What Makes an Ad "Great"?

Did You Know? 61% of marketers feel they don’t have enough resources for the amount of content they need to produce with “budget” listed as the top challenge faced when producing visual and social content. (Source)

This is one of the best ads I’ve ever seen.

I don’t know which company it’s for—I saw it on this LinkedIn post—but I liked it so much that it’s literally the only post I’ve ever saved on LinkedIn.

What makes this ad—or any ad—great?

10 key characteristics shared by great ads

1. Clear message: Straightforward and easy to understand

2. Target audience: Speaks specifically to its intended group

3. Engaging: Captures its audience’s attention with visuals, narratives, etc.

4. Unique value proposition: Highlights what sets the product or brand apart

5. Emotional appeal: Makes the audience feel something

6. Call to action: Clearly tells the audience what to do next

7. Memorable: Sticks in the audience’s mind long after being viewed

8. Consistent with brand: Aligns with the brand’s identify and values

9. Visual aesthetic: Visually appealing

10. Credibility: Establishes trust and credibility with the audience

How this ad stacks up

Scroll up and take another look at that ad.

It checks every single one of those boxes.

✅ 1. Clear message: “We are looking for graphic designer”

✅ 2. Target audience: Graphic designers, obv.

✅ 3. Engaging: If our definition of engaging is “captures its audience’s attention with visuals…” then yeah, I’d say this ad was pretty engaging. The LinkedIn post on LinkedIn where I found this ad has 1,876 reactions, 24 comments, a 44 reposts.

✅ 4. Unique value proposition: A little less obvious, but because this is an advertisement for a job, the company is trying to sell itself to potential graphic designer applicants. While I’m not a graphic designer—I only sorta know my way around Canva—I’d imagine graphic designers who see this ad would instantly connect this brand with a more laid back work environment, possibly one where they get to make unique and hilarious ads like this one. For the right applicant, that’s probably a major selling point.

✅ 5. Emotional appeal: I blurted out an audible “Ha!” (just one, not two) when I saw this ad, so it definitely made me feel something. It also conveys desperate need—they’re so incompetent they can’t even use proper grammar—which should resonate with their target audience and make those graphic designers feel like they can make a difference working for the brand.

✅ 6. Call to action: While not explicitly stated, implicitly the call to action is to apply for the job.

✅ 7. Memorable: Here I am talking about it several days later.

✅ 8: Consistent with brand: The only one I don’t feel we can answer on this list, because I don’t know the associated brand.

✅ 9. Visual aesthetic: This is an interesting one. Objectively, the ad isn’t “visually appealing” in the traditional sense. It certainly doesn’t look professionally produced. Some studies show increased engagement among ads with lower production value, but, generally, that means relatable influencer UGC, customer testimonials, or ads like those from clothing campaign where the models look more like the average person. This ad still has visual appeal, though, mostly because it mocks the idea of being visually appealing. There’s beauty in its hideousness.

✅ 10. Credibility: People don’t trust perfection. Last week we saw that companies with review ratings between 4.0-4.7 actually do better than companies with ratings of 4.8-5.0, mostly because the imperfect rating feels more authentic and trustworthy. The company posting this ad hijacks that same part of human psychology to disarm their target audience and build trust.

Great ads don’t require big spend on visuals and production value. While having a larger budget and more resources absolutely is a good thing, money doesn’t buy human connection.

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