Designing a set of good advertising materials is your key to success in China’s online promotion landscape. This article will share our suggestions for designing ad materials, based on our experience.

Analyze the selling product and target audience

Before promoting, advertisers need to know their products and the characteristics of their target customers.

1. Fully grasp the product – its details, specs, and everything in-between

Before developing your ad material, it’s imperative you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your product. The most efficient way is to communicate with your sales experts to quickly understand the product issues that consumers are most concerned about. Then, when writing your ad copy and designing subsequent advertising images, videos and other materials, your creative team can address target users’ main points and needs in a more precise manner.

2. Investigate competing products in the industry

a) Material research of the industry

When researching your competitor’s ad materials, it is important to take note of what selling points they are highlighting, and analyze your competitor’s reasons for using the specific selling point. An in-depth understanding of competing products allows designers to create appropriate advertising materials based on advantages, enhance product strength, or differentiate marketing.

b) Research the verbal tricks in the industry

To improve the conversion effect, its important to research the verbal tricks of your competitors. For example, what kind of words do they use to obtain sales leads? Consider using a direct phone call or form to gather your customers' information. 

c) Collect material regularly

We recommend collecting industry materials for analysis regularly. This will help you understand the most commonly deployed ad strategies and materials within your industry. Then, draw inspiration from the different sources’ characteristics and design skills.

3. Consumer research

To better understand the actual needs of your customers, we recommended communicating with your front-line sales team to understand the following questions:

a) Consumer preferences

Understand what consumers like (such as color, style, function selection, etc.), what factors are taken into consideration when purchasing products, and the significant reasons that encourage users to purchase your product. Record and analyze these factors one by one.

b) Regional distribution of consumers

Identify those areas where consumers are mainly congregated in, to help you determine suitable delivery zones. 

c) Reason consumers do not purchase your product(s)

Knowing what your consumers like and dislike is important. Record this information down on a table and analyze the intent leads for easy viewing. For example, suppose your store’s distance is a main concern for consumers when deciding to purchase your product. In that case, it might be helpful to highlight the location of your item/product in the copywriting, to filter out the invalid crowd.

4. The demographic segmentation of the proposed product

According to the product information collected in the previous steps and the customer's information, draw up the customer's crowd portrait. 

Data analysis of creatives

1. Classification and arrangement of materials

When placing an ad, you will have the option to name the campaign, ad group, creatives and landing page. You can also combine your ad material for further analysis, to understand which advertising option should be matched with which materials. This will allow you to analyze your marketing materials in more detail.

2. Data analysis methods

Data analysis aims to find out and solve the source of the problem.

a) Data splitting

You need to split and analyze your data to discover the core problems, and optimize your ad materials’ effectiveness. The key data for high-quality analysis materials mainly include impressions, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), conversion cost, etc.

The most critical issue can be set as the first-level data in splitting data. When there are changes in data, the cause for change is the second-level data, and analyzed gradually.

For example, the conversion rate is the first level. If your conversion rate is altered by clicking your advertisement, then the second level of data is the click rate.

b) A/B testing to find more effective ad materials

A/B testing refers to designing two different versions according to the core points of your materials. Except for this core point, it is necessary to ensure that other elements of the two versions are the same. Once you have A/B testing set up, run through the same ad placements to find which ad option delivers high-conversion, low-cost ad creatives.

You can conduct A/B testing through pictures, copywriting, or button clicks of the material according to your actual needs. For example, in the above photo, if you are uncertain whether the red text in ad images or white CTR works better then the color of the text (red & white) becomes the content of this AB test, and the ad's click-through rate is the criteria for determining the test.

For more tips on designing practical advertising materials, contact our marketing consultant at: enquiry@so360.hk.