Intro

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The absolute majority of businesses (and marketers) think that advertising is a case of making something, throwing it out into the atmosphere, and just hoping it did something.

Maybe what was created was funny… Or inclusive… Or funny and inclusive…

To be honest, I don’t get it at all, it’s genuinely incredible how accepted it is to not get any return for advertising.

When you, your client, or your employer spend money on advertising… it better bring money back.

Contrary to what large companies today would have you believe, the goal of advertising should not be to establish world peace, stop world hunger, or fight against the patriarchy.

It should be to generate sales.

As cold as it sounds - you, me, and every other business owner out there is ultimately in it to make money.

I don’t want you to gamble your money on advertising, I want you to make money from advertising… So stay tuned, you're about to learn the fundamental principle required to implement marketing strategies that will obliterate your competition.

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100 Years Later, We’ve Still Not Learned Our Lesson

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“Strategic Advertising” by Claude Hopikins, is undoubtedly one of the best books on advertising out there.
It addresses this phenomenon - where people just throw their money away and have no idea what, if anything, they are getting out of it.

The book was written over 100 years ago, but the majority of people are yet to catch up.

Claude, considered by many to be an advertising pioneer, was wrong about one thing…

He believed that even though people in his era were throwing money away without justification, businesses would soon hold their advertising to account.

He was dead wrong. 

100 years later and still the majority of businesses are making the same mistakes as before.

Consider the average block of T.V. commercials:
- Some dude shaving with a Gillette…
- Some M&M’s talking on the couch…
- Then maybe, you'll get an insurance ad with a talking animal making a joke…
- If you're lucky, you might even get a Pepsi ad which ends racism…

And it goes on… and on… and on…

Why would any business owner in their right mind run advertising campaigns like these?

I’m about to read your mind… Like a Jedi… Or that guy in a wheelchair from X-Men who can read minds…

“Brand Building”

As important as that may be, I’m sorry to say that the term has been hijacked as a coping mechanism by marketers (and in turn businesses) who spend money on advertising and don’t know how much it brought back.

You don’t have millions of pounds to throw away and just hope that it paid off. That's called gambling. Don’t do that. You're in business to make money, not lose money.

Instead, you should focus on advertising strategies that lead to direct, and measurable, sales.

Here are some guidelines to get you started:

1. Your ads should prioritise generating sales and measurable outcomes, brand building should be a secondary goal.
2. Ensure any ad you run has a measurable objective (e.g., go to this website, fill in this form, or text this number).
3. Implement mechanisms to track ad performance.
   Keep it simple to start, this could be as simple as asking customers how they found you. Yes… There are many fancier ways such as creating exclusive landing pages, tracking tokens, hiring an Albanian hitman to stalk anyone who watches your video in order to determine if they buy your stuff, etc…
   But start simple, and then improve your process iteratively (it doesn’t need to be perfect… something is infinitely better than nothing).
4. Strive to measure ad impact in terms of pounds and conversions (Likes are great… Followers are great... Money is the ultimate goal of any business).

If you follow these guidelines, you will lay a foundation for implementing advertising strategies which prioritise results as well as enabling yourself to start testing ads against each other, build content funnels, lead magnets and all sorts of other stuff to generate more clients for your business.

But those are topics for a different day. For now, please stop burning your money, and if you need any help, or would like to know how I would Implement an advertising strategy for your business that makes money - feel free to get in touch.