Ad Blockers: One Millennial’s Perspective

This week I received an offer from LinkedIn for $50 worth of free advertising credits. If you’re a marketer, you probably got the same message. There were no strings attached. As an advertising student, I was excited by the opportunity to broadcast my portfolio of work across the LinkedIn network. I accepted the offer and began hastily creating an ad for my book.

As I neared the closing stages of the process, LinkedIn generated a preview of my ad. I have to admit that upon seeing it, I was a bit taken aback. The small advertisement looked completely unfamiliar to me. In fact, it looked downright out of place on the page.

With mild surprise, I realized that I had never before seen a sidebar ad on LinkedIn. I’d been using the platform for more than a year, but I’d installed an ad blocker plugin before I built a profile. 

I stared for a moment at the suddenly distasteful ad and then closed the window. If I, a copywriter at a digital marketing agency, was unwilling to look at an online ad, how could I conscientiously foist it on others?

It wasn’t LinkedIn’s fault. Their ads are easily as beautiful and effective as those of any other social media platform. The fault was mine. I had created something that I wasn’t personally interested in and expected others to engage with it. Publishing it would have been the digital equivalent of throwing a diaper out onto the street.

Since then, I’ve given a lot of thought to the state of modern digital advertising. I’m no genius, but I’ve chatted with my peers and they generally feel the same way I do. Here are some of my conclusions.

1) Ad Blockers Aren’t Going Away

Did I delete my ad blocking plug-in? No. I deleted my ad. It wasn’t a hard choice. Ad blockers allow me to access content cleanly and immediately. I don’t want to hear your quote of the day. I don’t want to download Clash of Clans. I just want to read the blasted article. 

In a very unscientific Twitter poll, I recently asked my followers if they thought ad blockers were “good” or “bad.” Bearing in mind that my network is mostly composed of marketing and advertising professionals, I was surprised when the results showed that 86 percent of voters thought ad blockers were good. They’re just too convenient. They make the Internet experience so much more pleasant. They’re here to stay.

I know it’s selfish, but I get irritated when pages beg me to disable my ad blocker. I never do it. Call me irresponsible, but I don’t feel obligated to personally hold up the faltering online publishing industry like some sort of modern Atlas. I just want to read another piece about the Kardashians.  

2) Outlets Matters

The same day that I deleted my LinkedIn ad, I read dozens of sponsored articles posted by The Onion. The satire page is a personal favorite of mine. I ravenously devour everything they post. In a twisted way, I trust them as publishers. If they write it, I know it will be entertaining—even sponsored content.

Businesses should carefully consider the outlet they choose to publish their content. Facebook and Twitter are the go-to outlets for most, but there’s a risk of over-saturation. Many of my friends feel like social media is becoming too promotional. Distasteful marketing drives them from platform to platform, but the ads and promotional posts are never more than a step behind. 

In addition to traditional social media outlets, I think that businesses should consider sponsoring content in online periodicals and news sources. Many of these outlets have devoted followings who will happily digest content the way I savor Onion articles. I think content marketing is generally a better approach for marketers than pay-per-click ads.

3. If You Don’t Love Your Content, Nobody Will

If Charles Dickens had serialized A Tale of Two Cities on Quora, he probably could have published the whole novel before he had a thousand readers. The sad truth is that today’s content consumers are a jaded bunch. They’re so used to literary cabbage that they’re prone to miss the occasional strawberry that finds its way into the trough. 

When you finish a content article, you should feel a strong impulse to bind it in leather and display it on the mantelpiece. It should be so good that your kids ask you to read it to them as a bedtime story for consecutive nights. If you can’t picture your ad hanging in the Louvre, at least be able to imagine it on the cover of Communication Arts.

I believe that quality content builds consumer bases faster than any other marketing technique. I also believe that it’s the most difficult and time-consuming technique to pull off. Don’t expect the Internet to be merciful to your ads. Instead, try to blow consumers away with your breathtaking work. The idea that all publicity is good publicity is a tired fallacy. 

