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Designing Ads that Make You Money

Jo Mark

October 26, 2007

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One of the most effective methods of generating traffic and ultimately sales, is through the use of advertising. However, how do you design ads that that make you money and entice viewers to click on your links?

First and foremost, develop a compelling headline. In only 50 characters, you must describe your product or service in a way that draws in your readers. If they lose interest here, you’ve wasted your money and lost that prospect forever.  Include descriptive targeted keywords and terms that your customers might be searching for. Avoid abbreviations, not every who sees your ad is familiar with your industry jargon.

Write a good description in the body of your ad. You have a limited amount of space, just three to five lines containing 60 characters each. Sell your business. Include only the most compelling points; don’t try to cover every detail. Describe what makes your company, product, or service special. If your product is better, mention it. If your prices are the lowest in the industry, highlight it. If your great-grandfather started the business, forget about it. Again, only include details that would entice your customer to act on your ad.  Do not repeat the headline in the ad description. Avoid using industry buzzwords; keep it simple enough so that everyone can understand it.

Keep your text professional. This is your first contact with these prospects and you want to make a good impression. Don’t try to be funny or clever in your ad, some people won’t get it. Include only the information that you know customers are searching for, anything else is a waste of your advertising dollars.

Make sure your ad content is relevant. If you are offering a free promotional item, make sure it is easily accessible when people visit your site. Nothing is more frustrating than to go to a site for a free item and not being able to find it. This is a sure way to turn prospects away.

Make sure you do a spelling and grammar check on your work before submitting it. Misspellings and grammatical errors are the kiss of death. In addition, do a very slow and careful proofreading. Your spelling checker will tell you that the word “kite” is spelled correctly, even though you intended to write the word “kit”. 

Track and test your results. Recording the performance of each ad can greatly enhance the return on your advertising dollars. It can tell you which websites (or publications) are working best for you. This is extremely important and enables you to stop wasting advertising money on sites that are not generating prospects. It can also alert you to problems in the wording of your ads.

Using a well-designed ad can provide you with great results. But a poorly designed one can cost you customers, money, and possibly your business. May all your ads be great ones.

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