Not sure how to write an online ad for GoAbroad? Don’t worry—we’ve got the 411…and examples! ☆ Creating effective online ads for GoAbroad will help propel your program listings and get you attention from potential participants. Have no clue where to start? That’s okay! We’ve got some great examples of what to do and what NOT to do to get you started.
How to write an online ad for GoAbroad
1. Be persuasive
Creating effective online ads takes some serious thought. If you want prospective participants to choose your program, give them a reason to! Use verbs, adjectives, and all the fluff you can think of to make your programs seem like the most incredible opportunity abroad. Spark their wanderlust with compelling title statements like “Imagine yourself spending a semester in South Africa with a view of Table Top Mountain outside your classroom window” or “Fully experience Thai culture while living with a homestay and teaching English at a local school in the Land of Smiles”.
Don’t just say “excursions provided”—TELL them exactly what excursions are going to blow their mind. If you want to stand out from your competitors, you’ll have to get creative to grab prospective participants’ attention!
2. Use high-quality images
Even smartphones take high quality, wanderlust-worthy photos nowadays, so throw out those old prints and first-generation digital camera shots! If you want to entice prospective participants to join your programs, you’ll need to start with the visuals. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
Choose images with real life people in them to help prospective participants imagine themselves being the one in the image. Make the experience come to life through the image by selecting images from past participants who are doing the actual things you’re trying to sell.
3. Avoid grammatical errors
When you’re creating effective online ads, you have to start with the basics. Come onnnnnnn, just use spell check, Grammarly, or your officemate to double check your work! This is the easiest thing for you to check off your list—it just takes a few extra minutes of your time (or your chosen editor’s). It’s way too easy to overlook minor grammatical errors in your own writing, so phone a friend for this one if you need to, so you can ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
4. Follow provided guidelines
When the guidelines say the title character limit is 100 characters, use every character to your advantage, but don’t submit 200 characters! The limits are in place to make sure your ad is the best it can be and fits with the design of the page, so don’t shoot yourself in the foot by forcing us to cut down your characters.
Same goes for the images. They have to follow the guidelines put in place for pixels in order to avoid blurry images, stretched images, and all around poor quality cropping. Submit the largest image possible and let us crop and resize it for you. This will save you time and ensure your image fits perfectly with the ad you’ve created.
5. Get creative
Back to #1—in order to be persuasive, you’ll have to get creative with your word choice. Certain phrases are just plain overused these days, such as “immersive”, so use a thesaurus or brainstorm unique words with your colleagues to make your ad copy more creative.
Remember to think about your target audience and consider what words speak to them, which words are in their vocabulary, and what they are looking for in a program abroad. You want anyone who reads your online ad to feel emotionally connected to the offer you’re making so they’re prompted to click.
If you still aren’t quite sure how to write an online ad, check out the ad examples below to understanding what is considered bad and good.
Bad examples of online advertising
Ad examples with poor images
1. Image is too dark
2. Image is stretched
Ad examples with poor titles
1. Using client name for the title
2. Title is too long, and description too short
3. Not in title case
4. Typos
Ad examples with poor descriptions
1. Grammatical errors
Good examples of online advertising
Ad examples with good images
1. IVHQ
Ad examples with good titles
1. EA Ski & Snowboard
Ad examples with good descriptions
1. World Internships
Ad examples with creative CTAs
You’ll know you’ve created effective online ads when you start seeing those clicks streaming in!
If you aren’t getting the results you want from your online ad, there’s probably room to improve on your end—but now you have the tips you need to turn it around!