Are you searching for the most effective types of advertising design that can grab the attention of your target audience, deliver your value proposition, and get them to desire your product or service? Did you know that multiple advertising design methods have been used from banner ads online to print ads in newspapers, and outdoor ads like billboards to email marketing? And of course, there are social media ads, out of which video ads have taken over most popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Let’s find out what advertising design is all about, why it’s important, and where graphic design comes into play. We’ll also go through the different types of ad designs that are available, how they work, and how you can use them to reach your target audience. And if you’re looking for creative graphic designers and digital marketing experts to take forward your ad campaigns, we’ll let you know where you can find them.
What Is Advertising Design?
Advertising design or ad design for short is all about making visual artwork to be used in advertising campaigns. The primary goal of advertising design is to drive sales. There may be some cases where it can be used to get your target audience to take an action that eventually leads to a sale.
Great graphic design is key to almost all forms of advertising including video ads since even they include many different visual elements on top of live-action footage that have to be created carefully to draw the eyes of the viewer toward them. One of the few types of advertising where graphic design doesn’t play a role is paid search ads (Google Ads) that appear when you use search engines. Whether you’re using banner ads, magazine ads, or making direct mail ads, you’re going to need talented graphic designers for creating ads that bring you results.
Advertising Design Vs Marketing Design
While advertising design has some similarities to design used in marketing, their focus here is much more on selling the product or service to the target audience rather than other objectives like raising brand awareness. That being said, great advertising design is a major part of a company’s overall marketing strategy.
Sometimes, they can work together to provide better results. Social media marketing can be used to provide engaging content to your target audience and increase brand awareness among them. Afterward, these people can be targeted using social media ads to encourage them to buy your actual product or service. These social media ads can be made with the same brand colors to capitalize on brand recognition.
The Importance Of Advertising Design For Your Ad Campaign
The main purpose of ad design is to convince potential customers to buy your product or service. This has been done in print advertising ever since they were in existence to convince customers to walk into a physical store and purchase goods. With new digital platforms like social media, the goal may be to direct a prospective customer toward your website to subscribe to an online service. Therefore, great ad design is vital to drive website traffic as well.
The Different Types Of Advertising Design
There are multiple ways of doing advertising design, from traditional advertising methods like direct mail, billboards, and print ads, to trendy video ads on social media channels. Let’s look at some of these methods to get an idea of which one will work for your business and your budget.
Banner Ads
Banner ads are also known as ‘display ads’ or ‘online ads’. These are rectangular advertisements that appear at the top, bottom, or sides of the user interface when you’re browsing a web page or using a smartphone application. A banner ad can be made using a combination of text, images, colors, fonts, and even animation to catch a user’s attention. They can include audio as well. For a banner ad to be successful, it has to convince the viewer to click on it.
The number of ‘impressions’ or the number of times a banner ad is displayed to a user can be very high, but the number of actual clicks may be low. This is because some users may not even notice it, since they are on the web page or app for some other reason. Your banner ads are competing for attention with this other content, making their placement very important.
Furthermore, a banner ad needs to be visually captivating, so great graphic design is key to its success.
Social Media Ads
Social media ads offer a business so many chances of getting in front of its target audience. They can be targeted carefully by first understanding the customer persona through many of the tools provided by the social media platforms themselves. You can use information such as what accounts are being followed by your target demographic to understand what their social media feeds look like when they scroll through them.
With this knowledge, you can create social media advertisements that blend in with the type of posts that naturally appear on their feeds. The better they blend in, the more chance your social media ads will make the user stop scrolling and take a glance at it. When designing creative ads for social media, your tone and brand colors have to be consistent with your brand identity. It’s also a great idea to be aware of current trends like the pop culture around the world to get ideas on what to do with your design.
Social media can have many advertising formats. They can be image ads which look very similar to banner ads, and video ads which we will discuss in the next section. When making advertisements on social media, it’s important to understand best practices so that you won’t be violating any community guidelines laid down by these platforms.
Video Ads
The original video ad may have been a television commercial, but today, it’s the video advertising found on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. This type of advertising is more expensive since it often requires a professional video production crew, equipment, and models to capture the footage, and then an entire post-production process to edit the video to deliver your key message to the viewer. Branding assets like logos need to be included and graphics are often needed as well for this to work.
When done right, however, the effectiveness of video ads cannot be overstated and will deliver some of the highest conversion rates in the advertising game. According to studies conducted that compared videos vs. images, brands that used Facebook video ads had 20 to 30% more conversions than those that used only still images.
Consumer electronics are best advertised using product videos. When it comes to the restaurant business or travel industry, the most powerful way of convincing customers is to show off using stunning footage of the venue or location. To learn more about the potential of video, read Video Advertising – Everything You Need To Know.
Direct Mail Ads
Your customers may be tired of being constantly bombarded with advertising on social media, or you may be having difficulty competing for their attention in the online advertising space. A return to a traditional advertising method like direct mail can be a way of overcoming these issues. High-quality promotional materials are key to your success if you’re thinking about promoting new products or offering discounts to customers.
