The purpose of an advertisement is to convince the reader to purchase a particular product or service. But that doesn’t mean that all advertisements are created equal. There are certain ad writing basics that can help you add that extra touch of professionalism and elegance to your next marketing campaign.
Use Proper Grammar And Punctuation
Good grammar and punctuation will make your text more readable and add polish to your writing. Use a thesaurus and check your spelling frequently. Most importantly, write for an audience that includes both educated and non-educated people.
For example, if you are writing for a general audience, you might want to avoid using big words or complicated sentence structures. Instead, pick a simpler word or phrase when possible. Also, if you are writing to a more educated audience, you can incorporate more complex language.
Know Your Audience
Your advertisement’s target audience will determine its content and structure. Before you start writing, identify the type of person you’re writing for. This will help you decide on an approach and select the proper words and phrases to use.
Use Simple And Direct Language
The simpler your language, the more effective your ad. In order to grab the attention of your reader, you need to write in a direct and clear manner. Cut out unnecessary words and phrases. Instead of using big words, you can often times substitute them with simpler ones.
For example, instead of saying “Significant savings await you,” you can say “Saving cash is a breeze.” Direct language is essentially telling the reader what they need to know without all of the fluff.
Avoid Plagiarism
Originality is extremely important in advertising. Always be willing to cite sources in your work and ensure that all information you use is accurate and legitimate. Plagiarism is often considered among the worst of all academic crimes. Always be sure to give proper credit where credit is due.
Don’t Forget About Credibility
The news media is notorious for publishing articles and advertisements with misleading information and exaggerated claims. Always be sure to provide the reader with accurate and well-researched information. The credibility of your source is vital.
Make Sure Your Claims Are Supportable
As mentioned above, the news media is often a culprit in sensationalism and false advertising. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes advertisers can be just as guilty of promoting overblown claims.
Even worse, some advertisers fall into the trap of making totally unbelievable claims in an attempt to boost sales. This kind of advertising is known as false advertising. If you run a campaign that contains any untruthful or misleading statements, your advertising could end up in a wrongful lawsuit. So, it’s important to do your research before making any kind of outrageous claims.
Keep Track Of Your Statistics
Even the best advertising can’t boast about having excellent results if you don’t keep track of your statistics. You can use various tools to monitor the success of your campaign. The most common one is probably the analytical software. With this tool, you can track all of your advertisement’s performance metrics including cost-per-click, cost-per-acquisition, and more.
If you use Google Analytics for example, you can create different segments of users based on their behavior. For example, you can create a segment for people who interacted with your blog post or visited your website before you ran the ad. This way, you’ll see what resonated with your audience and what aspects of your messaging they found most engaging.
Check For Similar Ads
One way to improve the effectiveness of your marketing campaign is by comparing it to similar ads. If you run an ad campaign for a restaurant, you might want to compare it to other restaurants’ ads. This will help you see how your campaign stacks up and whether or not you are outperforming your competitors.
Use More Than One Form Of Media
If you want to be successful at advertising, you need to learn how to utilize more than one form of media.
Even though social media is mostly free, you still need to pay for ads in order to reap the benefits. You can target your Facebook and Instagram followers with a paid advertisement and, in turn, convert them into buyers.
On the other hand, traditional media such as radio or television stations can be extremely beneficial. Not only do they provide you with broad coverage, but they also allow you to target your specific audience. In other words, you can choose which segments to reach out to and who to avoid reaching out to. This makes them an extremely cost-effective form of advertising. Just make sure that you are using the right media for the right campaign.
Focus On Long-Tail Keywords
The general rule of thumb when it comes to digital marketing is that 80% of your traffic should come from organic search results on Google. That means you’re getting traffic from people who are actually looking for the product you’re promoting. And that’s exactly how you want it to be. If you’re looking for product reviews, you’re likely to end up on various online forums like Reddit or Quora.
These are all long-tail keywords and, as a result, are extremely difficult to rank for. The better your targeting, the higher you’ll rank and, eventually, the more traffic you’ll see.
Dress Your Ad In A Fashionable Manner
Last but not least, we have the fashion factor. When you dress your ad in a fashionable manner, you’re more likely to have an attractive audience. And an attractive audience is more likely to be interested in what you have to say. So, in order to succeed, you need to be putting yourself in the best possible position to make the sale. This means dressing your ad in a manner that is consistent with your product’s image. It might be a good idea to ask a professional fashion photographer to take a look at your product’s marketing material and see what they think.
In summary, there are several basic rules that you can follow in order to write an effective advertisement. Make sure to follow proper grammar and punctuation, keep track of your statistics, and be sure to use social media and other forms of digital marketing. Also, be sure to dress your ad in a fashionable manner and, most importantly, write with a purpose. This way, you’ll be able to avoid plagiarism and false advertisements. And, in turn, you’ll be able to create an effective marketing campaign that will draw plenty of customers your way.