What Makes a Good Advertisement?

Nowadays, when it comes to grabbing people’s attention and gaining new customers, you have to really stand out to make an impact. With so many different marketing channels and competitors popping up everywhere, it can be hard to make your brand be the one that consumers choose. How can you be sure that your marketing efforts are really paying off and being effective? What makes a good advertisement?

What is an Advertisement?

We know, we know, this may seem like a silly question, but to truly understand what makes a good advertisement, you need to really embrace what advertising is and get back to the basics. With that being said, let’s take a look at some of the ways literary sources define “advertisement”.

  • “A picture, short film, song, etc. that tries to persuade people to buy a product or service, or a piece of text that tells people about a job, etc.” – Cambridge Dictionary
  • “A paid announcement, as of goods for sale, in newspapers or magazines, on radio or television, or on the internet.” – Dictionary.com
  • “A public notice, especially one published in the press or broadcast over the air” – Merriam-Webster

Based on the above definitions, “advertisement” is not as clearly defined as you may have thought, right? Just like defining “marketing” is not simple, neither is defining an advertisement; however, all of the definitions have the same general theme. They all focus on using some type of media to send some sort of message.

As if that clears up the confusion as to what makes a good advertisement! That kind of complicates things more by having you think about all the different places you can send all different types of messaging to advertise to your ideal audience.

What Makes a Good Advertisement?

First of all, we should all be on the same page as to what we consider a “good advertisement”. As marketers and businesses, a “good advertisement” should be one that draws people in and provides ROI and new sales/customers. Each advertising campaign has different goals. As long as your advertisement is succeeding in helping you reach your goals, you can probably consider it “good”.

There are few standards that we have seen time and time again succeed to make advertisements successful and stand out. These include, being persuasive, targeted, original and creative, consistent, personalized to your audience, ethical, upholding your brand standards, and relevant to the time.

Like we have said before, you are advertising, so don’t pretend you are not. When you accept that you are advertising, so will your audience, and you will see it in your conversions. Too many times businesses want to focus on trying to cover up the fact that they are marketing to consumers; however, most consumers, in today’s world, appreciate a direct and to the point approach. They don’t have time to decipher what message you are trying to send and appreciate it when you basically lay it out for them.

A “good advertisement” should always be bold and concise, grab the attention of viewers, encourage them to take action, and provide the benefits of them doing so. Where advertisers often fail in their messaging is not having a clear call to action. If you are trying to get your audience to do something, give them the means to do so. It doesn’t matter if you are advertising on a billboard, television, radio, social media, search engine, or at a sporting event; if you don’t have a clear call to action, your advertisement will most likely fail to produce results.

What makes a good advertisement really depends on your brand and what you are trying to achieve; however, by being creative and attention grabbing, providing a well-defined message, and having a call to action, you will be sure to stand out and see success.

At Water Bear Marketing, we believe that in today’s world, there is no room for guessing with your advertising dollars. We will help you achieve the ROI you are looking for and prove the results. Stop wasting your time on advertisements that aren’t paying off, reach out to us for a free consultation.