17 Keys For Placing Paid Ads That Get Big Results

Placing a highly targeted paid advertisement can deliver high-quality traffic (and a lot of it, depending on the venue). This makes paid advertising a great place to test and track your ads, products, sales letters and more.

The key to success with this strategy is twofold:

  1. You need to write a compelling ad.
  2. You need to place this ad in a highly targeted location.

We’ll discuss both of these steps across the 17 tips and insights below. Let’s start with tips for crafting a compelling ad…

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1. The Key to Writing a Good Ad

Whether you’re placing a Facebook ad, pay per click ad, newspaper ad or something else, here’s the main thing to remember: your ad’s #1 job is to get the click.

In other words, you don’t have enough room in your ad to sell the prospect on purchasing a product, joining your list or anything else. Generally, you only have enough room to get someone interested enough to click on your ad (at which point your landing page takes over and sells the offer).

To that end, a good ad should have these components:

  • A compelling, benefit-driven headline that gets attention.
  • Body copy that holds attention and increases interest by presenting further benefits.
  • A call to action that gives people a good reason to click on the ad.

Depending on the venue, you may also have some sort of professional graphics in your ad, which should help make the ad “pop” and get attention.

You’ll learn more about these issues throughout this guide. Which brings us to the next point…

2. 3 Surefire Tips for Creating Compelling Headlines

The headline is the most important part of your ad, which is why you’ll want to put these tips to use:

Focus on Benefits

Your headline should present your offer’s top benefit (or benefits). E.G., “Weight Loss is Easy and Fun When You Know This Secret…”

TIP: The word “secret” also arouses curiosity, which is another important factor to include in headlines whenever possible.

Next…

Be Specific

If you’re sharing any sort of data, be specific and precise. E.G., “How I Lost 33 Pounds” is more credible than a rounded number (e.g., “How I Lost 30 Pounds”).

Speak to the Audience

You might address the audience directly (e.g. “Attention Allergy Sufferers”), or identify them with relevant statements or questions (e.g., “Do your eyes hurt due to allergies?”).

3. How to Build a Swipe File

Need inspiration for your ad headlines, body copy and calls to action? Then start building a swipe file of effective ads. This is where you use other peoples’ sales copy for inspiration (NEVER directly copying).

You can find these swipes in your email inbox, on social media, in sales letters, and in publications. Look both in your niche as well as outside of it for inspiration. You can also purchase swipes files that others have created.

For example, a headline like “Would You Like to Have a Photographic Memory” can easily be adapted for another niche. E.G., “Would You Like to Have a Perfectly Trained Dog?”

4. Crafting Calls to Action That Really Work

Your call to action is where you tell your prospect what to do next and how to do it.

E.G., “Claim Your FREE SEO Consultation – Click Here to Get Started.”

Point is, don’t assume your prospect knows what to do next. For the best response, tell them what you want them to do.

5. 8 Different Types of Paid Advertisements

When you start looking for paid advertising opportunities, you’ll see the following options:

  • Banner ads or other graphical ads on websites.
  • Text ads on websites.
  • Video ads on websites.
  • Text ads embedded in email newsletters.
  • Graphical ads in newsletters.
  • Solo email ads.
  • Pay per click advertising.
  • Sponsored content ads (e.g., you sponsor a contest, a blog post, etc.).

Note that ads on websites stand by themselves, or they may rotate with other ads. In the case of rotating ads, you’ll usually pay per impression.

Which ad is right for you? Ideally, you’ll want to test all these different types of ads to see which one gets a good response.

6. What to Look For in an Ad Platform

When it comes time to pick an ad platform, the #1 one thing you want to look for is whether you’re able to get your ad in front of a narrowly targeted market in order to get high-quality traffic.

Let’s suppose you’re selling low-carb dieting plans for women. Advertising this on a general weight loss site means you’re putting the ad in front of people who may not be interested (such as men, or those who don’t want to do low carb).

What to do instead? Seek out targeted platforms, like a weight-loss-for-women site or even a low-carb site.

Likewise, if you’re using something like pay per click marketing, use target longtail keywords (e.g., “low carb diets for women”).

TIP: Yes, you can and should test platforms with wider audiences like the example mentioned above. But the key is to TEST them… and move on if you’re not getting good results.

Next…

7. How to Find Niche Ad Sites

If you plan on testing ads on niche sites, then obviously your first task is to find these sites. Start by checking well-known sites to see if they accept advertising. After that, run a Google search using your niche keywords (e.g., “dog housetraining”) alongside words such as this:

E.G., “Low carb buy advertising” (without the quotes).

8. What to Ask Before Placing an Ad

If you’re posting on a niche site, look for answers to the following questions (and ask the site owner if you don’t see the answers):

  • Where do you get your traffic?
  • What percent of your traffic is repeat traffic?
  • How long does the traffic stay on your site?
  • What are the demographics of your audience?
  • What are your ad terms?

