So, you’re wondering what makes effective advertisements. Before we discuss what makes an ad effective, let’s start by defining advertising. Advertising is the activity or profession of producing advertisements for commercial products or services.
Every business will advertise at some point. Effective marketing strategies will help people to gain awareness of your business and let them know what you have to offer. Advertising is essential for any business, as it will help you compete with similar companies, raise brand awareness, and increase sales. Without advertising, you risk not being as recognizable as your competitors, and in turn, having less success.
That said, effective advertising is going to be advertising that you do for your business or company that leads to a positive turnover. After an ad campaign ends, you want to have earned more than you spent on the campaign. This is how you know the advertisement was successful. If your ad campaign ends and your company lost money over that time, that means the campaign was unsuccessful, and you should re-evaluate how you advertise in the future. How effective is advertising? Results vary widely depending on the campaign.
Why Is Advertising So Important?
Advertising is crucial to the success of any business. Without it, you rely simply on your location and word of mouth to spread awareness. While both are valid, you miss a larger audience without effective advertising.Â
Advertising is vital to any business, brand, company, school, or other organization. You don’t have to be selling a product to benefit from advertising. Advertisements are also used to announce events or things like movies and TV shows. The goal of effective advertisements is to gain attention.
Now more than ever, it’s easier to advertise to a wide group of people. Before, advertisements were mainly limited to TV, radio, billboards, magazines/newspapers, etc. While those are all still valid forms of advertising, there are even more choices out there, thanks to the digital age. It’s becoming easier to launch effective advertising campaigns through platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, podcasts, social media, and more.Â
While there are more and more ways to advertise your business, company, or store, that also means there is more and more competition out there. This should encourage you to advertise even more than you already are. The more platforms you advertise on, the higher chance you have of gaining new traction to your store or website. Remember, it doesn’t always have to be about selling a product—it can also be about raising awareness.
When it comes to effective advertising for your business, you can choose to hire an ad agency, or you can do the advertisement yourself. If your business has a dedicated marketing team, they should be able to come up with fun, creative, and effective advertisements that will help bring in new customers.Â
Promotion of Products and Services
A big reason companies choose to advertise is to promote a product or sale that they’re offering. If your business has a new item, a special sale, clearing inventory, a new location, etc., you should run an ad campaign to help drive awareness. How are potential customers going to know you have a new sale if you don’t showcase it anywhere except inside your store?Â
An easy way to spread a message is by using social media for effective advertising. Most companies these days have some form of social media presence, whether that’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. Whatever social media platform your business uses, you should always keep it up to date with any new products or sales.
Of course, you don’t want to spam your account and followers with constant ads. Social media can be a place to connect with customers as well, so while you should advertise on your social media platform, keep in mind the more sales-y your account is, the less likely people will be to follow. That said, you can also use social media to promote effective advertising campaigns. You can pay the platforms to push specific posts or create ad-specific posts that won’t be on your feed but will show up on other peoples’ feeds, giving you more exposure.
If you’re using effective advertisements, you should see a turnaround in the product you’re advertising for. If you sell a service, you should see more inquiries about your services and a positive turnover, although it may not be as immediate.Â
A good way to measure the success of an ad is by monitoring the increase in sales, foot traffic, and website hits. This will help you see patterns and determine whether or not you’re doing effective advertising. How effective is advertising? Use concrete data to evaluate your campaigns.
You don’t only have to advertise a product or service, though. You can also sponsor events, such as sporting events, festivals, carnivals, and more. This is referred to as indirect advertising and is popular with bigger companies such as Nike. Think about red carpet events, stadiums, festivals, etc., that have step and repeat banners or flags showing the logo of the sponsors. This is a great way to have your business be seen by a variety of new (and maybe old) customers who may not have been aware of your business beforehand!
Increasing Brand Awareness
Another big reason to utilize effective advertising is to increase brand awareness. Brand awareness refers to people’s abilities to recall or recognize your business. Effective advertisements make your business memorable.
Getting your brand showcased in different areas, even if it’s not advertising a specific product, can still bring in new customers for you. Because we are now in the digital age, it’s easy for people to see a logo or company name and do a Google search on your business. The point of having brand awareness is to keep yourself at the forefront of your customer’s minds, even if they don’t need your product or service right now. Effective advertising makes your business the go-to in your industry.
The more people you have looking for you online, even if they don’t immediately buy or stop in, the more likely you are to show up in other Google searches. This is especially important if your business does not have an immediate product to purchase, such as an auto shop.Â
If your business is more about selling a service, brand awareness is very important, as you want people to keep you in mind. While a potential customer may not need an oil change right now, the next time they do need one, you want them to think of your shop first. Effective advertising puts you first on their list. By having your brand out in digital and print advertisements, you keep your name fresh in their mind and increase your chances of them coming to your shop the next time they need service done to their car. This long-term strategy is a big part of what makes an ad effective.
