No matter what type of advertising you’re planning to use to promote your brand, product, or services, you have to get the messaging right, and that means knowing your audience. Here, I’ll look at a variety of specific advertising techniques with proven track records of success, and several to be avoided in many cases.
What Are Examples of Different Advertising Techniques?
Advertisements are all around us: They are on billboards, in newspapers and magazines, on the sides of buildings and buses, on the radio, on TV, in our mailboxes, and of course everywhere on our phone and computer screens. Each has its own agenda, and its own technique for getting your attention: Humor, storytelling, testimonials, repetition, and emotional appeal are all techniques that advertisers rely on to get you invested in their message. I’ve delved into some of these in more detail below.
Storytelling
Storytelling advertising can be immensely powerful. Witness all the tear-jerking Super Bowl commercials featuring lost dogs returning home as a vehicle for promoting Budweiser beer, for example.
The beer company has used charming pups in many of its Big Game ads over the years, but few were as memorable as the 2014 spot titled “Lost Dog.” It depicted a puppy slipping from a truck, then its owner’s pained search for the little dog. The dog faces trials and tribulations, including a marauding wolf which is chased off by the famed Budweiser Clydesdale horses. The man and his pup are reunited, and in the end we see the man sipping a Bud as he sits with the dog and a horse.
Overall, the ad has practically nothing to do with beer, but if you look through the comment section on YouTube, you’ll see it being talked about well over a decade later, with thousands of people remarking on how the commercial had brought them to tears. It touched hearts and left a truly lasting impression.
Other notable companies that have proven adept at using storytelling in ads include Nike, Airbnb, and Volvo.
Humor
Humor can be used across varied media. Once you know the type of advertising that will best fit your brand and match with your audience — e.g., short videos for younger viewers — consider lacing in some comedy. When an ad is enjoyable to experience, it’s more likely to be watched closely and to be remembered.
When it uses humor and informs at the same time, rather than simply being ridiculous or random, that’s a true success. The apparel brand True Classic excels at contemporary humor, as with their ad “It’s Not You.” The commercial literally describes the clothing, explaining how it accentuates the male torso and arms while minimizing any softer belly areas, while also entertaining. You laugh and learn — and maybe buy — all at once.
Directness
Many advertisers these days experience great success with content that’s simply direct: A person on camera, looking directly into the lens, and using powerful and unequivocal language to make their points. Especially on social media, direct and easily understood advertising is often a good technique.
This type of ad is common to see play before YouTube videos, which makes sense, as it’s the basic MO for a lot of influencer content. A good example is the above Vshred ad from 2023 featuring Dr. Drew, who speaks directly to the camera, sitting in what appears to be a podcast studio, before kicking things over to a celebrity trainer who also talks right to the viewer. In cases where you’re quickly explaining complex ideas to potential customers, this is a solid and effective approach.
Facts and Figures
Many consumers, and especially older generations that are more accustomed to newspapers and TV news than they are to nonstop social media, will respond well to numbers and figures. If you have the facts, share them with your audience so they can feel they’re making informed decisions. These ads still do best in print media, as a reader can pause and truly digest the information being shared.
7 of the Best Advertising Approaches to Try Out
1. Short-Form Video
People today are already well-accustomed to — and happy with — short-form videos, whether it’s on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and beyond. In fact, the average TikTok user spends 95 minutes every day on the platform, per NGPF. So, producing ads in the form of quick, pithy videos is a great approach, as you can meet a semi-captive audience where they already are.
2. Native Advertising
Native advertising, at its core, is the creation of ads that don’t feel like ads. Think of a mini article embedded in a magazine, an engaging video or social media post nestled unobtrusively in your feed, or other types of content that feel like original, authentic media, but are in fact advertisements. The best native advertising offers genuine value-added content to the consumer. Native ads can be enjoyable and informative while also subtly delivering a call to action, such as a subscription or purchase. It’s an industry currently worth a staggering $400+ billion.
