Mastering the Art of Ad Copy, Creative, and Conversion

Communicating the Value of Your Offer Through Copywriting

The first line you come up with is: "Learn more about our best-selling mattresses."

This leads to a revised line of copy: “Get the great sleep you deserve. Discover a mattress that meet your needs.”

Ad Copy

The text that makes up an advertising message aimed at catching and holding the interest of the prospective buyer.

Copywriting

The activity or occupation of writing the text of advertisements or publicity material.

• Focus on value.

• Use easy-to-understand language.

• Include conversational calls-to-action (CTAs).

Copywriting Best Practices

In this example from Moosejaw, an outdoor recreation retailer, the copy relates to the audience by offering a solution to a problem that hikers have likely experienced before.

Copywriting Can Be Fun

1. How does this ad align with my customer's values?

2. What are the principles of my business?

3. What makes my offer unique?

4. How does this ad help my audience?

Questions to Ask Yourself

Complex Ideas Can Be Said Simply

This example from Purple, a mattress company, takes complicated scientific ideas and puts them simply to make the ad relatable to a wide audience.

• Avoid jargon and acronyms

• Reduce verb phrases

• Reduce wordy phrases to single words

• Avoid vague nouns

Best Practices for Simplifying Language

Ad Copy Example

The CTAs throughout this ad from G2 Crowd, a software review website, are direct, simple, and descriptive.

Designing Your Ad Creative

Ad Creative

The visual attributes of the creative object that is your digital ad.

• Concept ads drive general brand awareness

• Content ads drive engagement and lead generation

• Commerce ads drive sales

3 Primary Ad Purposes

HubSpot's "This Is Your Customer" campaign is a moving story about the wide range of people who make up your customers.

BookBub, a book discovery service, uses a Facebook ad to promote their quiz which helps their audience discover new titles and authors.

Content Ads

Open Nature, an organic grocery brand, placed a native ad on BuzzFeed to introduce their Open Nature Challenge and educate readers on their products.

Some Designs Don’t Include CTAs

In this Instagram ad from Storied Hats, a clothing brand, the advertiser chose to create minimalist imagery and relied solely on the single ”Shop Now" CTA that is part of the Instagram platform.

• Use contrast to make your design stand out.

• Follow the rule of thirds.

• Use seasonality to theme your designs.

Ad Creative Best Practices

The Color Wheel

In color theory, contrasting colors, also known as complementary colors, are colors from opposing segments of the color wheel.

Contrasting Colors Bring Balance and Emphasis

In this ad from the Los Angeles Times, a news publication, complementary colors are used to make the text and graphics stand out from the yellow background.

The Rule of Thirds

The process of dividing an image into thirds, using two horizontal and two vertical lines, and positioning the most important elements at the intersection of these lines.

In this LinkedIn ad from Alight Solutions, a business process solutions company, the two most important elements of this ad — the person and the copy — are placed at the

intersections of the grid.

Place the focal points of your creative, like your primary message and imagery, at the highlighted intersections.

Example Ad Inspired by Seasonality

This Instagram ad from CVS, a retail store, uses a seasonal color palette including reds and oranges to represent autumn.

Optimizing Your Conversion Path

Conversion Path

The process by which an anonymous website visitor becomes a known lead.

1. Content offer

2. Call-to-action

3. Landing page

4. Thank you page

The Four Elements of a Conversion Path

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

The process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, like filling out a form or making a purchase.

Cost-Per-Lead (CPL)

How many advertising dollars you spend to acquire one new lead.

Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA)

How many advertising dollars you spend to acquire one new customer.

• Align your ad creative and copy to your landing page.

• Remove navigation and other distractions from your landing page.

• Add your CTA or form above the fold.

• Only include the necessary fields in your form or checkout process.

How to Optimize a Conversion Path

Pro Tip:

Create a unique landing page custom to the offer displayed in the advertisement.

Let’s Think Through CRO Together

This LinkedIn ad is from New Relic, an engineering analytics company. When it comes to conversion rate optimization, they do a lot of things right, and have a few areas for improvement.

This landing page immediately looks and feels like it belongs with the LinkedIn ad. It shares similar design characteristics, language and tone, and has a short, two-field form

above the fold. To potentially improve the conversion rate on this landing page, New Relic could remove the header navigation.