We recently had an issue with an advertiser regarding the creative for their text link. He wanted to use the phrase “Cool links” for their text ad. We told him that our audiences are not likely to respond to that text ad, but he insisted. True enough, his ad hardly got any clickthrough at all — our audiences are typically looking for ways to make money, and they are not looking for “cool links.”

When you advertise, whether you are using a banner, text ad or print campaign, you have to remember that your creative must meet 3 important checks:

• It must meet the readers or visitors needs
• It must generate a response
• It must have an immediate impact

The ad in the example I gave failed the first check in that our readers are not looking for “cool links” which is too vague and too sketchy (how do you define cool links — it can be pictures of Angelina Jolie for one person or a funny video in YouTube for another person). Hence, the ad failed to generate a response and had no immediate impact.

The real success of an advertising campaign is based on action, so carefully craft your creative to generate the most response from your target audiences.