Ever wonder why some ad copy is so much more effective than others?
Whether you are trying to sell cars, insurance, or industrial equipment, your ad’s wording and design can be the making or breaking of your campaign.
Let’s examine how to make your copywriting more effective by applying the 80/20 Rule. This rule suggests that you should focus on delivering 20% of the results you promise and that you should strive to achieve these results as consistently as possible.
1. Short headers
To grab attention, ad copy should be concise and to the point. In the auto-industry, this is called a short headline.
In your ad, apply a short headline that is easily readable in small type size on a smartphone screen.
2. Type of content
What type of content do you use to write your ad?
Your headline and body copy should all be relevant to answering this question. You should aim to speak to the reader’s needs and wants. What are they looking for? What do you have that can help them?
If you are advertising a leisure activity, consider what the reader is most likely to want or need. They may want additional equipment or clothing for the activity. Or, it may be that they are looking for a guide to the best places to go for the activity. In this example, you can see how the ad copy addresses the reader’s needs.
3. Audience targeting
Once you have addressed the needs of the reader, you should consider their ‘wants’ in regard to your product. What is it that they want, exactly?
You can use a tool like Google Analytics to discover this. Look at your website traffic and see what pages are bringing in the most revenue. Use this data to curate a list of the products or services your audience wants most. Write these down and flesh out a plan to provide them with what they want.
Alongside this, consider what your existing customers want or need. See what products or services they are using and what improvements they would like to see. Use this input to inform your product roadmap.
4. Match your language to the copy
This ties in with the previous point. To ensure that your ad is as effective as possible, you should aim to match the language you use in your ad with the language your readers are most likely to understand. Be careful not to overuse technical jargon or industry-specific terms if you want your copy to be accessible to a general audience.
5. Visuals must compliment the text
A well-written, well-designed text can work extremely hard to make an impact. However, if the impact is hard to discern, the readability of the text is thrown off and the intended effect is diminished.
To augment your text and to make it pop, you should consider using images or video. These complementary assets can make a dramatic difference to a reader’s perception of a text-based ad.
If you have chosen to use an image in your ad, make sure that it compliments the text.
6. Always measure, never guess
In the world of marketing, this is called ‘benchmarking’ and it is a vital practice. You should never set a benchmark in stone; rather, you should strive to beat it every month.
If you want to see how effective your ad campaign is, you should track the results of your efforts. Without exception, every quarter or every month, you should look at the previous three to six months of data and you should consider whether or not this data is still accurate.
7. Use the data you collect
You are not the only person who will see the results of your ad campaign; you have a customer who will see your ads and you have a vendor who will see your vendors. It is in your best interest to ensure that both parties know exactly what is going on. To do this, you should look to see how many leads you have generated and whether or not these leads have converted into sales.
If you look back at the first point we made, about short headers, you can see how this data can be extremely helpful. To follow up on our earlier point about technical terminology, this data can help you gauge the success of your ad campaign by informing you of the terms your target audience is using to search for your products or services. Additionally, you can use this data to discover content that is highly relevant to your target audience and to determine the effectiveness of your ad campaign.
8. Always write a review
To prove that your product is worth considering, you should always write a review. Even if your product does not fit the criteria of the person reading the review, it may still be worth their time to read it.
To grab people’s attention, clickbait is extremely popular. However, people expect content to have value. If you want to stand out among your competition, make sure that your content is worth reading. To do this, write a comprehensive review that is as detailed as possible. Give your readers as many details as possible about your product or service. If you are able to, include customer testimonials to humanize the experience. In the auto-industry, this is known as ‘Honest Ads’ and it is an important practice.
9. Experiment with SEO
If you are wanting your ad to stand out, you should consider using SEO. This strategy allows you to out-compete your competition by appearing at the top of the search engine result pages.
To see what SEO is and how it can benefit your ad campaign, follow these simple steps.
- Look at the top page of your Google search results.
- Find the keywords you are looking for (these are the words and phrases people use when searching for your product or service)
- Create content around these keywords (this can be in the form of an article, a podcast, or a video)
- Incorporate these keywords into your headlines, sub-heads, and body copy
- Try to have a mix of headings, sub-heads, and body copy (not just one or two of these elements)
- Be consistent in your SEO efforts across the board (from mobile websites, to blogs, to product pages)
10. Make sure you follow up
Just because you ran an ad campaign does not mean that your audience automatically buys your product or service. To ensure that they do, you should follow up with them. This could be in the form of an e-mail, a phone call, or a face-to-face interaction. These are all excellent ways to make sure that your audience knows you are interested in their needs and wants. It is never acceptable to sit on your hands while your prospect leads are out there waiting to be contacted. Good luck!