There are many reasons why an advertisement doesn't produce a profit. Here are several reasons ads fail, and how to make them profitable.
Using "Image Advertising"
Most image advertising is generated by an advertising agency. Image ads are created to sell the ad to the advertiser, not sell the product to the consumer. Image ads are effective in one way. They make the local advertising more effective. It's easier to sell something if the name is known. Credibility has already been partially established. But you still need the local advertising to get the customer off the sofa and into the store. Image ads create familiarity. Local ads create the desire to buy the product now. Great ads create the value in the product, and a reason to buy now.
High expectations
Some exceptional ads will generate profits at ten or twenty times their cost. But most successful ads break even with just a little profit made. If your ads break even, you have created a new customer at no cost. Most successful companies are happy if their ads break even. They are buying their customer for free. The vast majority of the profits are made on the relationship you have established with the customer, not from the first sale. But making a profit on the first sale is easily done if you follow a few simple rules.
Customers don't see your ad.
If you're in the wrong section of the newspaper, you won't be seen by your most likely buyers. If you're on a radio station that plays Heavy Metal music, and you sell hearing aids, your most likely buyers won't hear your ad. You have to advertise where your customers are.
Customers don't read your ad.
This may be painful to hear.. Nobody will read your ad if they aren't compelled to by your headline. Your company name is not a headline. It creates no interest. It creates no demand. A headline needs to grab the reader's attention, and create instant interest, or the reader won't read the ad.
Slogans are not headlines. "We service what we sell" isn't a headline. Read magazine covers. Everything written on the cover is a headline. They are designed to make you want to read more.
Look at a newspaper. Every article has a headline. The paper itself has a headline. Would you ever read an article without a headline? No. Headlines are a way for the reader to skim through the paper (or TV, Radio, Direct Mail) to find something that grads their attention and interests them. Every successful ad has a headline, and it's always at the top of the ad.
Ads create no value
This is a major cause of ads failing. The reader has to see, in the ad, how they are benefitting. If you are selling a product for $500, you better show at least $1,000 of value in the ad.
Ads are trying to be cute
The first place many creative ad writers go is the Clever route. Cute, funny, clever ads are fun to make and feel like they should work. Here's why they don't; Clever ads make the reader-listener-viewer think about the ad. You want them thinking about the product. Have you ever seen an infomercial? Do they use jingles? Sing songs? Tell jokes? Nope. Have you ever had a sales presentation? That's what an ad is, a sales presentation in print. Profitable sales presentations focus on three things; Benefits, benefits, and benefits. The customer is asking "What's in it for me? What do I get? How does it benefit me?".
"Clever" entertains. Giving the customer an irresistible offer sells. And isn't that what we all want?
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