Making Cents Out Of Your Ad Copy



by Jason D. Huhtala

http://www.TargetBlaster.com



Through my experiences working with various companies I

have found that many make big mistakes with their ad copy.

Many businesses are willing to spend thousands of dollars

to have their ad copy displayed to web site visitors, just

to convey a faulty and ineffective message. I have seen

hundreds of different problems that people have made in

their copy and decided to write about some of the ones

that I seem to see the most often.



Don't be a used car salesman (no offense).



As tempting as it may be, please stay away from

exclamation points. If you find that it is absolutely

necessary, one is more then plenty. Also stay away from

all caps in your ad copy. I certainly don't like to be

yelled at and potential customers don't either.



People Are Wary



Many times making an "I can't believe it" offer in your

ad copy will attract less potential customers then just a

"very good" offer. The Internet is a scary place and

everyone has either been burned on the Internet or knows

someone who has been. If you see an offer that says "YOU

JUST WON'T BELIEVE IT!!!", I'd imagine you don't click

through to see more. I don't know anyone who would. On

the other hand when I read about a good deal, I am much

more likely to investigate further.



Be Professional



I have talked about making your whole site professional

looking in the past. Think of your advertisement copy as

an extension to your website. You want visitors to feel

comfortable with your products and/or services, and the

same rules apply to ad design as to site design. Here are

a few rules you should try to follow:



1. Make the information clear and concise.



2. Avoid bright colors especially in your text.



3. Make sure that you don't have any misspelled words and

that your grammar is correct.



4. Try to leave some white space in your ad if you can

spare any.



Avoid Information Overload



Remember, that advertisements should be designed to give

visitors enough information that they want to know more,

not educate them about everything you offer. It should

not be an essay but a brief statement of what your product

or service is about. It should be designed to get them

to click through to get all the details.



Target Your Visitors



I have conversed with many people about their advertising

campaigns and many believe that the more visitors, the

better. While this is true to an extent, you don't just

want the average web surfer to visit your site, but the

surfer that is interested in what you offer.



Many online marketing firms will target your traffic for

you, but you can do some of the targeting yourself. If

your ad is displayed on a site about sports cars, but your

site specifically deals with Porches, you want to have

something in your ad that specifies that your site is for

those interested in Porches. Even further, you can

geo-target to a certain level within your ad. If you are

advertising for a Porsche Club in San Francisco, then tell

potential visitors that your site is for visitors in the

San Francisco area right in your ad copy.



Unless you have a service that everyone is interested in

(if such thing exists), try to target your visitors as

much as possible. In most cases you are paying by the

click and the more dead ends that you can weed out before

they click through, the better.



I am in the business of delivering high quality visitors,

but I know that my customers will have a much better

campaign if they spend more time on their ad copy and less

time on worrying about other details. If you do not feel

confident in being able to create effective ad copy, find

someone who is and have them do it for you. Also, make

sure that you dedicate some of your resources to reviewing

and refining your ad copy on an ongoing basis.



The author, Jason D. Huhtala, is the Vice President of

Operations for Target Blaster, Inc., an Internet Marketing

firm specializing in inexpensive targeted pay-per-visitor

web-site traffic.

http://www.TargetBlaster.com