When your ad gets attention—but not customers

You know what’s annoying?

Making an ad people want to watch...

Then discovering that’s ALL they want to do.

Over ten years of running ads, I keep running into terrible prospects when I use video.

(kinda weird, but hang with me)

I call these… “looky-loos”.

Are they interested? Sure.

Are they a customer?

…Let’s not get carried away, amigo.

Here’s an interesting counterpoint with image ads. In my own campaigns, images that clear a 2% click-through rate have consistently been the ones bringing the results.

That’s a benchmark I pay attention to... then I check what those clicks actually turn into.

And it’s why I keep coming back to images, even with all the fancy things we can do with video now.

With everyone touting “video this! video that!” I’ve wondered why my own experience has been so different.

I think old-school copywriting great Claude Hopkins gave us a pretty good clue... long before anybody could spend every waking moment watching strangers pressure-wash concrete.

In his book Scientific Advertising, he wrote:

“Use pictures only to attract those who may profit you.”

That last part kinda matters.

(if you like money, I guess)

Because there are plenty of people willing to give you their “attention” who have absolutely no reason to buy from you, or the clients you serve.

Think about those driveway-cleaning videos for a sec.

A guy starts with concrete that looks like it hasn’t been washed since the Reagan administration. He makes one beautiful, clean stripe, and the brain goes…

Ooooooh… nifty!

Now you gotta see him do the next stripe… And the next one… Pretty soon you’ve watched six minutes of a man cleaning a driveway in Ohio.

You live in Arizona.

In an apartment.

(but Sam, I love those videos!)

Listen… Your client wants somebody who wants a clean driveway. You found somebody who likes watching dirty ones.

And those two people can look awfully similar when you’re celebrating how much attention your cool video ad got.

That’s my suspicion about the looky-loos I’ve attracted with video. They were already watching entertaining videos... Seems like mine just gave them another one to watch.

On the other hand, an image, done right, gives me a way to put the result and the offer in front of people, together.

…Here’s the finished driveway.

…Here’s where we work.

…Want yours to look like this?

Now, before somebody replies with a video campaign that made them a bazillion dollars...

I believe you.

Video can show the result and make the offer too. And an image can attract plenty of nonsense if you give people the wrong reason to click.

The format doesn’t fix the message.

But for the straightforward local offers I run, a good image often lets me get the whole idea across without asking somebody to sit through a presentation.

…A new shower.

…A finished epoxy floor.

…The thing they already want... with a way to get it.

So, my sweet agency friend… here are a few useful things to check before you launch your next ad:

• What would make somebody stop for this?

• Is it the result your client delivers?

• Or is the entertainment attracting people who don’t want what you’re selling?

Once you run it, check what those people actually do after they click. That’s where you find out whether that attention was worth buying.

Which is why, when I’m in UpHex building the next campaign, I’m not trying to get creative and think about making a dumb viral video…

I’m simply trying to put the result and the offer in the picture, so the right person can raise their hand and say “yes”.

If you want to see how we help you turn that offer into a campaign you can actually launch…

We have over 2,500 image ad campaigns you can start with.

Sam

P.S. I didn’t just write this because I hate making videos… Yes, I hate them! But I’ll happily use one that brings my client customers. I’m picky about results, guys. That’s just me.