Dear NBC - Please don’t get me wrong: I love you for advertising on my blog. But I want you to get results so you’ll keep coming back, and this ad sucks.
I’ve done several blog ad campaigns for clients including American Greetings, Simon & Schuster, Budget Car Rental and others that got click-thru rates as high as 2.1%.
So I’d like to give you a little free advice about how to make your blog advertising more effective.
- The job of a blogad is not to tell your story.
Blogads need to be intriguing, interesting or entertaining enough to get us to a convincing landing page where you have lots of room to tell us what you’ve got for us.
– Talk about us, not about you.
Don’t take this personally, but we don’t care about you. All we care about is what you can do for us.
– What’s the ROI?
Tell us about what advertisers got in the last Olympics. All advertisers care about is ROI, either in orders or awareness. Give us stats.
We don’t care how many days are left before your Olympic coverage starts. We want you to tell us, in the headline, why we should care.
– Be topical, timely, edgy, and fun.
Blog readers are inured to traditional advertising. They’re here, and on other top blogs, looking for something new and interesting.
- Be clear!
You want to get brands to advertise on NBC during the Olympics. Tell me in the headline why I should bring my clients to you
– Don’t make your ad a black hole
When that dreadful flashing stops in the ad, you’re left with what is basically a black hole.
– White space is your friend in blogads.
You’re competing with lots of copy that my readers came here – by choice – to get. What you have is basically a blob of copy, and since it’s not easy to read at a glance, it’s pretty much invisible. Less is more in blog ads.
– Don’t scream in blogads.
You need to be clever.
– Have a sense of humor.
- Don’t be boring.
- If you want your blog advertising to be high-yield, call me.
guys – I cross-posted this on my blog and it’s already gotten 10 comments, plus a bunch of e-mails, and yet no comments here. To me, that’s fascinating.
:>)
“You need to be clever.”
Thank you for hitting on clever–clever is smart with a personality. And clever cuts through clutter.
(so long as it’s not trying too hard, but is actually clever).
Couldn’t resist chiming in, “clever” is the first word in my tagline; I preach and practice it. And it’s never been more vital (cuz there’s a whole lotta noise to cut through and connections to make…in a minute).
PS: Just emailed you on another “social” front (that got its advertising spot-on
CK – and there is an extreme dearth of clever these days, sadly.
But the examples are striking: take the clever “show don’t tell” of the blender guys’ series that break up all sorts of silly stuff–but do so in a minute, engage us and sell lots of blenders.
Or the interactive VW rabbit ads that “multiplied” (like rabbits), or did anything you typed into the form (they hopped, went to sleep, etc.). Or take the clever fun of parodies where companies make fun of themselves…and ergo, become more human and, more likable.
CK – yes, all of those clever. but none of them is a blog ad, and that’s the subject of the post.
show me four clever blog ads.
B.L Ochman – Don’t know about four but I can definitely tell one from Audi. It was named as Art of the H3ist.