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Designing your AD for Digital Publishing.
Best Practices

by Jeff Shields 2020-05-17

Want to design your own ad?

In digital publishing, a whole new realm of possibilities exist. Hot linking web URL's, phone numbers and email addresses, and embedding video are all available to promote your business or event.

What Makes A Great Ad?

Before discussing what makes a great advertisement, let’s start by defining what we consider to be great advertising.
In our view, a great ad drives business results; it successfully meets the brand’s marketing objectives. A great ad needs to effectively break through all the noise. You need to get noticed.

Best Practices For Powerful Ads

  • Be Simple and Bold
    • Use a relevant headline, but seek to avoid acronyms and jargon that might create confusion. After all, you only have a few seconds to capture their curiosity.
    • The overall design should also be simple; too many images, fonts, or messages will make reading more difficult.
    • How much text is right for your audience?
  • Make Sure It Matches
    • It’s crucial to ensure all design pieces have coordinating fonts, colours, logos, and are cohesive overall. Your print ads must fit into the big picture.
  • Show Them Why They Should Care
    • Once you’ve attracted readers’ attention, engage them. Why should they care about what you are promoting?
  • Create Desire
    • After you earn your audience’s attention, work on developing the desire to buy. Include statements to help them visualize ownership and become motivated to make a purchase.
    • Highlight your competitive advantage — a customer testimonial could be a great way to do this. Too many ads succeed at being clever, but fail to sell the specific benefits of the featured product or service.
  • Spur Action
    • You’ve created the desire. Now tell your audience what to do next. Prominently include your website address, phone number or other means for getting in touch.

Last Updated on: 2020-05-18