In a lot of newsletter business models, ads are important because it’s where revenue is coming from. And in a lot of cases, really good content quality won’t make a difference if the ads aren’t that effective – you’ll get a lot of satisfied subscribers, but if they are ignoring the ads, you will have a hard time sustaining the business. In order to create successful newsletter ads, you have to think of the following:
The Proper Text Ad Format
If you’re running ads from a third party, you need to know the format that they require. Chances are they have specific size, guidelines, and format requirements that you can’t modify without voiding your agreement. So you need to know what requirements these are and whether your newsletter layout accommodates them. If not, you have to adjust your template and content. Remember that they’re paying the bills, so you’d have to adjust to their needs.
Always Include Target Keywords
If you’re running text ads, you should always get the most out of them by including your target keywords. That is not to say that you always have to match the words in the text ads to the keywords you are bidding on, sometimes making them closely related is enough. And as much as possible, avoid spamming keywords. If you’re bidding for slight keyword variations like dental, dentists, and dentist, you only need to target one or two of them.
Write a Strong Call to Action
It’s no secret to any marketer that Call to Actions are one of the most important parts to any campaign. If your ad doesn’t have any CTAs in there somewhere, it’s a failure. But if it doesn’t have a clear, strong CTA, you could be getting the short end of the deal. You have to avoid the spammy ones like FREE, SPECIAL PROMO, and its ilk, because they have the opposite effect. People have already become desensitized to them. Additionally, you need to make sure the offers on the ads are consistent with the content of your newsletter. For example, don’t run any weight loss pill ads if your content is articles about how weight loss pills don’t work.
Avoid Trademarked Terms
It’s tempting to use trademarked terms like Botox or Lasik in order to attract eyeballs and give your ad instant credibility, but unless you specifically have permission to use said terms it’s not going to be worth taking on the risk of a lawsuit. Use generic terms like “the leading surgery procedure” or something that a competitor can’t rightfully claim as their trademark.
Don’t Use Unknown Abbreviations
The limited amount of space on ads make it easy to fall into the trap of using abbreviations, but you need to disabuse yourself of this habit. Not everybody is familiar with abbreviations and you may lose some of the punch and attractiveness if people can’t recognize a word instantly. You have to keep it readable and clear, and yes – that means bringing out the thesaurus and restructuring entire sentences.
