Last night, I stumbled on an ad by Yelp on Instagram, and I couldn’t help but press the power + volume up button to take a screenshot.
The ad is the perfect example I need to share 3 tricks that can make your advertising better.
Take a look at the ad screenshot
Screenshot of Yelp’s advertising creative
Now that you’ve seen the ad, here are 3 reasons why this is a great ad and how it can help you get better results from advertising.
1. Firstly, The Ad Creative Is Designed To Stop The Scroll.
In case you are new to advertising and don’t know what an ad “creative” is, it refers to the image or video used in an ad.
So next time you’re conversing with your crush, who is an advertiser, you’ll have something impressive to say 😂.
With that out of the way, let’s continue our lesson in peace.
Advertising has two main jobs, but for this point, I’d be focusing on the first and most important, which is to arrest attention.
You see, people attention’s are fleeting when they open these apps.
They can scroll the same distance from Toronto to New York in one day with their thumbs.
You need to find ways to make your ad creative stop them dead in their tracks. Otherwise?
You’ve pissed out your ad budget. And ad networks don’t give refunds. Chia!
The placement of the pictures, icons, and text on this ad creative has precisely been arranged in a manner I refer to as a “puzzle shot”.
The brain of the viewer is forced to pause temporarily to solve it (this happens unconsciously).
The human brain loves puzzles, that’s why you’ve been solving all manner of math questions online even when you know you are not good at maths.
Anyway, that’s a story for another day.
My main point is that, if your creative has some suspense, some puzzle, or some open loop that draws in the viewer… you’ve achieved your first goal.
But that’s only the beginning…
When you arrest people’s attention, you need to hold it long enough so they can hear you out.
Single guys understand this very well. What you do with the attention matters a lot, or you’re not getting that phone number.
She will walk away to someone with more ___ (fill in the blank)
This may be why your ads are not getting high enough clicks and low costs… Your viewers are not hooked.
But don’t give up now; let me give you the juice, so you can score more dates and maybe more sales.
The best way to keep people’s attention is to…
2. Show Empathy When Advertising:
People want to interact and consequently do business with people who understand and care for them.
Nothing sustains a person’s imagination like hearing from someone else who has been in the same situation as them, offering a solution.
It creates a sense of belonging and gives hope for a way out.
The headline of this ad does this succinctly. You should take another look at the headline on the ad before you continue reading.
Screenshot of Yelp’s advertising creative
The ad is simply genius!
But before you heap praise on this advertiser, and mold his golden image for idol worship, let me shock you…
He stole it… Ehn (kinda). Have you heard this quote by one of the greatest artists of all time, Pablo Picasso, that says…
3. “Good artists copy, great artists steal”:
Well, it’s true, especially in advertising where the stakes are high.
The simplest way to get results is to copy what has already been proven to work in the past (easy right?).
An advertising copy has already generated $10 Billion. Why not scoop on from its success?
It makes sense right?
Anyway in advertising we don’t call it stealing. We, smart dudes, have a sweeter name for it, that also oddly begins with an “s”.
The apple truly doesn’t fall far from the tree 😀.
Well, if you’re wondering what we call it… we say “swiped”. Because we don’t lift the body of work word for word, we just follow the same format/template.
Here’s an example that explains how swiping works.
Proven Ad that made $10 Million: Working A 9-5 Feels Like Prison. Earnably Is Your Opportunity At Freedom
Template: Doing ______ (what they do) is hard. ______ (Your product) makes it easier/solves it
Our swiped version: Being a single parent is the toughest job in the world. Get your kids to listen with KidsControl
*I just pulled all three samples from… (oh not my butt) 😡. Well, get the point, they are not real, I made them up.
As you can see, the new ad can take any shape or form, and evolve to be significantly different from the original swipe.
In conclusion, this advertiser likely modeled his headline after a proven winner from the past and I think I know which one but let us leave this great advertiser in peace. He/She has done very well.
Again, here are the 3 tricks to enhance your advertising success:
- Arrest attention by stopping the scroll or using a pattern interrupt
- Hook in the audience by showing empathy
- Get easy wins by swiping other successful ads
It’s a long post, I hope you learned a thing or three things. Let me know in the comment section 👇
P.S. I have a swipe file that contains hundreds of successful sales letters and headlines from the past.
Let me know if you want them.
P.P.S. My Facebook ads courses have helped thousands of advertisers around the world get amazing results.
Click HERE if you want them
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