How to be good at advertising. (Successful ad tips and skills!)

Are you wondering how to be good at advertising so you can finally make money?

To be successful at advertising, you need to understand your customer. Present your customer with a product or offer that showcases great value. Your ad should evoke an emotion or solve a problem for your customer. Understanding your target audience is the key to being good at advertising.

Imagine, making good money through your own advertising service. Creating ads has the potential to make you enough money to quit your job and work from home.

Luckily for you, I’m going to show you how to be a successful advertiser. With enough consistency, you can turn your passion for ads into a passive income stream.

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How can I be successful in advertising?

As mentioned, understanding your customer is something you need to nail down to be successful. Marketing a product is much easier when you know who’s actually looking for it.

Search engines are a perfect example of understanding user intent. A search engine has one job, provide the most relevant result to the searcher.

What happens when I Google, “How to build a dog house?”

As you can see, the primary results are instructions on building a dog house. Google knows that I want instructions. I’m not really looking to buy a dog house, which means fewer people will actually purchase a dog house.

A higher converting search result might be, “Best dog houses under $100” or “Best dog houses for winter.”

In this case, the customer has started the research phase. The customer is no longer looking to build a dog houses, but is now researching what dog house is best for their needs.

You can see the top results are shopping results. Why? Because the searcher is looking to make a decision, followed by a purchase.

Often, writing review articles convert really well. You take the time to compare and contrast different dog houses. Ultimately, you are leading your customer to come to a purchasing decision. When you can understand user intent, it’s easy to start making money with advertising.

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Understanding sales funnels

A sales funnel is the natural progression of a person as they transition from visitor to customer. A person is less likely to purchase a product at the top of the funnel. Therefore, you want to get leads towards the bottom of the funnel to start making sales.

If you’re an online marketer, then you’ve probably heard of using sales funnels. A blog owner might create content which attracts website visitors. Popular pages should point a user towards a sales page, an offer, or an email list to further nurture a relationship.

So if you’re a content creator, then create content at the both the discovery and research phases. Ultimately, your content should lead to a sale.

Maybe you’re a shopify store owner. You don’t create content, but how can you funnel interested buyers to your website?

What if you don’t have a product to sell? No worries, check out the best companies that will pay you to advertise. You can always find someone else’s product to promote.

What are the qualities of a good advertisement?

Most importantly, a good advertisement has great visuals that evokes an emotion or solves someone’s problems. People are more likely to make a purchase with strong emotions or when it solves a pain point.

The principals are the same, regardless of creating a display ad or blog article. If you want to make money advertising online, show the value of the product and sales will follow.

So what are the characteristics of a good advertisement?

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1. Evoke emotion

Emotional advertising allows you to deeply connect with your target audience. A perfect example is Google’s Super Bowl commercial about an old man remembering his wife.

Even if you’re dead on the inside, that commercial brings up powerful feelings of emotion.

What is your product and how can you relate it to your emotionally to your audience? There are several examples of evoking emotion, but consider:

• A product about quitting your 9-5 job. Show the struggle of waking up, missing your family, and wasting your life behind a desk.
• Taking a stance on Black Lives Matter (e.g. Nike and Colin Kaepernick). At the root of controversy, you become one of the most talked about companies. More talk, good or bad, generally results in more sales.

There are so many ways to relate with emotion. You can even use a headline analyzer to evaluate article titles for emotion.

With a headline analyzer, you can test different headlines or snippets of text. Try to increase the emotional appeal of your ad text.

2. Highlight the benefits

Showing the benefit of your product or service is what’s going to convince someone to buy. Your goal as a marketer is to walk someone through their decision making. Obviously, you want them to be in favor of purchasing!

Make a list of benefits that someone would receive for buying.

• Does your product help someone lose weight?
• Does your product help someone make more money?
• How much effort will someone have to put into this product?
• Will your customer have a faster result if they use your product?
• Is your product affordable?
• What will your customer gain from purchasing?

