Anatomy of a Good Advertisement
Advertising is a major part of marketing. Many people believe that this is the only thing marketing really does. Whilst this is not exactly true, it will help you get the most out of your investments if you learn how to create a good advertisement.
A good place to start will be paid graphical ads which appear on other websites. Some sort of Google Pay-Per-Click is another avenue, but the concepts are basically the same. The goal is to grab people’s attention and get them to click your link. This post is designed to help you do exactly that.
Short and Sweet
These days people are bombarded with enormous amounts of advertising that competition for their attention is fierce. You may get a second, at most, before someone has decided to engage with or ignore your advertising. This means the effect your ad makes must happen immediately.
Simple and short is ideal. The best approach is to say it in as few words as possible. Remember that your ad won’t be very big. It won’t be able to do much because you want to keep the cost down. Something short, direct, and engaging is required.
Engage
The problem with much advertising is that it tries to sell to customers. While this might be the point of the ad itself, however, it would be more successful if it could engage the customers just enough to click on the ad. Make them think, make them stop and consider your advertisement or click through to find out more.
The key to engaging your readers is to understand them. What are their hot-button topics? What can you find to get them going? Consider being controversial. Avoid the most obvious route and choose a message which will really force them to click.
Ask for their opinions. It would be a good idea to run a contest which requires player participation. At the very least, use a message which might make them a little curious so they will be more inclined to click through and see what you are talking about.
Tracking
Tracking may not seem like a major part of a good advertisement, but this is because customers will never see it. From the business side, however, tracking is one of the most important elements in any advertisement. Tracking is important because you will never know exactly how successful an advertisement is unless there is a way to track its effectiveness.
There are a number of great tracking programs you can use and many of them are free. You’ll be able to see exactly how many times the ad was displayed, how many times it was clicked and even information about how long visitors stayed and where they went afterwards. This is invaluable information which helps you perfect your advertising in the future.