space is limited, your message needs to follow the KISS principle. Make it urgent, funny if need be and easy to parse. Avoid complicated technical language, but don't dumb it down. Match your audiences tone and language.
Should your headline really be clear? If you are sure about fulfill clients needs with your product, fell free to tease them without clarifications. Bait 'em triggering their needs of an answer by your proposal. But remain honest and be sure to please after luring.
So true! Also using colors to your advantage mixed with a captivating header really makes you stand out. The right font also makes all the difference in the brand’s image and header tone.
I write digital headlines like their eyeballs are seeing Ferraris going mock 10 past my ad. Not too different than a real billboard. Less is more. I also like a call to action and depending on the ad/client/audience, I don't mind being a bit edgy.
Remember, your audience doesn't know what you know and they are not interested in wasting time figuring out what your headlines mean. The less of a mental lift they have to do, the better.
AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. It's a classic copywriting formula that helps you structure your ad copy in a logical and persuasive way. First, you need to grab your audience's attention with a catchy headline, an eye-catching image, or a shocking statistic. Then, you need to generate interest by explaining how your product or service can solve their problem, address their pain point, or fulfill their desire. Next, you need to create desire by highlighting the benefits, features, and social proof of your offer. Finally, you need to prompt action by using a clear and strong call to action that tells your audience what to do next.
If you follow the basic principles of ad design, you're already following AIDA, but you need to present that last action part to really convert, most purchases are lost in the cart or due bad optimisation. Conversion is your end goal, so pay extra attention to that.
The classic copywriting framework AIDA, helps in structuring the content meaningfully. For digital ads, there is always a limited space but a lot to say and therefore Precision is very important. What words we choose and how we weave sense, such that it catches attention, evokes enough interest and desire to take action or register the?brand in mind space at the least.
AIDA is a great all round framework but there's many others word considering depending on your brand, product, channel and audience. More recent frameworks worth considering are: VALUE - Value, Access, Leverage, Engagement. Prioritizes creating value for the prospect first rather than just aiming for a sale. LISA - Legitimacy, Interest, Substantiation, Action. Focuses on establishing authority/legitimacy in the attention phase.
This approach is rooted in sound principles of persuasive communication and psychology, and it has been widely used in marketing and advertising for many years because it effectively guides the audience through the decision-making process. However, adapting this framework to your specific audience and context is essential, as what works for one audience or platform may not work for another. Additionally, continually testing and optimizing your messaging is crucial to ensure its effectiveness in driving the desired actions.
K.I.S.S: A friend once said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Keep your message simple but memorable.
Features are what your product or service does, but benefits are what your product or service does for your audience. Benefits are more persuasive because they appeal to your audience's emotions, needs, and goals. They answer the question "What's in it for me?" To write benefit-focused ad copy, you need to translate your features into benefits using the "so what?" test. For example, instead of saying "Our app has a fast and easy sign-up process", you can say "Sign up in minutes and start saving money today".
Ad copy and creative messaging should be benefit-led. However, this can only be achieved if you truly know the pain points of your customers and prospects and have strong claims. Your USP and strongest claim should be front and center of your messaging. Instead of saying 'save money with our software', say "save 30% of your budget with our software".
Always consider what problem you're solving, because your audience is always going to be asking "What value is this providing me that I need to pay attention to it?" And they're right, its their valuable time, so value it.
It's important to understand that ads are typically top of the funnel awareness vehicles so I would use emotion driven benefits (could be humorous). Don't try to get into the mindset of your audience, instead test out different messages directly with them. Specially if trying to sell to a generation which is not close to yours! Unless you have an amazing feature, I would leave any mention of features until then land on your website or until the enter the consideration phase of the funnel.
When you're stuck for ideas, follow your instincts and be sincere and empathic to keep it real. Tailor your message for platforms. Tailer your message for audiences. Test CTAs in your messaging. Be authentic. Don't overthink it.
You have approximately 2 seconds to grab your targets' attention. That's just 3 words maximum. Get creative with language because 99.99% of digital ads have too many words, most of which are tired clichés. Calls to action no longer work unless it is an event like a concert which sells out quickly. For example, if you're selling athleisurewear, use only two images: one of a person wearing the clothes and doing yoga, and another of the same person in the same clothes hosting a small get-together. The three words: Fit. For life. Brevity is the soul of digital.
Social proof and testimonials are powerful forms of persuasion because they show your audience that other people trust and recommend your product or service. They also reduce risk and uncertainty by providing evidence of your credibility and quality. To use social proof and testimonials in your digital ads, you can include ratings, reviews, case studies, logos, endorsements, or statistics that showcase your results, achievements, or satisfied customers.