A good advertisement speaks to the desires of the customer. Focus your ad on what your customer is getting.

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3. Remove hesitation

Logically, your customer will wonder if your product is too good to be true. Customers will start to poke holes in your advertisement. An effective advertisement will counter a customers reasons for not buying.

Sit down and think why someone would hesitate to buy your product. Even better, have a third party evaluate your product and mention their hesitations.

Common hesitations you might encounter include:

• This product is too expensive! Your product provides great value, is full of content, and has a monthly payment plan.
• Will this product work for me? Include testimonials from every day people. Show their results
• It will take too much time and effort to see results. Be direct with the timeline and effort people see results in. Give examples of when someone could fit this product into their busy schedule.

Remove hesitation from the minds of the consumer. Doing so is the difference between an effective and ineffective ad.

4. Use good visuals

People absolutely judge a book by it’s cover. Right, wrong, or indifferent, it happens.

Do what it takes to make sure all media is the highest quality. Invest in the proper equipment if you create video or pictures yourself. Otherwise, consider paying for high quality images as part of your advertising budget.

Do you think Olive Garden wants people to think their pasta looks like cold leftovers? No, they take time and attention to make sure their advertisements are bright and full of color.

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5. Sense of urgency

Instilling a sense of urgency inspires people to take action. People fear missing out, so find a way to make your offer urgent.

So how can you include a sense of urgency in your offer?

• Make a limited time offer. Your product will only be available for the next 24 hours. A discount will be available for the first 100 customers.
• Use a countdown timer. The visual of having a countdown timer instills a sense of urgency because people are seeing the time tick away.
• Limit the number of seats. There is only 50 copies available, so get yours before they’re all gone!
• Consequences of not acting. Highlight what happens if someone doesn’t take action. They’ll have to wait a year before they can buy it again. You’ll lose out on so much money.

Urgency works because most people are impulse shoppers. The longer someone can sit and think about a purchase, the more time they can talk themselves out of buying. A limited time offer doesn’t give someone time to think, but lead with their impulse.

6. Have a call to action

A call to action leads a customer into doing what you want them to be doing. For example, on YouTube, you might say “subscribe to my channel for more awesome content.” You are telling the customer what you want them to do.

Why are call to actions important? A call to action gives the customer a nudge to perform an action. Telling someone to subscribe means you’ll be able to further nurture a relationship. Otherwise, they would have just closed your video and moved on.

Call to action examples include:

• Learn More. You’re telling someone to click this link to learn more about your product.
• Subscribe. You’re telling someone let’s be friends, see more of my content.
• Buy now to receive 60% off your next order. You’re converting someone into a customer with an irresistible offer. Buying once greatly increases the chance they’ll become long term customers.

Figure out what your call to action will be and include it into your creative. Increase your click through rate (CTR) by including a lead magnet. A lead magnet gives something away for free for signing up for an email list.

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7. Money back guarantee

Nothing resolves a customers fear of buying like a money back guarantee. People find comfort in knowing they can get their money back if they are not satisfied. Depending on your product, a money back guarantee might be right for you.

Understand that an online clothing businesses may have a higher return rate. Consumers can’t try clothes on until they’ve purchased the product. Information products can’t be returned if a consumer has consumed the information.

Therefore, you should figure out a money back guarantee that works for your business. Will you offer a partial refund or include a restocking fee? How about the customer pay for return shipping?

8. Testimonials

Testimonials are one of the strongest aspects of a good advertisement. A testimonial shows that every day people can use the product with success.

Create and Go uses testimonials for their online courses very effectively. Owners, Alex and Lauren, interview people who have used their product and found success. Interviews are great because you can talk about real peoples struggles and how your product.

A good testimonial gets directly to the point and is authentic.

It can be simple as a snippet from a tweet, “I lost so much weight using your product! Thank you!” Your testimonial could be a before and after image of a customer who lost 50 pounds.

It shows the results in a simple manner. If your customers can’t see the benefit in one second or less then it’s a bad testimonial.

