How to Maximize Your Ad Potential: Good Ad versus Bad Ad

Crafter's Buzz gives you a free venue to display your handmade crafts. We try to give you every opportunity to paint your products in a positive light and promote your business. When looking at the ads, we found some problems. Thus, we decided that some of you may need some examples of good ads and bad ads . The example ads used below are examples taken from the website. We have made efforts to try and disguise the account information so as to prevent any hurt feelings. We are not picking on anyone in any way - so if these are your ads, please do not take it personally.

Some characteristics of a Good Ad:

1. Large picture (size up to 600kb)

2. Long and thorough description (at least 100 words)

3. Include a company Logo (even if you do not have one - use that space to promote yourself)!

4. Include a contact name, phone number, and e-mail in the description of your ad

5. Include a contact name and phone number to be listed in the ad

6. Update your ads on a regular basis because their is an update stamp

1. Large picture

Crafter's Buzz allows you to have a picture up to 600 kilobytes. This is VERY large. Your pictures should probably be between 300 and 500 kilobytes but you can have up to 600 kilobytes. As you can see in the Bad Ad example above, the picture is very very small. There is no way that someone would be able to see the item they are purchasing. In the Good Ad example, however, the picture is very large. Even though the ad has been resized, the item is still quite clear.

2. Long and thorough description

A good ad will provide a potential customer with a lot of information - colors, styles, type of materials, ingredients, and so on - about the product. The description should be lengthy (at least 100 words) not only because this is how the customer is going to decide on your product but also because this description is listed search engines. This means that you should be as verbose as possible. Yes, people may not read your entire description but search engines certainly will! You do not have to be Hemingway to write. You know your product - all you need to do is write about what you know . Use good grammar, spell check, and please use paragraph breaks.

In the Bad Ad above, you can see that the authors were quite brief in their description using only 78 words. But, they did note that they were offering free shipping and give length and width information. Some other words they may have included: handmade name plate, hand carved wood plate, brief descriptions of some other type of name plates they have available, the type of paint or stain used, who this type of item would be good for, what types of occasions are appropriate, and so on.

In the Good Ad above, you can see that the authors were very thorough in the description writing 175 words. They also included a contact name (twice) and their phone number (twice).

Want to know what terms people are using to find your products on Crafter's Buzz? Click here!

3. Include company Logo

Crafter's Buzz wants you to promote your craft business and your website. List your company logo in the Logo space provided. Don't have a company logo? MAKE ONE! It does not need to be complicated! Having something there is better than not having anything at all.

You can use any image editing software to create a banner. The banner can be 80 pixels high x 300 pixels wide and no more than 100 kilobytes. Not sure if you have image editing software? You are welcome to use the banner builder in the pageBuzz system. You can click here to log into the Demo. Then click on the Manage Photos icon at the top. Scroll down and click on the Banner Builder link. Go from there. If you need help using the feature, please read the help page here.

4. Include a contact name, phone number, and e-mail in the description of your ad

This is pretty self explanatory. You need to tell people who they need to contact and how to contact them. You should give out a phone number. Don't worry, generally scammers will not call you. BUT, you should be aware of the scammers who do use the hearing impaired phone system to try to get you to mail them products to Nigeria or other parts of the world. Click here to learn about the scams.

5. Include a contact name and phone number to be listed in the ad

You need to include your contact information in your ads. People need to know who to ask for when they call or e-mail. Don't want to give your real name - that's fine. But, you should give a name that you will know when someone calls or e-mails.

Do not leave your phone number as 000-000-0000 or some other false information. This is unprofessional and makes you look like a scammer. If you do not want your phone number listed, then leave the space blank. But, realize that you are running a business. Do you shop with businesses that do not give you a phone number? Probably not and if you do, there must be some overwhelming reason.

6. Update your ads on a regular basis because their is an update stamp

All the ads have an update stamp at the bottom. If your ad was last updated in 2004 people may assume that the item is no longer available or that you have forgotten about your ads. Therefore you should update the ads on a regular basis. You do not have actually change anything in the ad - just click on Modify Ad and then click on Submit .

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