AUGUST 9, 2024

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

Make Ads That Deliver

Want to make the most of your advertising dollars?

Get creative.

Purna Virji, principal consultant at LinkedIn’s Content Solutions, notes that powerful creative drives 10 to 20 times more sales than mediocre creative. In fact, creative execution is second only to brand size and share in terms of profit multiplier.

To help you take your ad creative to the next level, Purna suggests you do these five things. (Though they all relate to LinkedIn, most of the advice works well on other platforms.)

1. Know the three essential questions: Do buyers notice my ads? Do they attribute my ads to my content business? Do the ads link my brand to buying situations?

These questions address the three critical components of any successful campaign – attention, branding, and linkage.

2. Stop the scrolling: An ad that holds someone’s attention is more successful than one they just scroll on by. Research backs that up. Brand recall for a viewer who sees an ad for no longer than one second was 38%, but jumped to 46% for someone who sees it for nine to 11 seconds.

On LinkedIn, vertical and square format ads are more likely to increase dwell time than horizontal ads. Square formats see a 4% higher click-through rate and a 16% bigger engagement rate, while vertical formats see an 11% higher CTR and a 31% boost in engagement than horizontal ads.

TL;DR: Go with vertical format ads on LinkedIn to get more clicks and engagement.

Format plays a role, but content plays a bigger role. Purna suggests surprising your audience by “creatively hacking” the standard image or video format in a visually striking way that entices them to watch again and again.

She notes the benefit of using multiple formats within a campaign. LinkedIn finds companies that use three or more formats over three months see a 23% higher dwell time.

If lead generation is the goal, the most effective formats are video (1), image (2), carousel (3), and sponsored message (4).

3. Get emotive and be relatable:

The most emotive brands on LinkedIn outperform their industry.

Take the tech industry, for example. The top emotive brands saw 25% higher average engagement rates, 13% higher CTRs, and an impressive 35% higher form-fill rate when compared to other brands in their sector.

Showcasing real people works well, too. Since you and your audience are real people, identify ways to bring those personalities to the forefront.

Some may think humor doesn’t have a place on a professional platform, but that would be wrong.

Purna says funny content tends to garner a 65% higher engagement rate and a 42% boost in lead-gen form open rate compared to non-humorous content.

The key to all these techniques is grounded in relatability. Viewers of your ads must feel your business understands what they’re going through. You need to signal an understanding of them and their needs related to your content business.

LinkedIn’s thought leader ads can help accomplish this as long as the entrepreneur strives for authenticity, keeps it relevant and timely, and provides their unique perspective.

4. Be distinctly on brand: Most buyers (84%) incorrectly identify the brand behind the ad, according to research shared by Purna. That’s a lot of missed opportunities.

It’s also why maintaining your brand’s visual consistency is critical to your brand presence online and offline. Think about Coca-Cola – the distinct red and white colors with the script-like font is familiar to consumers around the world. They don’t get trendy by updating their font or changing their well-known color branding every year.

Establish a style guide that details your distinct colors, logos, imagery, and fonts. It also can include tones, voices, sounds, and more.

5. Offer relevant, unique value: This final step requires linking all the dots to propel the ad viewer to take the profitable action you want them to take.

Use a clear hook to pull them in. Communicate the personal benefits your brand can deliver — that works three times better than communicating functional or societal benefits, Purna says.

Among her other tips: Treat imagery as the headline and use key stats or insights to emphasize why it’s worth your audience’s time to engage.

Finally, don’t forget to call out to the audience by mentioning them by name. I would create an ad that says, “Hey, content entrepreneurs …” That simple step allows prospects to get that you see them. Purna says that personal touch has prompted a 53% CTR increase for LinkedIn LMS.

-Ann Gynn

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