There are countless examples of successful native ads, and Taboola has been behind thousands of them. From matching travel-themed ads with relevant travel content, to featuring financial institutions organically alongside news stories, Taboola has proven the efficacy of this value-added and unobtrusive type of marketing, wherein a potential customer feels catered to, rather than sold to.
3. Email Marketing
Email marketing is essentially free, not counting the wages you pay your employees or a contracted writer — and maybe a graphic designer, too. Once you’ve collected email addresses from prospective clients, you can reach them with a click of a button, getting your messaging directly before their eyes. Per Constant Contact, marketing emails have an overall average open rate of around 37%, which is better than it might sound: Were you to blast an email out to 10,000 people, you can count on nearly 4,000 of them actually engaging with your message.
Use email judiciously, though: You don’t want to oversaturate people’s inboxes in case they unsubscribe, but you also don’t want to email so rarely that you lose your place in mind. Test out different schedules of email, and different types of messaging, and find out what works through an A/B approach.
4. Social Media
The average person spends 143 minutes on social media every day, so meet them where they are. Social media advertising can take many forms, including paid ads, organic posts, and partnerships with established influencers.
If you’ll be running ads on social media, take advantage of the many forms of customization you can use, targeting ads based on age, gender, location, interests, and more. To make the most of social media marketing, start by completing a process of audience segmentation, so you know exactly who you’re trying to reach, and so you can frame your messaging properly.
Instagram makes it very easy to target ads based on gender, age, and interest. Facebook is great for geofencing ads, i.e., sharing them only with people in specific locations. YouTube ads, meanwhile, allow you to set campaign goals, like generating leads, building brand awareness, and more.
5. Direct Mail
Paper mailers may seem dated, but when used well, they’re actually highly relevant even in today’s online world. “Direct mail automation is an easy way to take your follow-up offline using tangible mail pieces — something you can hold and appreciate in person — sent to only your most qualified prospects,” explains Joy Gendusa, founder and CEO of PostcardMania.
“Everyone’s inboxes are perpetually overflowing, our unread messages are piling up, and people are more digitally fatigued than ever,” Gendusa continues. “Direct mail automation lets businesses follow up with prospects offline, based on online behavior: For example, as soon as you enter a new contact or deliver a quote, or when a lead goes cold, you can set up a trigger to mail that prospect a postcard automatically, within 24 to 48 hours of that trigger. You can set this up through your CRM’s app marketplace, or you can use a third-party automation app like Zapier if your CRM doesn’t support a direct integration.”
Yes, it sounds a bit old-school, but per myriad sources — including the Forbes Agency Council — direct mail really is back.
6. Podcast Advertising
Podcast listeners self-select the programs they want to hear — it’s like the antithesis of standard radio, where you simply tune in and hear whatever is on. Thus, you can place audio advertisements on podcasts that you think will be popular with your core customers, knowing you’re spending your money wisely by targeting your approach.
Sure, some listeners may breeze past your ads nonetheless, but the returns will be much better than you would get with ads haphazardly played for a more general audience. According to data from Business.com, 68% of podcast listeners find podcast ads memorable, and 54% even find them engaging, which explains why they’re predicting podcast advertising to be worth $2.6 billion by 2026.
7. Influencer Marketing
While this entry is somewhat divisive, millions of people do indeed look to this newer breed of online celebrity for information on products, services, places, media, and more. Brands can make good use of influencers, and they need not spend millions on the biggest names like a Kardashian or a Coelho.
Micro-influencers — those with between 1,000 and 100,000 online followers — can be highly effective at more focused and niche advertising, engaging more directly and authentically with their followers. A micro-influencer usually charges between $25 and $125 per online post, per data sourced from Shopify, which is a rate even smaller businesses can swing.
