50 Questions to Ask for Advertising Success

It’s exciting to launch a new advertising campaign. Whether you’re launching a paid search campaign, new Facebook ads, or even direct mail, advertising your company’s product or service is a great moment. Of course, a lot of hard work goes into setting up a successful advertising campaign. Before you even decide on the type of campaign you are going to run, the targeting, and what your creative angle will be, you need to develop a creative brief or messaging document.

For decades, creative briefs have been used in the advertising industry to ensure that the agency and the client are completely aligned on what they are trying to accomplish. Without a brief, the agency could conceivably spend weeks developing amazing ideas, creative executions, and media campaigns that don’t align with their client’s goals.

No matter how you create your advertising campaigns, it’s vital for all your internal stakeholders to be aligned on what the goals and outcomes should be for your company’s marketing initiatives. Starting with a creative brief before every project is key to everyone being on the same page and working toward the same goal.

The 10 Most Important Advertising Questions to Ask When Creating a Campaign

A good creative brief doesn’t have to be long or complex, but it does need to answer some key questions and help boil down your strategy and goals into simple terms.

1. What is your single key message in one sentence?
2. What is the key objective or purpose of this campaign? Why are you advertising?
3. What problems are you solving?
4. What does the audience think or feel about you, your product, your service, and your service?
5. How should this change after seeing your advertising?
6. What are the reasons to buy your product/service?
7. Who are you talking to (gender, age, interests, income, education, etc.)?
8. What is your tone?
9. What are your product/services key benefits?
10. What is the call to action?
    

By taking the time to answer these questions and thoughtfully plan how you want to market your product or service, you can ensure that your campaign is set up for success.

Once you have clear answers to these 10 questions, it’s time to communicate with your team. Ensure that everyone involved in creating the campaign is working from the same set of core concepts and ideas. From your copywriter to your social media manager, the brief will let everyone know the key components of the campaign and what they need to do to successfully implement their very important task.

Get the Ultimate Guide to Conversation Intelligence to learn how to create more successful advertising campaigns with Invoca. 

10 More Questions to Ask to Evaluate the Success of a Campaign

Once you've finished running your campaign, it's time to evaluate your success. These questions will help you determine how well your campaign performed, if you should make tweaks to it, and if your results are repeatable.

1. What are the key metrics you're measuring to determine success — cost per lead, cost per acquisition, cost per click?
2. What reports can you create to communicate your results to leaders in the organization?
3. Did you drive quality leads from your campaign? How many of them progressed through the funnel and converted?
4. Do you have a plan in place with sales to follow up on unconverted leads?
5. Is it worth retargeting leads who didn't convert with future ads tailored to their interests?
6. If you ran an A/B test, what learnings did you uncover? Did certain messaging resonate more strongly with your audience?
7. Are there future A/B tests you can run to further optimize your ads?
8. Can you use automated bidding, such as Google smart bidding, to scale your results?
9. Can you add additional channels to your campaign to boost its impact?
10. Do you have attribution for every conversion the campaign generated, including phone call conversions?

The questions above will help your team understand how well your campaign performed and plan better for future campaigns. Running marketing campaigns is a process of continuous learning and iteration — there are always new ways to optimize and improve over time.

10 Questions to Find Out If Your Ad Copy Is Effective

1. Is your copy clear and concise, conveying your message without ambiguity? 
2. Does your copy address your target audience's pain points and needs effectively? 
3. Is there any jargon or technical terms that might confuse your readers? 
4. Does your copy have a compelling headline or hook that captures the reader's attention? 
5. Have you considered testing different copy variations to see which one resonates best with your audience? 
6. Have you incorporated social proof or testimonials to build trust with your readers? 
7. Does your copy provide a clear and compelling solution to the audience's problem? 
8. Have you checked for grammar and spelling errors to maintain professionalism? 
9. Are you tracking the conversion rate of your copy to measure its effectiveness?
10. Are you incorporating storytelling elements that resonate with your target audience and make your copy more relatable and memorable?

