Many people feel that the design of an advert; the effort and skill that goes into producing it as well as the aesthetics of it, is the most important factor when it comes to marketing products online.

While design is undoubtedly a vital part of online advertising, the substance behind it, (the content) is equally, if not more important. The design of your ad will grab your audience’s attention but it is your content that will pull them in.

Ad copy is, of course, completely subjective and although there are no strict rules as to how you should write your content, there are a basic number of questions you can ask yourself in order to get off to a confident start. (For the purpose of this guide, when I mention ‘ad copy’ I am referring to content in ads like Banners, PPC, text ads (Google AdWords) etc. not in depth copy such as product descriptions etc.)

What is your promotion/purpose?

It may go without saying but always have a purpose to your ads. Sit down and think of this before you even attempt to write your content.

You’ll be amazed at how hard it can be to write ad copy when you’re not entirely sure what you want the outcome to be. If you’re advertising through an outlet like Google AdWords or Microsoft’s adCenter it also makes it harder to choose keywords if you’re not sure who you want your audience to be.

If you have a particular promotion in mind you’ll know exactly which features to mention in your ad copy. Even if the purpose of your ad is to simply promote your entire website, it helps to firmly establish this and again it will help you with keyword targeting and content writing in general.

Who is your audience?

Following on from your promotion, the second factor that will help you when it comes to writing compelling ad copy is to have a firm idea of who your audience is.

Obviously, most businesses will know their general audience well and will have some insight into variables like buying habits, demographics, geography etc. However, your audience is something that needs to be considered with each advertising push as its very likely to change.

No matter how insubstantially, each promotion you run will lean towards a slightly different audience so just sitting down and having a quick think over that will help you determine what kind of language would be appropriate for your ads, as well as the kind of tone your writing needs to be.

What can you offer?

As I mentioned above, when I mention ad copy in this guide I’m referring to smaller, text based ads and the great thing about those is that they’re short. Short ad copy, although it may not seem it, can be extremely beneficial in that it forces you to become customer orientated.

As much as it can be helpful to send your customers to a ‘What we Do’ page full of self indulgent text about how amazing your company is, you simply don’t have the space for that with banners/text ads etc.

With ads like these ‘compelling ad copy’ is something that appeals to your audience, not something that entertains your marketing team’s journalistic side. Answer these questions; What can you offer THEM? How will THEY benefit from your product/service?

What is your Call to Action?

You’ll be hard done by to find a successful ad that doesn’t include a call to action. A quick Google of the word ‘advertising’ and I can already see ‘Get Started Today’, ‘Get Your Business Noticed’ ‘Start Earning the Revenue You Deserve’.

You’ll notice they’re not direct call to actions in the ‘Do It Now!’ sense; however it’s that persuasive language that needs to come into play with this element of your ad.

The trick to a persuasive call to action is to write something that each member of your audience can read and say “yeah! That applies to me.” I look at a call to action as a phrase/sentence that should get your audience excited.

I particularly like ‘Start Earning the Revenue You Deserve’ example mentioned above. I think it has the potential to instil a sense of motivation in an audience that not only pulls at their financial heart strings (“Start Earning the Revenue”) but also has a somewhat psychological impact as they’re convinced they “Deserve” the revenue.

Structure your Ad Copy

With text and banner ads you’re only likely to have 3 sentences, including your headline (4 at a push) so once you’ve asked yourself (and answered) all of the above questions you need to structure your ad.

Think about in which order you want to present certain information, which point do you want your audience to give most attention to? (this will likely be your headline). Do you need/want to include contact information? Which page do you want to send clicks to? (this is important for conversions). After your headline which is the most important bit of information?

Once you’ve given your ad a structure you can start testing your ad. Remember you can (usually) change the structure and content of your ad copy at any time during a campaign so if you decide certain text isn’t working for you then you can always switch it up.

Note: Read Other Ads

I’ve included this at the bottom because this point can really be slot in anywhere between the above questions if you get stuck. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a look at other ads to shine a different light on the copywriting process. It goes without saying that I’m not encouraging you to steal their content but it can be helpful to look at the wording, the order in which the message is displayed, the length of the title etc.

The main reason that you definitely should not copy anyone else’s ad copy, irrelevant of that fact it’s near enough plagiarism, is that you don’t know if it works! The whole trick with writing ad copy is to find the combination of words, sentences, and headlines that work for you.

When it comes to online advertising you’re spoilt for choice with the variety of positions and types of ads available, the only hard part is picking one. Firstly, you need to be aware of which types of on-site ads are out there, then you’ll be able to weigh up which ones can help you with a successful advertising campaign.

Note: This guide focuses on more ‘traditional’ on-site SEM, such as banners and text ads, rather than more contemporary advertising that integrates the use of social media, blogs etc.

