Paid Advertising: The Do’s and Don’ts

Often the failure of a company comes not from their products or service they offer, but a lack of understanding in the area of advertising. Understandably, crafting, and executing an effective marketing strategy is no easy task. Therefore, we’ve laid out some of the best do’s and don’ts to keep in mind when dealing with paid advertising.

DO: Use Engaging Language

Part of the goal of an effective advertisement is to have people click on your advertisement. However, in order to accomplish this, you must first demonstrate to your customer base that your company is not another soulless entity. The use of engaging language can really increase your PPC or pay per click ratio. So, what other examples are there of engaging advertisements? One of the best ways to accomplish this is to have the readers be a part of the conversation rather than simply promoting your product. This means providing coupons, questions within the ad, and other types of call to action language in your advertisements.

DON’T: Look Like Clickbait

Advertisements online are already seen as scams by most consumers, dressing up your ligament company as one will do you no favors. Therefore, you should try your best to not come across as clickbait. What does a clickbait advertisement look like? Say you’re promoting a cleaning service. Claiming to clean 100 percent of all germs and dust from a person’s home is unrealistic, and your audience knows it. This will no doubt place you into the clickbait category. Clickbait ads also often include stock photos that clearly do not depict your real business.

DO: Set Up a Place for Reviews

Today’s consumer understands the risk of buying a product or service online. There have been countless horror stories where people pay money to what they think is a legitimate site only to be scammed. Setting up a place for reviews allows your customers to not only share their own experience with you but allow potential clients to read about past jobs. This provides a level of confidence that would otherwise have not been there if not for your list of reviews.

DON’T: Pay People to Leave Reviews

Let’s be real for a second; nobody likes to be criticized in person or online. However, attempting to pay people to leave reviews is one of the worst things you can do for the reputation of your company. Contrary to popular belief, nothing but positive reviews can, in fact, cause people to question your legitimacy. Consumers are not dumb; they understand that every company has one or two bad reviews, but it hardly ever leads to rejection. In addition to seeming fake, there are plenty of more consequences to purchasing reviews. If you buy fake reviews for your business page, your business can end up getting flagged and potentially penalized.

DO: Track the Data

An advertisement is only as good as the audience it is reaching. Crafting an engaging and effective ad can bring you a good amount of people to your site or physical store, but eventually, that audience begins to dwindle. This is because you are simply advertising to the same audience that you already won over. Tracking data provides you with the opportunity to then implement another wave of advertisement towards people with similar interests and purchasing history. Knowing your demographics is important when understanding and deploy your advertisements.

Don’t: Fail to Ask Your Audience to Act

You’ve done everything right: the design, the video production, and the sales pitch. However, one of the most common things business owners leave out of their paid advertisement is probably the most important thing, a call to action. A call to action can literally make or break your ad. This is because it’s hard enough to have people click on your link, let alone make them want to do it on their own. You may think this is a pushy sales tactics, but the fact is that most people need to be asked to act. Even if it’s not a call to purchase, other CTA options can still be effective. Some good examples of other CTA options include a call to receive more information and a call to visit the store during the current month.

DO: Have a Consistent Voice

Having a consistent voice doesn’t mean being boring. While it’s great to be unpredictable and outlandish within your advertisements, it is also important to be consistent with your message. Customers want to know what they are getting, but when your voice and message keep changing you shouldn’t be surprised when they begin to leave your website. This can be best accomplished through the minimizing of your advertisement department. Too many people can lead to too many types of voices across your platforms.

Don’t: Talk Too Much

Going into a loop in your advertisement can often cause people to become frustrated and go about their business. Don’t talk too much within your ad copy. Providing information is important, but it needs to be short and sweet. A good example of a short and sweet message is one that introduces the product/service, lays out clear benefits, and promotes a call to action.

Creating and executing an effective paid advertisement can really increase a company’s profit and exposure. It will not happen overnight but through the proper implementation of the topics listed above, anyone can learn how to use paid advertising to increase sales.