For many small businesses, making the jump from organic to paid content can feel overwhelming. In our last two posts, we discussed branding: why brand voice matters and how brand values define your business. When you are ready to move into paid advertising for your business, you need to stay consistent with your brand — your voice, your values, and your messaging.
Because your paid ads are delivered to people outside of your normal audience, you want to be very clear on what they can expect from your business. Having a strong brand personality and brand voice will help you do this, as well as help you stand out in a sea of advertising. When you create a community built around your brand, you build an audience of loyal customers who support and encourage you through launches, sales, and even downtimes. Your ads should help you not just sell your products or services, but bring in new members to your community.
Your ads are not separate content. They need to match and support your branding. Don’t change your voice or your messaging based on what you think potential customers want to hear — if they click on your ad and see something other than what was presented, it can cause immediate speculation and distrust. Don’t change your brand personality in your ads because you hope it will “sell better” for the same reason. Consistency and authenticity is key across all your content, paid or organic, and is the foundation for effective advertising and building a community of dedicated customers online.
To help you get started, here are the three areas main to focus on to create ads that match and support your brand:
Images: Make sure the images you choose or create for your paid ads reflect your brand personality. On image-heavy social media platforms, like Instagram or Pinterest, the image is what gets potential customers to stop scrolling, look at your ad, and click through. Having an image that is indicative of your brand will ensure that when they do click through, their expectations match with your branding. For example: If the images on your website (or Instagram page, or LinkedIn, etc.) are all professional, don’t run an ad with an image of a cat just because cat pictures get more attention or a bigger click-through rate. If someone clicks your ads expecting more pictures of cats, or possibly cat related products, and is taken to your website or store, they will be met with professional images of your products or services and be turned off. The two just won’t add up and that person will most likely turn away. When there is a disconnect between your ads and your brand, potential customers are less likely to trust your branding and your products or services.
Copy: Your brand personality and brand voice need to come through clearly, even in your ad copy. Start by thinking about who your audience is and what kind of posts they expect from you. You can do this by going back and reviewing some of your most popular organic posts and tracking patterns to see what works best with your existing audience. This is the kind of copy you want to use in your paid ads. Just like with the images you use, consistency across platforms is key. For example: if your brand voice is fun and funny, don’t use copy that sounds too corporate or “sales-y”. On the flip side, if your brand voice is informative and educational, don’t make flippant jokes just for clicks. Again, those potential customers will see the disconnect between your paid ads and your normal content, and could feel bamboozled.
Calls to Action: Part of good branding is knowing your value to your customers and what pain points your product solves, and then acting as a guide in the customer’s journey to solving that problem. Remember: in the arc of the story you are telling with your ads, you are not the hero, your customer is. You are simply the mentor guiding the hero to success. So, make sure that your calls to action are addressing that pain point for your customers.
For example, don’t ask people to sign up for your freebie if it doesn’t connect with your products and doesn’t solve a part of your customer’s pain points. People will sign up who won’t buy down the line, if they sign up at all. If you want to use a freebie as the start of a lead magnet, make sure that it is addressing your customer’s pain point. This will ensure that the people who click through your paid ad and sign up for the freebie are closer to your ideal customer and are more likely to purchase from you down the road. On a similar note, if your ad is about a single product and highlighting how that product will solve your customer’s problem, make sure the ad sends them directly to that product purchasing page and not to an unrelated or generic shopping page. Nothing irritates potential customers faster than thinking a product will solve a pain point, clicking on an ad, and then having to search for that product.
Consistency and authenticity across all platforms and in all areas will help you target your ideal customers and will help you build trust with your audience. Using ads that don’t reflect your branding might get you attention and maybe even a few purchases, but it will not get you loyal customers and it will not help you build a supportive community.
If you create paid ads that match and support your branding, you will be able to build a community full of your ideal customers, based on trust not just in your products, but in your entire brand. As you expand and grow your business, your community will be there to support your brand and any new ventures — knowing that whatever your brand puts out will help to solve their pain points and help them find success.
If you need help creating ads that match and support your brand, send us a message or schedule a call with one of our experts.