Ads Best Practices

Marketing experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 ads each day. So now that consumers’ daily digital lives look like Time Square on steroids, here’s the truth: the overwhelming majority of digital ads that consumers see are not just mediocre—they’re bad.

It’s not necessarily the brands’ fault. They are somewhat restricted with placement and spec restraints. Agencies aren’t all to blame. They’re at the mercy of their clients, and publishers are not entirely responsible. After all, they can only give so much latitude to brands on creative liberties. This is why we built “Ads Best Practices.”

We’ve dissected the various ad components and have provided tips and tricks to ensure your ads are not only captivating to our users, but intriguing enough to drive conversions.

Campaign
It’s exciting to get the green light on starting a campaign but take a moment and think it through before executing. The key points here center around testing, number of creatives and user relevancy. Test, test and test some more. Seriously do it.

Image
We’ve seen this before. The ad campaign is well thought out but the image is completely lost on the audience. Emphasize vibrant colors and simplicity with your images. Quit trying to fit everything under the sun into one image – it will yield minimal to no results.

Title
The title is the text that will make or break the ad. Without a compelling title, the quality of the image and campaign may not matter. Make sure to highlight what makes you better, be broad with messaging in hopes of retargeting in future campaigns and consider snackable, numbered lists. Everyone loves a list. (See Buzzfeed).

CTA
This is your final call to your audience to engage with and click on your ad. Be clear with the action that they are taking, make them feel empowered to click and feel free to create a sense of urgency. Putting time restraints usually helps.

This is important! Focus on the fundamentals—the dos and don’ts of ads.

Download the full infographic here.