I work with many MBA colleagues and whenever they encounter an ugly, but effective (ie. converting) ad, they can never drop their egos to accept that such an ad can work. They just feel they cannot "stoop that low" to adopt these techniques.
They would often blindly push for "simplicity", "sparse text", "nice picture", and when these ads go out to market, they get absolutely crushed.
One of the tragedies of a big wealthy company is that marketers can continually go out with these crappy creatives that don't sell and there really is no big consequence. It is often written off as a "learning opportunity".
Whereas if you look at the ads of people whose lifeblood depends on selling their product, they may not be the most attractive ads, but the ads that persist over time tend to be effective (ie. they sell). These guys need to eat, and they can only afford to make stupid ineffective ads for so long before they starve! So there are definitely some practical lessons that can be learned from them. They often knowingly or unknowingly follow the principles of advertising legend David Ogilvy.
Their ads tend to hit on direct marketing best practices:
- headline states in plain language what the product does (ie. no MBA jargon/buzz words)
- headline also hooks the reader to read a bit more
- it is clear who the product is for
- copy combats any objections in reader's mind
- no distractions that divert reader from clicking the "Join Now" button
- contains customer testimonials reader can relate to (ie. social proof)
- gives reader enough information on the page to make a decision (ie. none of this sparse text BS if it doesn't make sense)
They would often blindly push for "simplicity", "sparse text", "nice picture", and when these ads go out to market, they get absolutely crushed.
One of the tragedies of a big wealthy company is that marketers can continually go out with these crappy creatives that don't sell and there really is no big consequence. It is often written off as a "learning opportunity".
Whereas if you look at the ads of people whose lifeblood depends on selling their product, they may not be the most attractive ads, but the ads that persist over time tend to be effective (ie. they sell). These guys need to eat, and they can only afford to make stupid ineffective ads for so long before they starve! So there are definitely some practical lessons that can be learned from them. They often knowingly or unknowingly follow the principles of advertising legend David Ogilvy.
Their ads tend to hit on direct marketing best practices:
- headline states in plain language what the product does (ie. no MBA jargon/buzz words)
- headline also hooks the reader to read a bit more
- it is clear who the product is for
- copy combats any objections in reader's mind
- no distractions that divert reader from clicking the "Join Now" button
- contains customer testimonials reader can relate to (ie. social proof)
- gives reader enough information on the page to make a decision (ie. none of this sparse text BS if it doesn't make sense)