“A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.” — David Ogilvy, The Father of Advertising
The Advertorial was invented as a tool for converting strangers into customers.
When it’s done right, the visitor never feels like they’ve been advertised to. Instead they feel like they’ve discovered a new product.
And that’s the magic.
What makes advertorials work is the difference of feeling sold too versus feeling a moment of discovery.
Readers of advertorials feel like they discovered the product. They feel it was their idea to buy it. They don’t even notice they were just pitched.
It’s incredible that there aren’t more books written about advertorials. They’ve been used in every major advertising medium including radio and TV.
This is not an article about a new invention, it is a guide to using an old proven tool on a new digital platform.
“With banner blindness, ad blockers and ad fraud at all-time highs, advertorials have become increasingly important in the digital advertising space. Experts predict native ads (an iteration of advertorials) will dominate ad revenue in the coming years.” — Advertise.com
Let’s start with the core.
What an advertorial is and isn’t.
Some people think an advertorial is a sales page, that’s the biggest misconception. An advertorial should NOT sell the product.
The job of the advertorial is to attract readers without standing out. Then to make them believe your point of view and finally take action to learn more about the product mentioned.
Selling the product is the job of the sales person or sales page (your sales process).
The advertorial is a bridge between the ad and the sales process.
The ad drives the click, the advertorial creates desire for the product, and then the sales page/person motivates the reader to buy now.
Another important point is advertorials don’t always need to be in written form, they can be in many different media formats.
In fact various research firms predict 80% of the Internet will be video by the year 2021. We’re seeing that happen now with Youtube, FB Live, and IGTV.
Whether you are making a video, audio, or written advertorial the purpose and process is the same.
You start by writing it. With video and audio you still start with a written script and you still include all the same persuasive elements.