The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Impactful Business Advertising

People turn online for simplest of things. If there is anything that can be easily done online that is where people will go. There are so many ways to develop a brand and tons of advice on how to do it. One of such effective ways we have already discussed in our last blog. In this piece, we will walk you through the ‘How of creating intuitive business ads.’
3 Step Journey of an Incredible Business Ad.

We believe that an incredible business ad goes through a three-step journey. And while creating such ads if we keep this journey in mind, we can craft a piece that will have a profound effect on our customers and will ultimately lead in clickthroughs and who knows even conversion.
1. It begins with the eyes.
Beginning with eyes mean starting with the design. The first contact of the customer with your ad is through your design. Before the customer actually starts reading the content of your ad, his eyes process the overall design and if it pleases his eyes he then goes forward with the reading part. This essentially means that your colors, fonts, layout and other visual elements must be in a complete synergy enticing the customers to further engross with your content.
2. Then it reaches the mind.
The second step or the second contact of the customer is with your content itself. All the contextual information that you give in an ad must be engaging and easy to absorb. Draft compelling ad copy that is intuitive and knowledge giving at the same time. Add images that add meaning of your words. The cooperation between your content and images can alone do wonders for your ad. Check out this amazing example from Skype.

3. Finally, it reaches the heart.
The most remarkable ad is the one that evokes emotions in the person. Try creating ads that emphasize human experiences and emotions and people can actually connect to it. If you can build such an ad that knits emotions and experiences your ad will always and always be remembered and will land straight in your customer’s heart. See this example of one such emotion-evoking ad from WWF Foundation.

Little big elements that make your business ads rock the search results.
Advertising isn’t about creating a single standard campaign with limited details, getting ads on a few websites, and calling it a day. Shortcuts in creating an ad are almost the same as not advertising at all. In here we will discuss that how data within an ad is crawled by search engines. Basically, how important the different components of an ad space are and how they all contribute towards visibility of the ad.
1. Logo
Adding ALT attribute of IMG tags is a basic SEO element that means associating words with image content. Adding ALT text to the IMG tag shouts a strong signal to search engines. Alt text is crawled by search engines separately by google image search which helps in organic search optimization. If anyone searches for your business name or similar keywords the logo associated with your business will get shown in the google image search which is great for brand recognition.

2. Headings
Define your ad headings as H1 Tags in the webpage as it is considered the first text to be crawled by search engines. So construct your ad heading wisely and you can also target keywords here.

3. Descriptions
Ad Descriptions are of two types namely long and short descriptions. Filling up a short description in your ad is vital as when a customer searches your business then Google automatically crawls the web-page that contains your short description under the structured snippet. Whereas long descriptions are powerful for targeting relevant keywords. Also long and short descriptions serve their own explicit functions. A long description may not make any sense in the space meant for short description due to the word limit set by the search engine.

4. Contact Details
Local results favor the most relevant results for each search, and businesses with complete and accurate contact information are easier to match with the right searches. Make sure that you’ve entered all of your business information in your business ad such as email ids, phone numbers, business hours, address etc. These days business information is dynamically indexed by search engines to appear in a structured snippet in Google search. They help google provide information to users searching and have them contact a business faster.

5. Images
Add photos to your ad listings to show your goods and services to the people. It also helps you tell the story of your business and creates a feeling of genuineness for your business. Accurate and appealing pictures may also show potential customers what your business offers.

Avoid these mistakes while designing your business ads.
1. Filling up the whole ad space.
Don’t stuff up all the available ad space leave adequate white space for readability. You must be longing for traffic and would want to provide every business detail in your ad, but remember your business ad is no place to show that anxiety. Space should intentionally be left blank for a better structure and layout. It also gives emphasis to the content area and leads a customer from one element to another.
Adequate white space can do wonders for your ad design. Check out this example to wisely use ad space.

2. Using a misleading CTA
Don’t claim what you can’t offer. Claiming that ‘first meal free’ at your restaurant and then sending them to a landing page to purchase coupons is misleading. Your ad CTA needs to correlate to the landing page or your audience won’t be visiting for long. The ultimate goal should always be conversions and not clickthroughs so don’t lose your potential customers for that.
3. Advertising on the right sites
It can be really tough to choose your audience in every case, but you should try to control as much as you can. A poorly placed ad can be more damaging to your brand than no ad at all. Choose trusted self-serve ad platforms for advertising that provide a dual approach; designing the ad and then providing it the digital exposure it needs.
