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October 11, 2024
If you’re looking for a way to capture more attention, make your ads more ‘worth it’, and get your business more clients… this article is for you.
I'll always remember writing my first ad. I hated every minute of it.
Looking at the empty page I realised I was out of my depth. I felt more stupid the longer i sat there.
You know what the worst part was? I was given the job to write that ad by my boss because I had just spent three years in business school studying marketing and sales, majoring in economics.
We studied the most successful companies in the world. But when I tried to use that knowledge to write an ad for our local business… I was clueless.
So I did some research to find the formula.
Some sources said repetition annoys people and makes them NOT buy from you. Others told me to repeat my message again and again.
Some said to use a cute little baby animal in my ad. Others said that wasn’t professional.
With the deadline approaching rapidly I took a shortcut. I looked at the ads of our competitors and did roughly the same. Like copying and changing up your classmate’s homework slightly so it’s not a perfect copy.
My boss said it was OK and we ran the ad.
After a few days I hadn’t heard anything about the results. So I asked my boss what the ad results were. He seemed slightly confused by the question:
“Umm… what do you mean by ‘results’?”
“The results from the ad. Did it make any sales for us? Did many people call in?” I asked him.
My boss smiled, leaned back and said:
“Nooo, solomon. That’s not how ads work! This ad was about brand name recognition. Top of mind awareness. It’s all for branding, you know?”
I played it cool and said: “Sure, I understand”.
That was a lie. Because I didn’t. How did these things get us more sales?
And now, almost 5 years later, I’ll tell you a little secret: I was lying to my boss. But he was also lying to me.
Because he had no idea what he was talking about either.
When we spend money we measure the result.
Doesn’t matter if we're spending money on equipment, lunch or vendors - we make sure that we get what we pay for, right?
When I started my own business I wanted to do the same with marketing. But Instead of results I got wordsalad.
‘Well, this ad is for brand name recognition’
‘We’re focused on top of mind awareness in our market’
‘This campaign is set up to solidify our branding and brand positioning’
This is usually said in a condescending tone that makes you feel stupid for even asking the question.
Here’s the ugly reality:
“Most businesses throw away at least half of their marketing budget. Maybe even more than half.”
And that didn’t sit right with me
I decided to figure out the formula for effective marketing.
The good news? There was one and I figured it out.
The bad news? It took years and years of learning, puzzling pieces together, testing and using trial and error to figure out what actually worked.
If I had to write out the entire formula we would be sitting here for weeks, so let me give you the best shortcut I found.
It could be recognized as ‘Pearson’s Law’.
“What is measured, improves.”
Want to immediately and dramatically increase ad results?
Make them measurable. Add a response mechanism like a call to action in every ad that asks the prospect to do something.
And then you monitor that action intensely.
Now you measure. Test. Figure out what works and what doesn’t.
One of the first things I do when I start working with a client is introduce this simple rule:
“Each ad we run needs to be measurable, no exceptions.”
No more jargon. No blurred marketing nonsense. Tangible ,measurable, real solid results.
There’s many different ways to do this and it’s doable for every business, yours included. If you want to know how we would do this in your business, get in touch with us today.
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