Do you remember grade school? I faintly do.
And one thing I remember was kids showing off. Some of it was around athletic ability. Or even things their mommy and daddy bought them.
I was guilty of this.
Looking back, that was dumb. No one truly cared about my new backpack.
The same could be said about your "testimonials" or "client quotes" We. Don't. Care.
Sure, we may look at them before buying, but they aren't anything you should share online. Or at least blatantly sharing with little to no context.
Sadly, today's content rewrite does that while wasting money.
Let's take a look:
This is the modern-day child showing off except paying a platform to do so (weird logic).
What I like about the ad:
- The client quote stands out in the creative, which is their goal (the one thing they want you to get from the ad).
- Eh, that's it.
What I would change about this ad:
- Use the text above the quote (creative) to tell a story of why or how you helped Cris. What was his problem?
- Have an actual call to action. This could be a full video telling Cris' story with a freebie at the end if you watch.
- Make the creative pop more. A tan background with faded black text makes reading challenging and doesn't jump off the screen.
With that said, here's my heroic attempt to improve this ad:
My first change is to tie the copy to the creative. We know that it's "one of your partners tooting your horn."
Why not give us a little more insight into the situation Pop-Dot came to help. I'm more interested if I'm in that same situation—making marketing's value felt by the business.
My second change is to include a proper call-to-action. Instead of a simple brag, I use the last sentence to drive them to click the button to watch Cris' full story.
Without a CTA, Pop-Dot is pissing money away running this ad. You can't argue this is a brand play as it does nothing to educate me on who Pop-Dot is (other than possibly Cris M.'s cousin, lol). And it's not performance marketing (demand gen) as there is no action asked of the viewer.
My third change is to make the words next to the CTA button more action orientated. "Pop-Dot | Full-Service Marketing Agency in Madison…" means nothing.
Use this space to get some action. Because if they take action—to watch a video—they're more likely to take another action; call it a micro-conversion.
Fundamentals people. That's all it is.
I did little to improve this ad other than going to the roots of marketing. I hope you can glean a lesson or two for your marketing.
Marketeer Insights ⚔️
- Choose whether your ad is brand or demand generation and then execute on that premise (not choosing makes your ad ineffective)
- Use client quotes in a story, not in a bragging manner
- Always, always, always have a CTA for an ad
🧠 + ❤️ // JO