What makes an ad truly stand out from the crowd? How can you create advertisements that not only capture attention but also result in sales?
David Ogilvy, one of advertising’s greatest minds, shares his expertise on what makes an ad effective in his book Confessions of an Advertising Man. His time-tested principles cover everything from crafting compelling headlines to choosing the right imagery.
Keep reading to discover the essential elements that transform ordinary advertisements into powerful sales machines.
What Makes an Ad Effective
Ogilvy starts his book with some foundational advice for any marketer, laying out what makes an ad effective and exploring the art of writing compelling headlines and body text.
First, Ogilvy argues that effective advertisements are honest. If a customer buys a product because of your ad and finds it inferior to what you promised, it damages your client’s brand image and compromises future sales.
Second, Ogilvy contends that effective ads are informational. Consumers are more likely to buy your product if you give them facts and evidence explaining why it would benefit them. If your ad doesn’t clearly convey a tangible benefit, it’ll struggle to make sales even if it’s otherwise stunning.
However, many advertisers falsely assume consumers don’t care about the facts. Consequently, they offer ads that look and sound nice but lack substantial information about the product. These ads come across as insults to consumers’ intelligence and are less likely to make sales.
Last, Ogilvy says effective ads are original and interesting. The marketplace is riddled with ads, and only those that seize viewers’ interest will break through the noise. Create ads that stand out from the crowd and are genuinely enjoyable to read or watch.
Writing an Effective Headline
Ogilvy believes that the most crucial component of an ad is the headline, the large text at the top of an ad that attracts consumers’ attention. Your headline needs to be as strong as possible because many consumers read only the headline to decide whether to engage with the rest of the ad. A captivating headline can earn you sales by drawing readers into a persuasive sales pitch in the rest of your ad.
This isn’t a given, however. No matter how good your headline is, some consumers will read it and ignore the rest of your ad. For this reason, Ogilvy contends that your headline should function as a complete advertisement in itself. It should be honest, be interesting enough to grab people’s attention, communicate a clear benefit of the product, and prominently feature the brand name.
Furthermore, headlines need to be simple and instantly comprehensible. If a headline is too complex or takes too long to decode, the audience will lose interest and move on—no matter how clever it is.
Every Ad Needs a Big Idea
Ogilvy notes that it’s not easy to create an ad that’s original and interesting enough to grab people’s attention, conveys a specific benefit of the product, and has an instantly comprehensible headline. To accomplish all this with just a handful of words, you need a unifying concept for your ad—a simple idea that naturally connects all these dots.
For example, Ogilvy explains that the best ad headline he ever wrote was, “At Sixty Miles an Hour, the Loudest Noise in the New Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.” This headline is short and simple, yet it’s interesting and original enough to grab people’s attention. And it communicates a specific benefit of the car—its well-designed, silent engine.
How do you generate ideas like this? According to Ogilvy, you discover these ideas primarily through intuitive exploration and creative inspiration rather than clear-cut logical reasoning. To open yourself to ideas from your unconscious mind, enjoy a wide variety of leisure activities whenever you’re out of the office. Often, good ideas unexpectedly crop up when you give your brain time to rest, even if you’re doing something totally unrelated to advertising. For instance, you might spontaneously come up with a tagline for your campaign selling mountain bikes while attending your niece’s birthday party.
Crafting the Body of an Effective Ad
Ogilvy asserts that, once your headline has drawn in the reader, the body of your ad should deliver as much relevant product information as possible. The best ads provide enough information for viewers to realize how much the product will benefit them. For this reason, provide a comprehensive sales pitch that builds on the promise made in the headline, detailing every appealing feature your product has.
As we’ve discussed, ads also need to be interesting to capture consumers’ attention. You may worry that if your ad contains too many product details, it’ll be too long to be consistently interesting and your audience will get bored. However, Ogilvy insists that this is nothing to worry about; if the audience reads the headline and realizes that your product is relevant to them, they’ll find your ad interesting and read all of it, no matter how long it is.
The body text of your ad should be as easy and pleasant to read as possible. Use simple, plain language that any reader can understand. Write in short sentences and paragraphs to make your text more digestible and maintain the reader’s interest. Additionally, write in a warm, personal tone—Ogilvy suggests imagining that you’re sharing information about a great product with a friend at a dinner party.
Creating Persuasive Imagery
Finally, Ogilvy states that effective advertisements use images that spark curiosity. By using pictures that are unusual at first glance and need more context to fully understand, you can pull the audience deeper into the main body of your ad. For example, imagine flipping through a magazine and encountering an ad featuring a bright yellow lemon with a USB port. You’re intrigued—why does this fruit have a plug? You read the ad’s text, which reveals that this is an ad for a nonprofit organization working to develop technology to convert biomass into renewable energy—it’s as if you could charge your phone with a piece of fruit.
