Relevance. The one word that you must keep in your mind when writing any advertisement is relevance.

How relevant is the ad for the people who are exposed to it? If you get this right, then your ad will perform good. Then you have crafted a successful advertisement.

In the marketing intersection I’ve already written a few sentences about it. For the Ignite stage we’ve defined that the effectiveness of an ad can be boiled down to three ingredients

The right message (1) at the right time (2) within the right media (3)

Let’s shift our focus on the art of advertising and build upon these three ingredients.

Magic Triangle

In the project management world there is something called the magic triangle. Martin Barnes proposed this triangle in his PhD thesis in 1969 and has been used since.

It visualizes the costs, time and scope of a project. The inside of the triangle would be the quality of a project. It contends that the project manager can trade between constraints. A project can be completed faster by increasing budget. While increasing the scope may require increases in budget and time.

Just like in project management, where balancing time, cost and scope is essential in maintaining quality, successful advertising depends on balancing relevant media, message and audience to achieve effectiveness.

If you have the right message and audience but the wrong media, your ad won’t reach them effectively. If you have the right media and message but target the wrong audience (who will not see your message as relevant) the ad will fall flat.

And if you have the right media and audience but a weak message, the impact will be meager. If one of these three elements is off, the effectiveness of the campaign suffers.

Your job is it to get all three parts right. The relevant message in the relevant media for the relevant audience.

This leads to the fundamental rule that it is irrelevant where your ad runs. Whether you run a search ad, an ad in the newspaper, or on the radio. It’s meaningless.

So many people try to find out how to write search ads. Then, they decide to run some ads on Facebook. So, they search for information on how to write ads on Facebook that work. The same is repeated then for how run ads on Pinterest and so on and so forth.

Stop this. You’ll go crazy.

In the end it only depends if you get the triangle right. And today we will talk a bit about each corner of the triangle.

The relevant audience

What is your target audience? This is the first question you need to ask yourself. For whom do you write? Before you write any word, you need to be clear about this.

Yet, most marketers I know, as well as business owners, don’t really know their audience. They often have a customer avatar and that’s it.

Many spent a few hours and call it a day. And it may be enough to start. You will inevitable miss the mark sometimes. There are dozens of posts, articles, courses whatever on the internet that show how you can build an avatar.

So, if you allow me, then I’ll show you my process to build a customer profile. Such a profile that will also help you to easily write a relevant message later.

Think about your ideal customer as a human being. He has goals, dreams, values, problems that keep him awake at night, expectations for his life and so much more.

The last thing someone needs is an advertising message. And if you think about this, it makes sense, but if you’d knew how many marketers don’t understand this, you’ll be shocked.

You simply can’t just shove someone your ad in his face and expect good response. So, before you can start writing your message that will resonate with your reader, you need to understand him.

What are his goals? His values, dreams. And also what are his problems? Here are some ideas of what you need to know

1. What attitudes does he have? Religious, political, social and economic wise?
2. What are his hopes and dreams?
3. Does he have any prejudices?
4. What are his goals? Personal and business wise?

Get this right and then you can start researching what your ideal customer uses. In 99% of all cases the market is already using a similar product or service that you offer.

So you need to find out what works, what not, what has the experience of solutions been like and what the market likes and dislikes. You’ll find it out by reading a lot of reviews and visiting forums. You may uncover horror stories about existing solutions, bad experiences and also great encounters with them.

If you know the enemy market and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

Sun Tzu in The Art of War

I personally like this quote from Sun Tzu. Yet, I’d change it for our purpose here. And say if you know the market and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

This underlines the importance of having a customer avatar. Know whats important and ignore things like what degree he has and what not. Personally I think concentrating on such aspects is a waste of time.

Know your ideal customer and know the market you operate in. With this knowledge you are able to write ad copy that is relevant for your customers.

The relevant message

There is something hidden behind the relevant message. The right timing. If you’ve read the marketing intersection post you know what I mean.

Join the conversation that is the most
present and valuable in his
mind at that moment.

This is what we have laid as groundrule for all buyer journeys. Based on your audience you know where they are in their journey.

So the word relevance is again the important one here. Your message needs to build a bridge – figuratively speaking – to the mind of the people who will read the message. You need to join the conversion that is the most present and valuable in their mind at that moment they read your message.

Based on the audience part in our magic triangle you should have a deep understanding of the market and your ideal customer. Knowing both parts will give you already hints what you need to write to connect with the reader of the ad.

Here comes the important part, in what part of the buyer journey are they? Each stage will need a different copy angle. So, let’s talk about this.

Unaware

If you want to write a message for people who unaware it can become tricky. Such people don’t know that they have a problem and are certaintly not interested in a solution nor product.

The best you can do is to – in a subtle manner – tell them that they may have a problem. Don’t be to direct here. You can’t just fall with the door into the house.

People in this stage suffer from complacency. They don’t want to hear anything about problems.

Let’s say you sell a product that helps people to track their sleep behavior. Someone who is unaware that he has a sleep problem – or doesn’t want to acknowledge it – will not show interest in an ad that sells such product. Don’t even try it.

Rather, you should create subtle awareness about his problem. In this case you could run an ad with a headline such as

Ever Wondered Why You Feel Tired All Day?

Will somone who is sleepy all day will read this? Sure.

Problem aware

These people recognize they have a problem and are actively searching for solutions. The catch is they are not interested in particular products or services yet.

If we take the example from above. The 42 year old man who is tired all day might go to Google and type in “why do I feel tired all day?”

He isn’t looking for a product to solve it. His primary need here is to find out how he can solve his problem. Presenting a product here will inevitable fail. And someone who is concerned about his problem will not be interested in horror stories.

Curiosity is what drives these people. To find the solution to their problem. If you can satisfy this need then your ad will perform great.

Solution aware

Our 42 year old man has decided to purchase a product that will monitor his sleep quality. Now, he wants to find the best sleep monitor.

And best is the keyword here. This man needs validation for his purchase. No one wants to purchase something that makes him look like a fool. The term best is purely based on the ego of our customers.

You need to appeal to his ego because he has done his research. He knows what he wants you can’t educate him.

Product aware

Our 42 year old man who suffers from sleeping problems is done with his research. He made his comparisons and narrowed his choice down to one specific product.

If it’s not your product then the chance to “change his mind” is almost zero. The only option you have is to destroy the trust this man has in the product of your competitor.

Most aware

He knows the offer. He knows the brand. And he is ready to buy. In this stage you can’t f*ck it up anymore. Still, the sale isn’t over. But he is sold on the offer.

So you only need to ask for the sale. If your offer is good, then you’ll have no problems in converting this person.

The relevant media

The relevant media depends on your audience and the kind of message you want to use for your ad. Every media is different, different allowed copy length (think Google Ads, Facebook, etc.) and different restrictions.

In the end – again – it is not important in what media you run the ad. If you know that your target audience is present there in the correct buyer journey.

So, if we take the example of a search ad and you use the keywords someone who is problem aware would use to research his problem then you’re good. If you know the blogs your audience is reading, then you can run the ads there. They’ll probably be in the problem and solution aware stage. And you may encounter product aware people also.