There are only two acceptable “stars” for any ad:
- The Product, or
- The Customer
And of the two options, the “customer” is usually the better option.
Unfortunately, most advertisers forget this and try to make themselves — either the company or the brand — the star. Bad idea. And one deftly illustrated by today’s Win of the Week:
All you need to do to figure out the winner is ask, “which ad makes the searcher the star?”
Answer: Ad B
In Ad A the focus is on the brand “get info from [brand].com…” See how the ad shines the spotlight right on the company?
In Ad B the focus is on the searcher, and the copy makes the searcher imagine themselves taking action to further their goals and dreams. The ad plays director to the movie in the mind of the searcher with copy that reads, “Choose Your Degree & Enter Zip Code.” Reading that, you can practically picture yourself taking those very actions on the advertised website.
And that’s why Ad B got more than double the click-through rate than ad A, even though Ad A had an extra use of the search term in its copy — because Ad B remembered who the REAL star of the ad needed to be.
