5 Elements of a Good Advertising Campaign
Advertising is an important part of any business. When it’s done right, it connects your brand with the audience on a level that both speaks to them and represents you as a company. When done wrong, it is forgettable, bland, and — quite honestly — a waste of money.
So, how do you make sure that your campaign is a home-run? How can you be sure that the ads you created will reach your audience in the right way? Here are 5 tips on how to make it happen:
1. Make it about them
Contrary to popular belief, an advertisement is more about your audience that it is about your business. You want THEM to buy your product or service. You want THEM to subscribe to your newsletter. You want THEM to come to your event. So why would you scream about yourself?
“If you can create an emotional connection between your audience and your campaign, they are less likely to have second thoughts about your product or service.”
When creating the initial concept for your campaign, try to first think about who it is you are speaking to and what they would like to hear. Find their pain points. Show them there is a solution to the problem they have been suffering with and that it is you, your product and/or service that can fix it for them.
2. Don’t be tacky
This is a big one. The last thing you want from your advertisement is for people to get the wrong impression of you. We all know the “cheesy” ads with a bad jingle at the end. While this may have worked on the radio in the 90s, we are a long way away from that now. Sure, comedy could be an element for your ad campaign if it matches your brand, but be very conscious that this is not only very difficult to do (humor is very subjective), it also isn’t for everyone.
Simply put, if you as a brand do not have a comical side, your advertisement shouldn’t either. You should aim to be as authentic as possible. Cheap tricks won’t sell.
3. Diversify
Once you have your concept and your visuals and creatives are made, you need to turn it into a campaign. Just like ads themselves, building a campaign is significantly different from the days of traditional media.
Where it used to be about getting a singular communication out to as many people as possible, it is now much more important to target specific demographics, based on location, age, interests and a number of other factors.
The good news is that you don’t have to focus on a singular group. You can diversify your audiences into different groups and even show them different versions of your ad. Essentially what you create is a group of advertisements within one campaign.
4. Be willing to accept defeat
Don’t expect everything to be a hit. While this might sound counterproductive, it’s not realistic to think that you will get amazing results from every ad for every target audience. Some groups may not react as well as you had hoped. At the same time, other groups may outperform compared to predictions and expectations.
This is the real strength of diversifying your ads within your campaign, by experimenting with different formats, visuals and copy for each group. You need to be willing to accept that some of the groups may not work out and when you recognize this happening, reallocate your advertising budget to the groups that are working out.
5. Listen and learn
Your first ad will never be your best ad. Your next ad should be better. Advertising is difficult, but if you listen to your audience and learn from performances and data from previous campaigns they will constantly become stronger. Be open-minded for your audience’s response and take this with you as you move forward in your advertising adventures.
Luckily at Wirelab, we have a lot of experience with building advertisements and campaigns for a wide range of audiences. Do you need help getting your advertising off the ground, or putting the right ideas together? Get in touch.
