7 stages of developing a selling advertising creative

Where to start when working on an advertising creative? What should be the foundation in the design process? How much text should a banner or video contain? Are colors and branding important? How to convey the key message while remaining unique and standing out among competitors, informational and visual noise? And most importantly - how to achieve the set goals, namely - to increase the sales of goods and services, including through creatives? In this article, we will explore what an effective advertising creative that sells should look like

Stages of developing quality creative in advertising

NCSolutions conducted a study on advertising effectiveness. As a result, they found that quality creative is the most important factor in influencing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, the percentage of contribution to increased sales is 49%. We wrote in detail about the factors that influence the effectiveness of advertising, we wrote earlier

Developing effective advertising creative is a complex process. It involves not only design and copywriting but also a deeper work on understanding the needs of target audiences, studying the market, competitors, etc

So, for high-quality development of advertising creatives, you need to:

1. Research the audience, segment and identify the needs, problems, and selection criteria of consumers

This is a very important stage because the creative will only be effective if it focuses on solving the problems and relieving the «pains» of your target audience. If you develop creative based on your own perceptions of the value of the product and service and without understanding your client, the effectiveness of such advertising may be low

What to do? Thoroughly understand your client, conduct research, identify the target audience's problem and offer a solution

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2. Study the product/service

First, understand the characteristics, advantages, and benefits of the product for the target audience. Also, remember the brand positioning, unique selling proposition (USP), and review feedback

3. Systematize creatives

At this stage, it is important to structure the creatives according to the identified segments of the target audience, consider the type of triggers - rational or emotional, touch points, retargeting mechanics

Additionally, consider the stages:

• know
• want
• buy

4. Analyze previous advertising creatives and competitors' creatives

It is necessary to analyze:

• channels and methods
• key messages, offers
• branding and key visuals
• Tone of Voice (ToV)
• statistics

5. Develop an advertising strategy

This is an important stage as it involves defining a global promotion plan, goals and performance indicators, developing a content-media plan, advertising budget, etc

6. Develop offers

An offer is not about a list of benefits. It is based on offering a solution to the target client's problem, providing a specific benefit, and meeting their needs. To make developing an offer easier and clearer, we recommend using one of the models:

• AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action)
• ODC (offer, deadline, call to action)
• PAD (problem, agitation, discredit)
• PmPHS (pain, more pain, hope, solution)

7. Develop the design of creatives

After all the previous stages, it's time to develop the design of advertising creatives. To ensure the creatives are truly effective, you need to:

• determine the format (video, photo, motion), the purpose of the creative, and the audience
• integrate branding elements (logo, brand style, key visuals)
• develop texts according to the Tone of Voice (ToV)
• consider placement
• set the correct orientation and sizes
• correctly place the text
• study recommendations regarding the use of photos and graphics
• use references and previous layouts

You've created an advertising creative, how do you check its quality? Use two main criteria:

1. The visual must attract attention, captivate, and be memorable
2. The advertising creative must follow the «Ladder of Benefits» formula:
   
   • product
   • features
   • benefits
   • utility (rationally)
   • feelings (emotion)

Since creating advertising creatives is not a simple process, a whole team of specialists such as a project manager, marketer, analyst, copywriter, graphic designer and/or videographer, PPC specialist and/or targetologist may work on their development and promotion

Need creative that actually sells? We’ll help you bring all 7 stages to life—from concept to launch

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In summary. Creating creatives for advertising

The effectiveness of advertising campaigns directly depends on the quality of the creative. It is important to remember that quality development of advertising creative is a complex process that starts long before working with design and includes researching target audiences, the product, and competitors, as well as developing an advertising strategy, offers, and systematizing the release of creatives. Since this is a fairly extensive complex of work that involves various fields of activity, the team of specialists should be appropriate. However, the result in the form of increased sales will not take long to show