Promoting a product, clamouring for new customers or audience members? You’ll need an ad for that. Here’s how to make a successful advertisement!

Ads, adverts, commercials, promos, whatever you want to call them. They’re a highly effective way of boosting your engagement and getting seen by new people. You might be a personal trainer who has started making workout videos on YouTube, or a small business that’s updated its branding and needs to spread the word. Putting out an ad is going to notify the masses of what you’re up to, whilst convincing them that they need to get involved.

The difference between a good ad and a great one is that a great one will convert viewers at a higher rate, resulting in more business for you. Creating a great ad doesn’t have to be rocket science, and we’re here to help. Here are some top tips for how to make a successful advertisement!

Qualities of a Great Ad

Try and incorporate these six qualities into any ad you are creating, and you’ll be set for success.

Original & Creative

It can feel like everything has been done before. Everywhere you look, you are bombarded with adverts, whether they’re videos, flashing banners or by the side of the road. As a result, it pays to try and do things a little differently. Taking a different tack and doing something unexpected will help you to be memorable. But, be careful of quirkiness for quirky’s sake. Anything you do should still be relevant to the product or brand you’re advertising, or viewers may walk away unsure of what they just witnessed.

Use your artistry and inject some creativity into your ad. Compelling stories will sell and appeal to audiences, moving them to engage with your ad.

Persuasive

No matter what you are advertising, the objective is largely the same; you are convincing someone to do something. Ensuring your ad is persuasive is vital. The consumer needs to be convinced that your product is going to improve their life in some way, and more so than any competitors’ attempts will.

Playing on people’s emotions is a strong persuasive tactic. We’ve all seen the clips of limping donkeys in the baking sun, depressing viewers into donating money to sanctuaries for the furry farm animals. You don’t have to go full donkey, but tugging on the heartstrings is bound to get a good response.

Cold, hard facts and statistics are another fantastic form of persuasion. Using this angle will create a sense of authority and reliability, whilst appealing to people’s logical brains.

Targeted

It doesn’t matter if you’ve got the best equipment money can buy for filming your ad, or a script to rival Shakespeare’s Hamlet. If you’ve not considered who you are targeting your advert at, it’s going to be a big miss. Having your ad aired widely on television and radio is very expensive, so applying more targeted marketing techniques is going to help you here.

Think about who your product is made for, or who interacts with your brand the most. The message in your ad should be specifically tailored to these people. It’s much better to effectively appeal to a smaller, specific group, than to wash over a large and non-specific group.

Promotional

This might seem a little obvious, but when promoting a product, business or creative venture your ad needs to be promotional. As previously mentioned, there can be a risk with advertising that consumers come away unsure of what they’ve seen. Many will guess it was an advert, but it didn’t incentivise them to do anything, or highlight a specific product.

You aren’t trying to brainwash anyone necessarily, but you do need to make sure you’re shouting your agenda from the rooftops. This doesn’t have to involve technicolour graphics and fireworks, but the “bigging-yourself-up” aspect needs to be crystal clear.

Awesome Music

You would be hard-pressed to find a podcast, TV show, film or advert that does not feature music. Adding music to videos is important for a number of reasons. It’s memorable, emotive, and gives projects a professional edge. Any music you use in a commercial should reflect the story you’re telling as well as your brand.

Do make sure that you have the appropriate rights to use any music in your ad. You’ll need a sync license for any tracks used. Purchasing these for chart topping songs can be a very expensive business, however you can get hold of premium music to use in ads without a paying a premium price.

Synchedin offers a huge library of awesome royalty free music, so you’re guaranteed to find the perfect track for you. Filter music by genre, mood and more, so no need to spend ages searching for something that’s right for you. All tracks have the sync license covered, meaning you won’t run into any copyright issues down the line. For unlimited download subscriptions are just $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year!