How To Write Ads That Make People Buy

Our marketing agency, K&J Growth, took on a new client a few weeks back.

Our client Rea provides 7.5 months of training and a guaranteed job in tech, and their students love it.

Their problem was they just couldn’t get people to click on their ads and get more customers.

Here is their previously best-performing ad.

It had a click-through rate of just 0.61% (CTR is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times it is shown: clicks ÷ impressions = CTR).

Now compare that to the ad we made for them, which has a click-through rate of 2.29% (a 377% increase).

What changed? We switched the headline to show people the benefit that Rea is offering its customers.

We then changed the video to an image to clearly show Rea's value proposition - a full scholarship for Māori and Pasifika and an entry pathway to a career in tech.

Rea’s ads were clever and fun but not effective.

These ads generally don’t work because they don’t convey their value proposition.

We see, on average, 4,000 ads per day. Given we’re awake for 16 hours, that means we see an ad every 14 seconds.

That means your ads aren’t just competing for attention with other education providers (in Rea’s case) they are competing against everyone.

And ads that take work to understand get ignored because another one is just around the corner.

Notes:

The father of advertising David Ogilvy has said “Some manufacturers illustrate their advertisements with abstract paintings. I would only do this if I wished to conceal from the reader what I was advertising.”

Following Ogilvy’s quip, remember your ad is your sales pitch. Examine each element and ask:

If I met my customer in person, would what I’m sharing in my ads help me sell my product?

If not, remove it.

You'll learn that fancy words and random images of people shaking hands don't get you far.

Billion Dollar Companies Born In Recessions

We’re all facing tough times but do yourself a favour and run down this list of companies started in depressions or economic crises.

• General Electric - 1892 (Panic of 1983)

• IBM - 1911 (Middle of 1911 recession)

• Disney - 1929 (4-year Great Depression)

• Revlon - 1923 (4-year Great Depression)

• FedEx - 1971 (1969 Recession)

• Microsoft - 1975 (1973 Oil Crisis)

The thing is, this isn’t an exhaustive list, only a sample.

Most of these businesses had little awareness that they were in some historic depression because they were too busy doing.

The founders of these companies had mastered the ability to alter their perceptions. While everyone else saw disaster, they saw an opportunity.

This trait was best embodied by Steve Jobs, famous for what observers called his “reality distortion field”.

Having learned early in life that reality was falsely hemmed in by rules and perceptions we had been taught as children, Jobs had his own yardstick for what was or wasn’t possible.

When designing a new mouse for Apple, Jobs had high expectations. He wanted it to move fluidly in any direction.

One of his designers charged with the task said this wasn’t commercially possible. The next day the designer found himself jobless, and the first words of the replacement were, “I can build the mouse.”

Our perceptions determine, to a substantial degree, what we are and are not capable of.

If we believe this recession will get the best of us, it will.

If we believe this recession is an opportunity to get the best out of ourselves, it will be that too.

Perception precedes action.

Remember that next time, when you think now isn’t a good time to act.