10 Questions to Ask for Effective Campaign A/B Testing 

1. What specific elements are you testing in your A/B tests (e.g., headlines, CTAs, images, layout)? 
2. Do you have a clear hypothesis for each A/B test and expected outcomes? 
3. Are you segmenting your audience appropriately for A/B testing to ensure relevance? 
4. What is your sample size and testing duration to draw statistically significant conclusions? 
5. How often do you review and act upon the results of your A/B tests to optimize your campaigns? 
6. Have you analyzed the demographic and psychographic differences between the A and B test groups? 
7. Are you using consistent tracking and analytics tools to ensure accurate data collection? 
8. Have you documented the learnings and insights from previous A/B tests for future reference? 
9. Are you collaborating with other departments or teams to gain a holistic perspective for your A/B tests?
10. Have you considered conducting usability testing to ensure that changes made as a result of A/B tests align with the overall user experience and design of your website or app?

10 Questions to Ask for Successful Content Marketing 

1. Does your content align with your brand's mission and values? 
2. Have you identified the key pain points or questions your content addresses for your audience? 
3. Are you leveraging various content types (blog posts, videos, infographics) to diversify your content strategy? 
4. Have you established a content calendar for consistency in publishing? 
5. How are you measuring the impact of your content marketing efforts, and what KPIs are you tracking? 
6. Have you defined your content's unique selling proposition (USP) to differentiate it in the market? 
7. Are you actively promoting and sharing your content on social media and other channels? 
8. Have you considered creating evergreen content that remains relevant over time? 
9. How do you plan to adapt your content marketing strategy to changing consumer trends and preferences?
10. Have you developed a distribution strategy that extends beyond your own channels, such as guest posting on relevant websites, influencer collaborations, or syndicating content to reach a wider audience?

10 Quick Tips to Improve the Effectiveness of Your Advertising Campaigns

Putting these tips into action can help improve the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns by enhancing targeting, engagement, and conversion rates. It's important to continually assess and adjust your strategies based on performance data to achieve the best results:

1. Define Clear Objectives: Clearly define your campaign objectives and desired outcomes. This ensures that all efforts are aligned with a specific goal, whether it's increased website traffic, lead generation, or sales. 
2. Know Your Audience: Understand your target audience's needs, preferences, and pain points. Use buyer personas to create content and messaging that resonates with them. 
3. Compelling Visuals: Use eye-catching visuals in your ads. High-quality images, videos, and graphics can capture attention and convey your message effectively. 
4. Craft Persuasive Copy: Write concise, persuasive ad copy that highlights the benefits of your product or service. Use compelling language and a strong call to action (CTA). 
5. Mobile Optimization: Ensure that your ads are optimized for mobile devices, as a significant portion of web traffic comes from mobile users. Responsive design is key. 
6. A/B Testing: Continuously A/B test different ad elements, such as headlines, images, and CTAs, to identify what resonates best with your audience and refine your campaigns accordingly. 
7. Landing Page Alignment: Ensure that your ad's messaging aligns with your landing page content. A seamless transition from ad to landing page helps improve conversion rates. 
8. Data-Driven Decisions: Use analytics and data to track campaign performance — and don't forget to track the phone call conversions your campaigns drive! Adjust your strategy based on data insights to maximize ROI. 
9. Social Media Engagement: Encourage social media engagement by responding to comments and messages promptly. Engaging with your audience builds trust and fosters a sense of community. ‍
10. Use Call Tracking: Implement call tracking software, like Invoca’s, to monitor and analyze inbound calls. This allows you to attribute leads and conversions to specific marketing channels, helping you optimize your campaigns for better results.

How Will Your Leads Convert?

Beyond the questions above, marketers should also consider how leads will want to convert on your ad. Will they fill out a form to book an appointment or get more information? Will they convert in an online shopping cart? Will promotional products help move them down the funnel? Or will they want to make a phone call to speak to a human being and complete their purchase? The answer to these questions often depends on your industry and what you are selling — businesses with products and services that are complex, expensive, infrequently bought, or urgent purchases often generate more inbound calls than online leads.

Determining whether people will convert online or over the phone will not only impact your call to action for your ad and landing pages, but the technologies you will need to track conversion rates. Online conversions can be tracked using tools like Google Analytics. But if you think leads are likely to convert by making a phone call, then you would want to get attribution and intelligence on those phone leads using a conversation intelligence solution.

Want to see Invoca conversation intelligence in action? Request your personalized walkthrough of the platform.