7 Ways to Improve Your Online Advertising Creative

Online advertising has proven to be useful for reaching specific audiences, but in order to be successful, the creative must be appealing to the target audience. Here are some ways to improve your online advertising creative:

1. Define your personas
Describe the personality of your ideal customer and speak directly to him or her. Make sure both your visual graphics and tone appeal to your target. If you have multiple personas then you should have multiple versions of your ad creative.

2. The destination is just as important as the ad
Your ad is just a part of your message. Where are you sending your potential customer? Will they end up where they expected to? Make sure there is a visual connection between your ad creative and your landing page creative. And make sure it’s extremely easy for the user to take action once they’ve arrived.

3. Design your ad like you would design an outdoor billboard
An online ad should have only as much information as is necessary to gain a quality click-through. An online ad is very much like an outdoor billboard in that you only get about 2 seconds to capture your customer. Limit any readable elements to only seven items. This includes logos, words, graphics and buttons.

4. Optimize your load time
There are all kinds of interactive rich media elements you can use to make your ad more engaging, but make sure you do not bog down load time of your ad because your potential customers are at risk of never seeing your ad. Consider only very simple GIF animations Ð if any Ð to ensure a faster load time.

5. Consider the buying stages of your customer
One creative rarely meets all needs. You need to consider whether the person seeing your ad knows who you are or is already considering a purchase.

6. Use a professional
A professional designer or agency will know how to clearly communicate your message through a better use of space, fonts and color. A poor design can limit your effectiveness, waste money and worst of all negatively impact your reputation.

7. Your work is never done
Take advantage of the flexibility and measurability that digital advertising allows. If you are not seeing results with your current advertising creative, change it!

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