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When Should You Change Your Ads
Many small businesses struggle with their ads. Particularly around Yellow Pages time we see many businesses who want to change their Yellow Pages ads from their previous ones.
But before you leap into all that time and expense creating a new ad with advertising copywriting and graphic design you need to ask yourself a few questions.
Are the ads still working? If you are still getting a consistent positive response rate, then it is likely you are just bored with your ad, but your customer isn't. Some of the best ads remain exactly the same for 10 years or more.
Do you have proof that they are working? Do you have some way to track the actual results? Do you always ask how you were found? Do you have a particular tracking code that automatically counts each person on the way through the process? Make your decisions about your ads based on maths not emotion.
Are you willing to test your control? You need to invest in testing in order to generate the best result. If an ad works, then it is called the "control" - similar to a science experiment. You then need to measure everything you want to do against the control ad.
Ideally what you need to do is first test variations of the control to see if an adjustment of the headline, guarantee or offer will improve your response rate. Then try comparing the results against different ads to see if the different ad performs better or worse. If it performs better you have a new control ad.
Test small roll out big. When you are testing you need to test with a large enough sample to give you data, but small enough so you are not wasting money. Once you have a control that works you can then roll it out to larger numbers of people, confident in your response rate.
There is no such thing as gradual results. To be blunt if you are going to get a result, you will get it from the first ad. Every ad should at a minimum pay for itself and your control ad should consistently generate returns many many times over. Ads for small business need to generate a clear return on investment otherwise find another way to get your message out to the market.
Think of testing in the same way as you would test prototypes of new inventions to see which works best, or how you have a suit made to measure where adjustments are made through fitting processes. Words also need adjustment to fit and ads are no exception.
In terms of testing, Google Adwords are a great way to test headlines and subheadlines for the most powerful response. Some companies have different phone numbers each year for their Yellow Pages ad so they can track call throughs from the ad.
Still other companies use what is called "split testing" in terms of their website copy where people are randomly sent to one of a number of pages identical bar one or two elements to test the results.
So when should you change your ads?
* When your control is no longer working and you aren't getting results
* When the ad is unprofitable
* When you have a better control
Of course, if you have a totally new service or offer, then it is a different story but all of the above questions still apply in terms of creating a control for your new ad. If you are willing to answer these questions, you will end up with more powerful and effective ads and better business results.
About the Author Ingrid Cliff is a freelance writer and the Chief Word Wizard of Heart Harmony - a writing services studio that helps put your business into words. For a free copy of the "7 Secrets of Compelling Copy & Powerful Words" visit her website www.heartharmony.com.au .
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