Text Ads/PPC:

Text ads are the oldest and most basic form of online advertising as they’re literally just text hyperlinks. Text ads can be placed anywhere on sites and are usually only a couple of sentences long, though the maximum limit is around 4 sentences.

Text ads rely on their wording to attract clicks and still have a respectable click through rate (CTR) when compared to banner ads or skyscrapers. They’ll usually be sold on a PPC (pay per click) basis, meaning advertisers are charged an agreed rate every time the link is clicked.

Cost: Low
Visibility: Usually Low
Business Size: All, however smaller businesses benefit from the low cost

Banner Ads:

Banner ads are probably the most popular online advertising option as the majority of sites will have banner advertising of some sort due to their size. Many sites are now opted into Google’s Display Network in which Google will place banners and other rich media ads onto participating sites.

Banners are typically 468×60 pixels so they nicely fit into most horizontal gaps and are often placed at the top of pages for maximum exposure. They can be static or an animated (dynamic) image and they’ll click through to the site of the company advertising. Banners are sold in pretty much every way going, including CPM (cost per 1,000 views), PPC (pay per click) or weekly/monthly/yearly charges.

Cost: Medium
Visibility: Medium/High depending on banner size
Business Size: All

Pop-Up/Pop-Under Ads:

Undoubtedly the most annoying type of online advertising is the pop-up ad. Pop-up’s happen when you open a certain web pages and your browser automatically opens up another page with the ad on.

They’re not always full pages though they always fill up a larger chunk of your screen with an ad that is more often than not, completely unrelated to your interests or the website you’re on. Pop-up’s are mainly just seen as spam now and are avoided by most marketers and advertising specialists.

Equally annoying are pop-under ads, which act in the same way as pop-ups except they remain behind the browser as opposed to appearing in front of the screen you’re currently working on. As they’re less imposing pop-under’s are seen as an acceptable replacement to the pop-up, but still vastly avoided by marketers.

Cost: Low/Medium
Visibility: High
Business Size: All

Unicast Ads:

Unicast ads are pop-ups that run TV commercials with full audio and video content. Generally, they’re regarded higher than other pop ads as videos, particularly commercials, can often be entertaining or humorous. They have a much higher CTR than generic pop-ups as they require a click through to access the actual website.

Cost: Medium/High (due to video production)
Visibility: High
Business Size: Medium/High

Skyscraper/Sidebar Ads:

Skyscraper ads, also called sidebar ads, are the vertical images or creatives that are usually found running vertically along the right hand side of a web page.  They work in the same way banner ads do, except they’re often visible for longer period of time as the length of them means you can’t scroll past them as easily. They tend to have a higher CTR, usually 2 or 3 times higher than banners.

As their visibility is high, skyscrapers are often used as a method of brand awareness and not necessarily just to attract potential sales/customers. Because of this, they don’t necessarily show a high ROI even though clicks may be high. Success with this type of advertising can only be measured on what the intended outcome is.

Cost: High
Visibility: High
Business Size: Medium/High

Floating Ads:

Floating ads speak for themselves. Floating ads hover, usually in the middle of your screen, when you access certain web pages. They can last anything up to 30 seconds and are often big enough so that you can’t see much else unless you click off or it times out. They’re usually quite targeted and have a good CTR although they’re often banded in the same class as pop-ups for being an unwelcome annoyance.

Cost: Medium/High
Visibility: High
Business Size: All

Peel Back Ads:

Peel back ads will usually appear in the top right hand corner of a webpage and will look like the corner of a page being peeled down (funnily enough). Once you click on it, it will completely peel back to reveal a full ad, obscuring a significant chunk of the page. Most of the time they’ll only feature on homepages, though they can be found throughout sites.

Cost: Medium
Visibility: Medium (depend on being clicked)
Business Size: All

Expanding Ads:

Expanding ads are similar to peel back ads and are often designed as banner ads that sit the top of a webpage. Once you roll over the ad with your curser (you don’t need to click) it will then expand to a larger ad or sometimes a video, again, obscuring a lot of the page and drawing your attention to it.

They’re always on homepages and are seen as a type of homepage sponsorship as the initial banner is usually larger than a typical 468×60 horizontal banner.

Cost: High
Visibility: High
Business Size: Large

Interstitial Ads:

Interstitial ads are full pages that can be inserted in between the current page you’re on, and the destination page you’ve just clicked through too. They’ll nearly always be relevant to the pages you’re on and can either be on a timer, giving the audience enough time to read them, or you’ll find a ‘Skip this ad’ button somewhere on the page (or often both).

They can contain static images but are often videos given the fact that they have a guaranteed and mostly targeted audience.

Cost: High
Visibility: High
Business Size: Large