There's a reason larger brands use big names as customers, and there's nothing wrong with it. If you have trustpilot or certified reviews, use them. In this day and age of fake news and fake followers, credibility matters.
CAREFUL: Much social proof is not *trusted* by users these days. G2 badges are everywhere, written testimonials can be easily faked. ? Video testimonials from customers ? Link to your rankings ? Show, don't tell
Social proofs work quite well. It allows a brand to showcase intangible benefits like satisfaction with the product, consumer satisfaction with post-sales services, customer loyalty, emotional impact or even emotions like pride.
Creative formats like repurposed testimonials work the best. However you need to make sure that they don't have any element of staging in it. The moment your audience notices that the testimonial is a staged one, you are losing out on the credibility of the words spoken by your customers.
This always helps in building credibility. But given the number of ‘fake’ or manufactured testimonials out there, I wonder how long their effectiveness would last.
Writing persuasive digital ads is not a one-time thing. You need to test and optimize your ads regularly to see what works and what doesn't. Use tools like Google Ads, Facebook Ads Manager, or Unbounce to run split tests or A/B tests on your ads. Experiment with different headlines, images, copy, colors, placements, and formats. Track and measure your ad performance using metrics like impressions, clicks, conversions, and cost per action. Analyze your data and use the insights to improve your ads and increase your return on investment.
It's tempting to just blow up the old and start from scratch every time. Everyone wants to hit it out of the park on the first try, but slow and steady improvements can get you there AND show you how you did it. Seeing that progress really motivates the creative team and fuels new ideas for improvements.
We're constantly being asked to create "one powerful :30 commercial for our brand." We've been optimizing our video productions to create multiple assets from a single production day (Typically (1) :30, and (4) :15 ads) to allow our clients to test and optimize all of the creative we provide. Not only that, it also gives them opportunities to throw those on social, email, or website pages for additional touch points.
The best method to develop ads is to test them broadly. I like to use the classic appeals from Aristotle: write about your product's benefit statement with logic, emotion, and social proof. Make at least 3 versions of each benefit claim and test each. Investing as little as $100 in ad spend over 48 hours can give you tremendous insight into which kind of appeal works for which kind of audiences. These "Minimum Viable Sprints" are my favorite very-high ROI ad spends. I routinely see identical ad designs have 12x differences in performance between the best and worst copy. When you know what ad copy works, then test creative & design until you've developed the best possible ad for a given audience. It takes a few days, but it's worth it!
A lot of what works of your ad, how it works, when it works best, what spend is best for your campaign, comes out of trial and testing. The online advertising platforms like Google Ads, Facebook ads etc have tools that allow?A/B testing. Sometimes, even multiple short bouts of ads can help to gauge variations and give immense insights into areas of correction or strength. If you are just starting out with online ads, then it is advisable to test your ads out with smaller budgets and be ready with a few sets of ad options. It can give a fair idea of click rates vs actual sales, or any metric as per the objective of your campaign, for you to improvise or continue.
As creative writers you must ask for ad performance data to improvise your work. As a thumb role provide 2-3 options that you think would work and keep a track of the data for optimising both the current campaign as well as future campaigns. Important metrics such as CTR, CPL, etc can help you do better.
DIG for that insight! To highlight benefits over features is understandable. But to ride on that one insight that is unique, but also extremely relatable to the masses, is what makes the copy stand out. The fun part is, nobody can teach you where to get an insight from. It comes from your experience, from your interactions with people, from the stories you’ve heard, from the every-day observations. Let’s not forget that not every brilliantly written ad has too much writing. Sometimes it’s just a thought backed by 3 words and a strong visual. It’s as important to focus on visual thinking as it is to know how to write the copy.
Your messaging should revolve around one or two USPs, even if you have more. Segregate your selling points and see what clicks the most, then drill down and focus on it. Make that your campaign and be the best at it.
BE AUTHENTIC!!! There is no use in trying to look like or be anyone else that you see online - THEY ALREADY EXIST. We need YOU! Be yourself. Be real. Show up. Make friends. Repeat.
The great thing about the digital ad medium is the expansive possibilities for targeting audiences, adjusting content, messaging and functionality based on what you know and computers know, and then letting testing and auto-optimization help you win the day. People are not one-size-fits-all and advertisers who want to convert actual people through ads, should use tools (yes, some AI) at their disposal to customize ads for humans to consume. And it is important to remember that one ‘touch’ alone is not likely to result in conversion. We humans like to live our lives and we make decisions when we’re ready. In reality it’ll take several touches. So use technology to tell stories with laser focus on engagement and time spent.
Emotionally Resonate: While data-driven decisions are important, never underestimate the power of emotion in decision-making. Craft narratives or use imagery that evokes feelings—whether it's the joy of a solution, the fear of missing out, or the pride of association!