4 of the Worst Advertising Approaches to Avoid
1. Clickbait
Clickbait — an image or text designed to intrigue someone into clicking on it, but that is misleading in the type of content to which it leads — is one of the great frustrations of our time. You should avoid creating bait-and-switch types of advertisements at all times, because not only will they almost always result in an angry bounce away from the content, they may even leave a lasting negative impression of your brand. Per MailChimp, clickbait is almost sure to do damage to marketing initiatives: The bounce rate is often over 70%, and the tarnish it leaves on a brand can stick around for a long time.
2. Television Commercials
Unless you’re handling the marketing for a massive business conglomerate that can afford the ad space during live sporting events, or on the handful of programs still actually watched by large audiences (as opposed to streaming), then TV commercials are a bad investment. This is all the more true if your brand is what Adam Bushell, director with AB Electrical & Communications, calls “niche,” saying that, “A business specializing in a niche market will experience suboptimal results by spending resources on traditional advertising methods like generic TV commercials.”
Even if people do see your commercials, it’s highly unlikely they will lead to enough conversions to give a decent return on investment. Data from Simulmedia suggests that achieving even a 10% conversion rate from TV ads will cost the average business up to $20,000, and that’s simply out of the budget for most small to medium-sized businesses.
3. Pop-Up Ads
Done well and with proper placement, online advertising can be highly effective, but pop-up ads are rarely anything more than an annoyance. Pop-up ads may do more harm than good, in fact, leaving would-be customers with a negative impression of your brand. Per SEO.co, despite occasional successes, the conversion rate of the average pop-up ad is a mere 3%. That’s just not worth the effort or spend, especially as these annoying ads may in fact sully the reputation of a brand or product.
4. Yard Signs
This is a hyper-local example, but don’t think yard signs are going to drive much, if any, business. “The worst advertising technique I’ve found was yard signs!” says Forrest Webber, founder and CEO of Bear Brothers Cleaning. “I strategically placed 25 yard signs all over my city, and several of them stayed up for months. Despite that, we got zero calls from the signs. We didn’t see any actual return on investment.”
Key Takeaways
Successful advertising starts with identifying your potential customer base, then doing some audience segmentation, as you may need to approach different groups of people in different ways. Once you know your customers, you can consider which advertising techniques will work best with them, and the actual type of advertising you’ll use, whether social media posts, mailers, short videos, email, etc. Work out a budget, and then make sure to monitor your ROI as you conduct your advertising campaign, trying new approaches when a given initiative does not pay off.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What can enhance the message of an advertisement?
Scott Robertson, president and founder of Robertson Communications, has three tips for making ads the most effective. “Use humor. Super Bowl ads are generally pretty funny and that makes them tolerable. Second, use surprise, as human beings get that rush of dopamine whenever we’re surprised, and sometimes good ads can do this. Third, tell a story. With less time to use, it’s much harder to tell a story, but ads that do this successfully tend to rank higher.”
What is the smartest way to spend advertising dollars?
Targeted ads are the smart spend. “One of the most effective approaches is intent-driven advertising,” says Chris Coussons, founder of Visionary Marketing. “When done right, these ads reach people actively searching for what you offer, which means higher conversion rates and better ROI. Another strong performer is retargeting. A lot of people won’t convert on their first visit, but smart retargeting — such as using custom audiences, dynamic creatives, and tailored messaging — can bring them back when they’re ready to buy. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google Display Network are great for this, but you have to be strategic. Just blasting the same ad at someone for weeks is a fast way to get ignored.’’
What are examples of effective storytelling in advertising?
“One tactic I am seeing a ton of in mainstream marketing with larger brands is the element of storytelling,” says Bria Ramos, founder of The Buzz Brand. “For example, around the holidays, Ralph Lauren launched an animated set of shorts surrounding the adventures of their famous bear. Another favorite tactic of mine is when I see brands pull in characters their audience is very familiar with, and set them into a real life scenario that uses their product. One of the most well known instances of this was seeing ‘Mr. Big’ appear in a Peloton commercial after his final episode in Sex and the City.”
