Tip #1: Nothing sells better than a compelling offer.

Your offer is your “hook.” It’s the part of your ad that tells what’s so special about this particular advertisement and why the reader/viewer should act now. Here's a sample offer:
FREE $250 Credit for new customers!

Make sure the offers in your ads stand out and pack some punch. Offers should be short and enticing. After creating an ad, show it to some colleagues to get their feedback. The best offers are ones’ that make your colleagues say, “Wow! What a deal.” or “I can’t wait to find out more about it.”

You have something compelling to offer everyone who sees your ad or you wouldn’t be advertising. Make sure that viewers of your ad know immediately what it is and are as excited about it as you are!

Tip #2: Showcase your brand with consistency.

Recognizability is key in advertising. It’s a good idea to change the look of your ad on a regular basis, but don't change the look of your brand. Keep your logo and its colors the same. Consider keeping your logo and tagline in the same place across all your different ads, too. Keep your brand consistent and recognizable.

Tip #3: Cool and pretty isn't always better.

As explained in Tip #1, your offer is key to attracting attention. Keep this in mind when designing your ad and make sure the look of your ad is created to support your offer, not just to look cool. The most effective ads designed to get response generally aren't attractive at all. In fact, they’re intentionally gaudy in order to get attention, be read and get clicked. Take a look through the car ads in the newspaper and notice what stands out to you first to see what we mean — they’re gaudy!

Now, after saying that, we don't mean to imply that your ad shouldn’t be professionally designed. A professional-looking design will make an offer easy to read, but many professional graphic designers are much more concerned in how cool the ad looks rather than how enticingly it presents the offer.

General Ad design principles:

• Avoid promoting features. Instead, focus your ads on a single, key benefit. People buy because of how they'll benefit from a feature, not from the feature itself. Don't rely on the reader of your ad to make the connection.
• Keep banner file size small. The faster they load the better.
• Focus your ad on only one point.
• Avoid blinking text or animation that runs too fast to be read. Fast animation is good to get attention, but if your offer is part of the animation, make sure it runs slow enough that it can be read casually. Consider holding each frame at 2 seconds or more.
• Make sure your ad has a compelling offer. Include the word FREE if you can. (e.g. FREE DOWNLOAD)
• Have your ad professionally designed by someone who understands marketing principles.