Next…

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9. Using Third-Party Sites to Place Ads

It’s best if you place ads on niche sites directly, as generally that will give you direct contact with the owner and provide the lowest rate. However, you can also use an ad broker or ad networks. Here are examples of these types of sites:

As always, be sure to start with small ad buys, and scale up only once you’ve confirmed it’s a high-quality venue.

10. 4 Keys to a Successful PPC Campaign

If you’re using a pay per click platform (such as Google Ads or Microsoft/Bing Ads), then keep these keys in mind:

Use Targeted, Longtail Keywords

High volume keywords look enticing because you can get a lot of traffic, but you’ll want to focus on low-volume longtail keywords, as this will give you higher-quality visitors.

E.G., “tips for housetraining a poodle” is more specific than the general keywords “housetraining.”

Set a Budget

Start with a small budget, and scale up only once you start seeing good results with the platform.

Test and Track Your Ads

The only way to know if your ad is working is to test the keywords as well as the ad itself (headline, body copy and call to action).

Be Sure Your Landing Page is Compelling

When people click on your ad, the page they land on should be congruent with the ad and also compelling. Again, test and track this page to optimize conversions.

Next…

11. The #1 Tip for Getting Better Ad Results

If you’re struggling to get good results with your ad campaigns and traffic strategy, then here’s what to do: hire a professional to create and optimize your campaigns. You can search Google for a freelance copywriter who also does optimization, ask your colleagues for recommended copywriters, or post a project on a freelancing site such as upwork.com.

12. How to Choose an Audience for a Facebook Ad

Yes, your ad copy and graphics are very important when it comes to placing a Facebook ad. However, the biggest advantage of placing an ad on Facebook is that you can choose a very narrow audience.

That’s because Facebook lets you target your audience according to the following characteristics:

  • Demographics. This includes gender, location, the language the audience speaks, where they live, age and similar demographics.
  • Interests. Facebook lets you target audiences based on the interest they’ve shown in certain types of Pages, books, movies, apps, etc. For example, if you’re selling copywriting information, then you can target people who’ve shown an interest in copywriting in general, as well as specific things like Joseph Sugarman’s copywriting books.
  • Behaviors. You can target based on the device someone uses to visit Facebook (such as an iPhone), or on activities such as previously visiting y our website or interacting with your Page.

As always, choose an audience that’s as narrow as possible in order to get the best results.  E.G., “Men living in the United States, ages 18-30, who’ve shown an interest in weight lifting/bodybuilding and weight loss.”

13. How to Find Solo Email Opportunities

Here are two ways to find email advertising opportunities.

The first method is to search Google for your niche keywords alongside words like “solo email ads.” E.G., “dog training solo email ads” (without the quotes).

The second method is to search Google for “solo email advertising,” which will turn up sites like 10 Dollar Ads: https://www.10dollarsoloads.com/.

Either way, be sure to do thorough due diligence so that you’re not buying an “ad” that’s actually being spammed to a list.

14. 7 Really Big Sites To Place Your Ads

No matter what niche you’re in, you can probably find a targeted audience on the following sites:

As always, be sure to test your ads.

15. Approaching Site Owners to Inquire About Advertising

Even if a website doesn’t directly solicit advertising, that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to place an ad. You can approach the site owner directly and ask them if you can purchase ad space. Alternatively, you might suggest swapping ads on your respective sites.

How do you do this sort of joint venture? Check the Joint Venture Guide inside this Trafficome series for more information!

16. Where to Place Offline Ads

While we’ve been mainly talking about online advertising, you can find targeted advertising in offline media too. This includes:

  • Your local newspaper.
  • Targeted free publications in your area.
  • Magazines.
  • Radio.
  • TV.
  • Mailed flyers/postcards.

Some of these may sound expensive, but you may be surprised at how affordable they are. For example, if there is a local talk radio program that’s directly related to your niche, then call the station to inquire about rates.

See the Offline Advertising Guide for more information about marketing your site via offline venues.

17. Optimizing Your Ads

As mentioned multiple times throughout this guide, you need to track and test your ads in order to get good results. See the Optimization Guide for complete information on what tools to use, what exactly to test, and how to optimize your response rates.

Here’s one more tip you won’t find in that guide: keep a close eye on your ads, and re-evaluate from time to time. Paid advertising may seem like a “set it and forget it” proposition, but audiences change and what they respond to changes too.

For example, you may have really good results with an ad for a couple months, perhaps because the ad is so novel that it gets everyone talking. But once it becomes “old news,” you may start getting poor results. That’s why you’ll want to always monitor every campaign on a continuous basis.

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Conclusion

Paid advertising can deliver high-quality traffic to your site, but only if you know how to create a good ad and place this ad in the right venues. Use the tips you just learned to start boosting your paid ad results today!

Keep Reading: 17 “Old School” Ideas For Putting Your Marketing Message In Front Of An Offline Audience

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