What have you heard about advertising? Thought-leaders in the advertising industry understand advertising. Many of them have been doing it, at least in a digital marketing context, since the dawn of the internet. There are also countless smaller voices, airing their opinions about what works and what doesn’t (sometimes in opposition to what the thought-leaders claim). Everyone’s looking for a winning recipe, but many advertisers go into it with a dim idea of the actual reality of the advertising world. Here are 11 laws of advertising to remember while executing marketing and advertising campaigns:
People don’t really care about advertising
As advertisers, we get excited about new advertising techniques and trends. Consumers, however, don’t give a monkey’s rear end about advertising. They only care about what is being advertised, and it’s good to remember that. It keeps you focused on what is important.
It takes troubleshooting to get noticed
Overnight success does happen, but the chances of it happening are the same as your chances of becoming the president. People might not notice your advertising at first, and that’s okay. It might require A/B testing of advert layouts and formats to find the right mix.
Advertising requires a fair deal of faith
If stressing was an Olympic sport, business owners would likely take all three spots on the podium. This can lead to endless nitpicking at details. Pushing the big green button on an advertising campaign is scary (who knows if it’ll work or not), but it’s better to fight and lose than to never have fought at all.
More than just right place, right time
To the consumer, advertising happens in a moment. They see your advert, then decide on whether to click or scroll over to the next post. But advertising is so much more than just that moment, and advertisers at every level of the campaign should be proud of that.
Advertising ideas are pretty easy to kill
The advertising business is the ideas business. Graphic designers, copywriters, and PPC managers are always looking for innovative ways to grab people’s attention. We have hundreds of ideas, but many of these don’t get pursued, and once we find something wrong with an idea – we flush it.
Ideas survive when fewer people know
Still, on the topic of ideas, it’s good to remember that the fewer people who know about an idea – the better. More people discussing an idea leads to more suggestions, and more alterations, which leads to more work than you were ready to take on at the idea phase.