You need to ensure your advertisement looks great when printed on paper or whichever material you are using, and that your branding assets like logos are present. The downside of direct mail is that if you make a mistake in your design, you can’t go back on it after the mail is printed and delivered to a potential customer. Mistakes in direct mail can be costly, and if your ad design is not visually appealing, your mail will end up in the wastepaper basket. So be sure to hire a professional graphic designer.
Outdoor Ads (Billboards)
Billboards are only one type of paid advertising done outdoors. Now there is street furniture and advertising done along passenger transit routes like bus stands. If your ad design is creative enough, you may be able to get passing people to look up from their smartphones and check out your offer. This is now even referred to as ‘offline advertising’.
You may be wondering how you can get them to visit your website if you don’t have a physical store. This can be easily overcome with a simple QR code that customers can scan to get to your website and purchase using the discount you’re currently offering. This way you can even keep track of the performance of your outdoor ad, and continue to improve your design.
You can even go further than simply making a cool-looking poster. You can get customers to engage more by using simple games like a puzzle which they can solve to get an even bigger discount.
There are some downsides to consider. Outdoor ads on billboards are expensive, and making a mistake in your design could be very embarrassing to your company. Another reason why you need professionals for the design part of the job.
Event Ads
Event advertising can work wonders for local businesses. If your company is sponsoring an event, then you must use the opportunity to connect with potential customers. Event advertising requires signage, handout materials, and banners that are designed to draw attention.
The handouts can be creative branded items that reinforce your branding in the minds of the customer. You can include hashtags in your event advertising designs, and encourage people to share photos from the event to receive special discounts. This will not only drive more sales but spread brand awareness on social media as well.
Email Marketing Ads
Email marketing has the potential to deliver more sales. The important thing here is to have an attention-grabbing subject line that makes a user click on it, and then a simple design that compels them to take an action. Simple images are very effective, and the call to action needs to be very clear.
If it’s an existing customer, don’t forget to address them by their preferred name to give it that personal touch. While you cannot correct any design mistakes after sending an email, you can try out many different types of creative designs far more easily than direct mail or outdoor advertising.
Print Ads
This type of advertising includes all newspaper ads and magazine ads. While they do not provide the same level of precision targeting that social media has, you can target demographics that you wish to reach by placing your print ad in the right magazine. If you’re in hospitality, then travel magazines are where you need to be. If you’re making car servicing products, then an automobile magazine like Top Gear will be more suitable. A bit of market research will help you find the best options for your target market.
A Few Advertising Design Tips To Remember
While you’re making advertising designs, you can rely on the following tips to make your advertisement more effective. Whether you’re making image ads for print media or social media, some of the basics of manipulating your design elements remain the same.
Storytelling Works
Storytelling has the potential to create an emotional connection with your customers. This is easier for some ad formats like a video but may be harder for others like print publications. If you’re creative enough, you can utilize all the elements of design at your disposal, such as images, typography, and colors to tell this story as well. Just make sure it’s a story that translates well to the visual medium and is not confusing.
Don’t Forget Your Branding
While raising brand awareness is not a goal in advertising, brand recognition among potential customers will make them more likely to check out your offer. Your logo and brand colors need to be included to make it easier for them to connect your advertisement with your brand.
Use A Simple Call To Action (CTA)
Your call to action needs to be clear, and descriptive on what you expect your customers to do no matter which ad formats you use. Keeping things simple is the best approach here. If your customers are directed towards your website when they interact with your CTA, then you have to ensure your website is designed with the same branding and contains the content that was promised.
Have An Impactful But Short Ad Copy
Your ad copy is the text that delivers your value proposition. This is the discount, price, and offer duration for the product or service you are promising. This needs to provide your key message but remains short to not clutter your precious advertising space which can be expensive. As mentioned before, rely on storytelling using imagery and other design elements rather than writing a long ad copy.
Need Help With Your Advertising Design?
Graphic design advertising requires people with creative skills, and a clear understanding of each ad format to create impactful designs that deliver results real results. If your marketing campaigns require video to reach your audience, then you need experts with video production capabilities in addition to advertising design. Where to find all of this?
SUJO Twenty-Two is the one-stop shop where you can find ad design services for multiple channels like print and social media, as well as professional-quality video production services for all your advertising needs. We can design ads that perfectly complement your brand, target your customers, and drive sales. With years of experience serving clients in the travel, restaurant, hospitality, and real estate sectors, the advertising plan we make for you will be converting your audiences in no time. To learn more, visit the SUJO Twenty-Two advertising services page today!
FAQs
Advertising design is a combination of marketing and graphic design and is the process of creating special artwork meant for advertisements.
Yes. The design of an advertisement is what captures the attention of a passerby or someone scrolling through their feed on social media. It is necessary to generate interest in your product or service offering.
Advertisements come in many forms with social media, banner, video, print, outdoor, direct mail, email, and event advertising being some of the most widely used methods.
