Revamping an advertisement

[Mixed]

Hey all!

I'd like to get back to my forum and bring people in. Now, I'm looking at my old advertisement and wondering if it could use a makeover. Currently, it has my forum name and a little bit of description. No reference of rules or features. Simply mention of "ground-floor". So I'd like to propose a question (or three):

What do you consider when building an advertisement? How much information do you offer? Do you offer any information even or allow for a picture to say it all and rope them in for a preview?

So then, opinions. Shoot!

[Kami]

From a marketing perspective, a good advertisement needs:

- clarity: what is the product being sold, and how can one acquire it?

- legibility: is the name of the product visible? can the name of the product be easily read and understood?

- to be concise: people are busy. even if they are spending time searching for a product, your ad should deliver the information they need to become interested in a more in-depth look within a few seconds.

It’s a little bit more difficult to translate this to an advertisement for a forum but the basics still apply.

- clarity: what is the subject of your forum and how does one get to it? there are so many ads on the ad board that provide a name nothing else, or an image and no description, or just a link. none of this is clear as to the purpose of the forum and whether or not someone would be interested.

- legibility: if you use a graphic, can i read your forum name on it? did you try to cram your whole description into it? is the font you used a display font that looks cool but impossible to read? did you cram it all in a graphic that, should i not be able to load it, results in 0 information about your site being displayed?

- concise: ads are meant to entice you, not deliver every single aspect at once. is your description paragraphs and paragraphs long, or is it to the point? will reading what you wrote entice me to check out the forum itself and see what kind of community it is? are the pertinent links available so i can check them out or do i have to go digging?

these are the kinds of things i both look for in an ad, and practice while creating ads. hope this helps!

[Mixed]

Oh, that definitely helps, Kami. I think I'll take it all into consideration as I review the old advertisement and plan the next.

There was something that concerns me a little though. You mentioned about the ad being only a graphic and it not loading. One of my ideas was to put the information into a graphic. It wouldn't be crammed and I'd try to keep it small file size-wise. The theory behind it would be to make it easier to design an ad for multiple forum host use. The other format I used was a graphic to catch the eye and text to explain a little. Problem was the code differences and matching the text styling to my advertisement while still allowing it to be visible on skins used by the various members.

Honestly, I have no experience with posting templates or giving a post a background, let alone translating that styling cross host (cover all basis to get the exposure).

Now, thinking aloud, would having most of the information in the graphic but the link and THE most important thing (perhaps a slogan) in text work? That way it would be there for most but at least there's something for those who cannot see the image. Or maybe more is needed in the text and I should forget the idea of using a graphic as the full invitation.

[Kami]

Alt text is your friend, so use it when you can. Unfortunately, not all platforms support it (PB does for certain). If your image doesn't load, having an alt text with a small amount of information would be ideal.

What we do at work is add the most pertinent info in the alt text, so for example something like this:



I would have the alt text read:

alt="KING OF THE DAY - $1.99 ONLY"
For a forum, I would probably do something like (to use my own as an example, "The Avatar RP - An AU Legend of Korra Roleplaying Forum". Does that make sense?

The image itself would then be linked, because then if the image doesn't display the alt text is also linked.

If you cannot use alt text on your image, then place what you would have used as the alt text as linked text in a smaller font underneath your banner.

I don't advise putting the bulk of your information in a graphic. If the graphic doesn't load and you don't use / can't use alt text (and I don't recommend having a long alt text either, it's sloppy), all the user will see is a link to your forum. I don't know about you, but that wouldn't really entice me to look, much less join. Additionally, using images to convey a bulk of your information is inaccessible. What of vision impaired and blind users who use a screen reader, or have harsher text/background settings to help them read on a screen? There's also responsivity to consider -- if the user is viewing on mobile, your image might be cut off.

As far as what you should do for the best compatibility, i found that the easiest way is to use a combination. I won't link to my own ad so as to avoid advertising, but something like:

[banner here, relatively narrow in width]
[important links]

[A brief plot synopsis, no more than 150-200 characters]

---

[A brief summary of the forum, no more than 100 characters]
[Who to contact for questions]

I personally do not advertise outside of ProBoards and tumblr, because I am super mega ultra lazy and have no desire to re-code my advertisements to be cross-platform compatible, but it should be fairly easy enough to do, just time consuming. 

[URBAN]

Mixed , ive been running sites for quite awhile and i still am unconvinced theres a 'right way' to advertise or make an advertisement (lol)!

Ive seen a good number of beautiful adverts, chocked full of great code that really made it pop - that lead to sites that i found rather underwhelming in conparison.

On the other hand, ive also been pleasantly surprised clicking into sites that advertise with just their basic premise and a link.

I think it just comes down to personal preference -

I think the role of an advertisement is to give people a general feel for your site: if its a happy site full of fun and laughter (slice of life) then having a playful and bright advertisement will draw in the people you want to attract to it. Vice versa, if your site is a gritty reality full of drama and suspence, then a darker advert leaving people wanting more will draw in 'your kind of crowd'.

They say your not supposed to judge a book by its cover in writing -true enough- but theres another less popular belief that if you havent entranced your readers within the first couple paragraphs (even sentences) theyre very unlikely to make it past the first page. I think this belief is very true when it comes to advertising forums (even designing forums!) on the internet. People generally have pretty short attention spans, so putting a wall of text infront of them as an advert is pretty risky - unless you keep it short and sweet! Because its likely most will click away without reading because it doesnt grab their attention - youll probably only get people who are looking at sites that fit your genre.

Long story short in advertising, i think your really just looking to set the mood of your site (be that with an image or flavor text) followed by some important facts (kept short most often) and tied together with important links (plot, application, advertising).

I think that makes sense, because at the end of the day its okay to have your advert leave people wanting more (its kinda the main point when you think about it)!

Just my thoughts anyway!