An easy way to raise brand awareness with effective advertisements is to have outdoor signage and social media ads that circulate. By having signage close to your location, they will be more likely to look in your direction and note what you have to offer whenever someone walks or drives by. With social media or other digital forms of effective advertising, you can keep your brand appearing online as well, gaining even more attention.
Affordable Types of Advertising
There are a multitude of ways you can advertise your business without breaking the bank. The top 10 most common forms of advertising are display ads, social media ads, newspapers/magazines, outdoor advertising, radio and podcasts, direct mail and personal sales, video ads, product placement, event marketing, and email marketing.
While all of the above are examples of advertising, not all of them will work for your business. Some forms of advertising are more expensive than others. It’s important to do your research and see what kind of ad would work best for you and your business.Â
Social media ads and outdoor signage are two of the easiest, most cost-efficient, and effective advertising you can do.Â
Social media advertising is easy and a great way to advertise your services online. With social media ads, you get to create the image and write a caption that draws people in. And once you have effective advertisements ready, you can use them for multiple platforms! One of the best advantages social media ads have over other forms of online advertising is the cost can be controlled easily by you!Â
 A lot of platforms, like Facebook or Instagram, will allow you to set a budget for your ad. This is great because you don’t have to worry about being overcharged! Set your price, upload your effective advertising materials, and the platforms will showcase your ad within the price perimeters you give. Sometimes you can even get a starting credit on your first ad, saving you even more!
Outdoor signage is another great and affordable way to advertise your business. An obvious form of outdoor advertising that comes to mind may be a billboard. Billboards are great, as they’re seen by hundreds to thousands of people a day, but they can become pretty cost-heavy after a while. Most billboard companies charge a monthly fee that can be anywhere from $750 up to $15,000 a month, depending on where the billboard is located and whether or not it’s a digital or physical billboard. Effective advertising can be much more affordable!
Even at the lower range of $750, that can add up after a few months, and you may not see a return on profit. Another great form of outdoor signage that is more cost-efficient is feather flags. Feather flags are tall, slender flags that can be used indoors or outdoors as highly effective advertisements.
If you get your flags from Feather Flag Nation, you can choose from our in-stock feather flag collection (consisting of over 600 flags!). These flags are great for a business on a budget because you can get the flag, pole kit, and ground spike for under $60! Better yet, once you’ve purchased your flags, there are no additional fees. You can place effective advertising materials wherever you’d like (keeping within any guidelines you may have) and keep them up for as long as you’d like. What makes an ad effective? Having people see your ads on a regular basis!
Custom Outdoor Advertising Options
Along with our collection of 600 in-stock feather flags, Feather Flag Nation also has custom feather flags available. These flags can help you stand out even more than our stock ones, as you can choose whatever colors, logos, images, text, etc., that you’d like. You can even use the hardware from our stock flags with your custom flag (given the custom flag is our 12ft flag size).
With our custom flags, we offer seven different sizes, so you can choose the effective advertising approach that fits your needs: 5ft flag/6ft kit, 6ft flag/8ft kit, 8ft flag/10ft kit, 10ft flag/12ft kit, 12ft flag/15ft kit (our most popular size and the same size as our stock flags), 14ft flag/16ft kit, and a 15ft flag/17ft kit. All of our custom flags can be made as single or double-sided prints.
Along with our feather flags, we also have other effective advertisements, such as 3Ă—5 flags, inflatable tube men, vinyl banners, and more outdoor signage you can customize. All of these products can be designed to fit your needs. You can even get something like a step and repeat banner to bring with you to trade shows or to send to events you may be sponsoring.Â
In Conclusion
What makes an ad effective? Effective advertising should produce a positive turnover rate, meaning you gain more traction and/or sales once the ad campaign is over. An effective ad should evoke emotion in the viewer and encourage them to check out what your business or brand has to offer. How effective is advertising? It can be a game-changer if you do it right!
Advertising is a necessity for any business or brand. It’s hard to be successful without advertising, as ads allow old and new customers to see your brand and keep you in mind. Raising brand awareness for your business will help keep you at the forefront of potential customers’ minds. The point of effective advertising is to get noticed!
While there are tons of ways you can advertise your store, social media and outdoor signage are some of the easiest and most cost-efficient. Set your own prices through Facebook or Instagram to keep your ads within budget. Or, get stock or custom feather flags to keep outside and around your business, constantly giving you exposure!
Have additional questions about effective advertisements? Contact us!