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9. Show a discount

People are deal hunters. Showing a discount tells someone they are getting a great deal.

So what are the types of discounts?

• Mark the price down. Start with an already inflated price and then slash prices by 30 percent. You can instill urgency by saying prices won’t stay this low forever. Alternatively, you can use dollar amounts, say $20 off.
• Buy one get one. Also known as BOGO. You can offer a buy one get one free or half priced. People love getting more for less money.
• Rebates. Send in proof of purchase and we will send you a check in the mail.
• Free shipping. Offer free shipping on orders over $50.

Simply showing a discount can increase conversions and sales.

10. Include something for free

The power of free is amazing. People will stand in line for hours for a free cheeseburger, only to spend $15 for extra items. What can you offer for free in your advertisement?

A free item doesn’t have to be much. It can be as simple as a single page pdf that helps someone solve a problem. The goal is to give something a way for to encourage a call to action.

How can you use a free item as part of your marketing strategy?

• Lead magnets. Sign up for our email newsletter and get our 11 best tips for quick weight loss.
• Bonus product. When you purchase our weight loss program, you’ll receive a free meal plan and bonus workout DVD.

It doesn’t matter that the customer is still paying for the item. The product is advertised as free, so they have to have it.

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What skills are needed for advertising?

Most importantly, an advertiser needs to be creative and can communicate effectively. An advertiser needs to perceive customer needs and be able to help customers. To be good at advertising, you need to match your product with consumer needs.

So, what skills are needed for advertising?

• Communication. You won’t sell anything if you can’t communicate how awesome your product is in a few short sentences. Advertising is all about communicating a products benefits in the split second you have the consumers attention.
• Creativity. Super Bowl commercials are unique and grab attention. The more creative your advertisement, the higher chance you’ll grab attention.
• Problem Solving. Ultimately, you are trying to solve a problem for your customer. Often, this requires you to be perceptive of consumer needs. What does your product solve and who needs the product the most?
• Media Skills. Do you know the basics of shooting a commercial or creating a display ad? Can you create a captive ad? Or will you need to outsource your media content?

Ultimately, you won’t have a problem advertising if you can show an ad that legitimately solves someone’s problem. However, a good advertiser knows the consumer and their struggles.

What should you not do in advertising?

Advertising is all about trust. You should never do anything to destroy the trust between you and the consumer. Always approach advertising as helping the consumer solve a problem. Never attempt to deceive a customer for the sake of making a sale.

Many people starting out in advertising make the mistake of trying to make a quick buck. Therefore, they don’t believe in the products they’re selling. Often, new marketers push a sub-par product that doesn’t help anyone and only frustrates the customer.

Instead, try to solve a problem for a person. Give good advice and offer your amazing product as part of the solution.

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Summary: How to be good at advertising.

As you can see, there is a lot you need to know to be good at advertising. When done right, you can make good money with advertising.

In order to be successful in advertising, you need to understand your customer. What is it that your customer is looking for exactly. In online marketing, we often look to search engines to understand user intent.

Someone who searches, “how to build a dog house” is looking for instructions. Someone wanting to make a purchase, might search for “best dog houses during winter.”

Therefore, you need to understand where people are at in their purchasing decisions. Someone who’s looking for dog house instructions will need more convincing to buy a dog house. It’s much easier to sell a dog house to someone already in the market for one.

There are 10 qualities of an effective advertisement. Make sure your advertisement has most, if not all, of these qualities.

1. Evokes emotion.
2. Highlights the benefits.
3. Removes hesitation.
4. Uses good visuals.
5. Instills a sense of urgency.
6. Includes a call to action.
7. Has a money back guarantee.
8. Includes testimonials.
9. Has a discount.
10. Includes something for free.

Doing so will help you make more money when posting ads.

A good marketer can communicate why the consumer needs a product. Usually this is done in a creative and visually appealing manner. In addition, a good marketer never tries to deceive a customer.

What’s next? You need to know which companies need help advertising.