What Every Ad Needs

What’s an advertisement you’ve seen in the last week that you can remember? It may not be as easy as you think to remember a digital or online ad. In fact, many people tune these advertisements out of their mind, even when many appear on the screen in front of their eyes.

How then, do marketers stand out? No, it’s not with a trendy TikTok dance or ALL CAPS FONT. To make your advertisement impactful, there are things you can change today. We’ve put together our list of what makes a great advertisement and how your brand can go from good to better to best.

At the very least, a good advertisement needs to be clear, convincing, and compelling. Gone are the days of trying to cram in three paragraphs of information—now it’s all about being concise and creative. Any successful advertisement most likely has these elements:

Strong hook or introduction
Brief description with a unique selling proposition
Company name or website/landing page that is highly searchable (there is a large percentage of people that will search based on an ad they saw versus clicking it)

Some marketers take it a step further and believe that advertisements need to have these elements as well:

Human element—faces, movement, real life
Captivating element—creative video, with clear imagery (no blurry videos)
Shock element that will stay ingrained in a customer’s mind

Good vs. Improved vs. Ideal

An advertisement should convey a message to an online user in 5 seconds or less. With the right colors, images, fonts, and shapes, you can turn a casual online shopper into a dedicated customer. It doesn’t happen with the first advertisement someone sees—the conversion cycle takes time.

But when an advertisement is appealing and the message is clear, a person will be much more likely to remember it, and in turn they’ll remember your brand. Here are some visual examples of advertisements, ranging from good to improved to ideal.

Good Ad Design

Clean, simple design with easy-to-digest headline, short body copy and call-to-action.

Improved Design

Using a specified headline coupled with a lifestyle photo makes a more memorable connection to the reader. Instead of copy that’s general, having a 30% offer with action words in the call-to-action instill a sense of urgency and increases click rates.

Ideal Design

One of the most important strategies in any advertising is standing out from competitors and making an emotional connection to the reader. Leave the reader with “this company gets me”. Supporting copy should further the reader’s motivation and writing a call-to-action that feels more of the tone of the ad furthers brand development.

Genius Monkey vs. Competitors

We’ve been talking about this for years—in our blog post we published in 2020, we hit on this topic and provided an example of how to elevate your advertising game:

As an example of a need for separate ads, let’s say that you’re targeting both male and female audiences for a particular product. You should consider having one ad for women that is tailored to answer their needs, and a landing page to match. On the other side of the coin, do the same for men, stating how it can help them.

Another example would be a B2B business selling both direct to brands and 3rd parties; you should definitely have two different campaigns catering to each gender.

By varying your ads and avoiding generic messages, you’ll gain more loyal customers who can be led down the path to conversion.

From design and typography to ad placement and targeting, your entire ad strategy can determine whether you’ll have success with your marketing campaign. Take these ad tips to heart and let Genius Monkey help you reach those who seem unreachable.