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Building Ads
You will quickly learn how to build
effective and attractive ads for your newspaper advertisers.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you start out.
There are two kinds of ads in a
newspaper. Actually, you can break the ads down into all kinds
of sub-categories, but roughly speaking, there are two kinds of ads:
1. display ads, which can be any size,
up to a full page ad or double-page spread.
2. text-only ads, most often used
in classified & personal ads
Display Ads
Display ads most often include graphic
art of some kind. The art may be a photo image, an
illustration, a company logo or any combination of the above.
If you are especially gifted in the visual arts, then such ads may
prove to be a great resource of revenue for your paper.
They can also prove to be your downfall,
if you try to be a perfectionist to the point of spending hours
working on each ad. You must find a happy medium (which sounds
like a psychic joke, doesn't it?). Learn to build good-looking
and effective ads, but don't try to make each one the shining crown
of your career.
Don't worry too much if ads take you a
lot of time at first. Learning always takes time. But
try to reserve the most time for the advertisers you think will be
staying with you. That way, if you labor for an hour to create
(or rebuild) a logo, you can at least count it as time well spent,
since you'll be able to use it in your publication, issue after
issue, with little or no rebuilding.
Using the right graphics software is
important here. You want to build all company-specific
artwork, such logos (including the logo and artwork you'll be using
for your own newspaper) in a drawing program, not in a bitmap
(raster or pixilated) image files editing program.
Sound confusing? If you're
unfamiliar with vector or bitmap files, then you'll want to spend
some time researching the differences between the two. You can
start with the free help offered in the left margin of this page.
You will need to know these things when customers want to provide
you with artwork files.
Art needs to be created so that it will
be clearly meaningful at the size you plan to use it in ads.
Take time to make the outlines wide enough (but not too wide) and
practice with using shades of gray (for ads/pages without color).
Make the art appealing and to-the-point. Try to avoid art for
the sake of art, since your advertisers want results, not just
pretty or "creative" ads. All art and design must be aimed at
drawing the attention of potential customers to your advertiser's
services or products — not simply drawing everyone's attention to
the ad itself.
The same goes for type. Use
typestyles and colors that pull readers to the message itself, and
not simply to a gaudy or colorful box on the page. Everything
in the ad should point readers to the customer's name and location,
and to the services or products they want to feature.
Keep it Simple...
The fewer the words and images in any
ad, the easier it will be for readers to get the idea of the
message. As a general rule, don't try to pack the whole ad
space with information or artwork. Use white space in the ad
to help single out the most important word(s) or image(s).
Most ads will probably be an eighth of a page or less in size.
So try to keep the number of items or points to a bare minimum.
Even in your larger ads, the fewer things you try to say in a single
ad, the better the chances that readers will actually see and then
remember (and act) on what the ad is saying.
See a sample ad here.
Obviously, there are exceptions to the
above rules.
You may need to include a lot of details for some products.
But even then, try to give "huge" attention to the main point or
image and then use small type for the details, separating the two
with a generous margin of white space. Be sure to guide your
potential advertisers in the use of space, and in how to limit the
amount of information they might be tempted to cram in small ads.
Listen to them and make sure you understand what they really want
the ad to do. Then help them reach their goals.
Always make sure you include whatever
contact information is most relevant to the service, product or
advertiser. Be sure. Don't assume that readers will
automatically know the location, the town, the area code, and so on.
Many of us have been very frustrated to see ads that we want very
much to respond to, but can't because we're from out of town or
whatever. Make every ad an effective selling device for your
advertisers.
Be careful when building ads to make
them look as unique as possible. No page should have ads from
different advertisers that all look alike. Make the borders
different. Use different type faces (fonts) when building ads.
And try to use the same faces (fonts) with the same client, when the
ad content is similar. By giving each advertiser their own
certain look, you help to give them recognition in the marketplace.
On the other hand, it can be a good idea to change that look
completely at times, to help draw the attention of readers who've
unconsciously "learned" to stop seeing the ads. |
