Whilst there are guiding principals when it comes to good direct response advert design, if you want to optimise your campaign and maximise return on your budget you will need to test and learn.
From a full creative overhaul to subtle tweaks that make your advertising work harder, testing new creative should be built in to your advertising strategy.
Why test direct response advert creative?
If you’ve got something that works, the temptation is to stick with it. And why not? We all like it when advertising performs effortlessly. But no direct response advert works indefinitely.
No matter how successful a piece of copy is, there will come a time when responses start to fall away. The offer becomes “wallpaper”, the ad looks dated. competitors move on and the consumer loses interest. We aim to intervene before you reach that point. Our clients benefit from a flow of fresh concepts and ideas that keep customers engaged and responsive.
Some quick and easy creative tests.
Not all tests need to be a complete creative overhaul. Sometimes smaller tweaks can be enough to maintain interest and brand standout.
- Update your imagery. Brand new photography or footage can often give a brand a new lease of life but you don’t need to invest in a shoot to revitalise your images. Clever use of photoshop or AI (careful now…) can give your existing shots a fresh look.
- Change your colour palette. There are trends in advertising and colours are part of this. If you don’t keep an eye on the tones and shades you use in your direct response adverts your business could look dated in comparison to your competitors.
- Rewrite your copy or script. This is good for several reasons. Firstly, people get bored of reading/hearing the same story. But also, products, services and customers evolve over time. Does your messaging still reflect who you are, what you offer and what your customers are looking for? If not, change it.
- Try a new angle. You might always focus on the quality of your product but maybe try an ad promoting its value.
- Increase the prominence of your headline/CTA. Is your headline and CTA big enough? As print ads develop and elements get added there is always a temptation to shrink the headline to make room. It could be time to return to basics.
- Develop a cleaner, tidier advert. Think about what you really need to communicate and what is just noise that detracts. Don’t be afraid to strip things back, especially if you’ve gradually added more and more elements over time.
We make it easy to test new direct response creative
We know that testing advert creative requires a certain amount of bravery. A real departure from the creative style you know might feel like a scary leap into the unknown.
Whilst we can never guarantee a creative experiment will pay off, we do everything we can to make it less risky. We actively encourage our clients to try different creative executions and we don’t charge for our ideas.
If you commit to a media schedule planned and bought by AJ, all press, TV, digital and audio concepts are provided free of charge. We can do this as we have confidence in our ideas and client success ultimately trickles down to us via bigger media spend. No smoke and mirrors trickery, just a business solution that benefits everyone in the long run.
If you’ve not tested new advertising creative recently, it could be a good time to get in touch…
Read more about our creative services.