I think my experience with the LinkedIn ad is representative of the whole advertising industry. We look at our work, grimace, and then press the publish button with the attitude of a man pulling the trigger in Russian roulette. It should come as no surprise that consumers are choosing to tune us out. As an industry, our music has become flat. 

If we want to overcome the ad-blocking problem, we either need to correct our pitch or learn to sing a different tune.

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Tanner Wadsworth is a copywriter, digital marketing consultant and connoisseur of fine jogger pants. He works for the BYU AdLab and Fusion 360 Agency, in addition to freelance work. To know what he thinks about in the shower, follow him on Twitter. To know what he thinks about at work, connect on LinkedIn. Lastly, his advertising portfolio is available here.

Why Regular People Absolutely Loathe Writing

I realize that I can’t speak for everyone, but let’s be honest here—few are the people that truly love writing. Sure, many are those who claim to enjoy writing in their free time, but that “passion” often seems like its little more than a hipster-induced craze. 

When it comes time to actually sit down and start typing away, there are simply more appealing things to do. 

More often than not, at least from what I’ve both seen and heard, writing is viewed as a type of activity most comparable to having one’s shins hit repeatedly with a wiffle ball bat. How can this be? 

Well, as far as I’m concerned, there are a few reasons for such a lack of editorial enthusiasm in the good ol’ United States:

Writing Calls for Concentration

I’m a younger guy, so I totally get how difficult it can be to focus for long periods of time. 

While both my parents and grandparents apparently spent the entirety of their youth building character, us millennials are more accustomed to spending our free time on any one of our personal electronic devices. 

Needless to say, with so much entertainment at our fingertips, it can be hard to focus on what most would consider run-of-the-mill entertainment outlets. As such, concentration suffers and the desire to write is almost completely destroyed.

Writing Requires Research

No, BuzzFeed lists and Tumblr posts don’t count as real “research.” At the same time, however, I’m not talking about the old-school research that was required to throw together a few term papers in high school or college. 

Ya know, with like Wikipedia and stuff? 

Conversely, research with the intent to write (not a crime) is substantially more arduous and involves hunting for the most minute of details so as to ensure that any editorial production stands out as a unique creation. Simply put, the tediousness of it all turns many people off.

Writing Demands Thought

Remember when old writing professors would talk about the value of creating an outline before starting in on an assignment? Yes, this was annoying as heck, but there was a method to their madness.

Though the content found on this blog would certainly beg to differ, for persuasive writing to be as influential as possible, each individual reader must be taken into consideration. 

For this reason, the layout of an argument is of the utmost importance. To make this happen, a great deal of painstaking thought is necessary.

What do you think—am I correct in my assessment of the state of writing? Do people really try and avoid writing at all costs, or is this something I’m blowing out of proportion? If willing, take a moment or two to express your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Lucas Miller is the Founder of Echelon Copy. When not writing, editing or running, he's working tirelessly to perfect what he claims is the "World's Greatest Pompadour." Additionally, for what it's worth, his editorial works have been featured on Social Media Today, Business2Community, Ragan's PR Daily, Spin Sucks and many other top-tier PR publications.

Put the Pen Down: a Copywriter’s 4 Biggest Beginner Mistakes

It doesn’t matter if it’s sewing, croquet, Chinese checkers or lacrosse—when it comes time to learning a new skill, mistakes are going to be made.

Random examples aside, the same applies to the art of copywriting. Believe it or not, you’re human, and when you’re producing copy, you’re going to make mistakes. 

It just so happens that when you’re new to a specific content type or even to the industry as a whole, the mistakes you make are going to occur at a higher frequency. 

The best way to overcome them? Identification. 

If you’re new to copywriting, the following are four of the most common mistakes you’re probably going to make. 

1) Atrocious Headlines

This is so basic, but so hard to do. That said, it’s a skill that needs to be learned because it’s one of a copywriters most important tools. 

In fact, said David Ogilvy, The Father of Advertising, “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” 

Learn to write headlines that give people a reason to read the first sentence of the first paragraph. If you can do that on a regular basis, you’ll already be ahead of many experienced copywriters.

2) Bypassing On a Call-to-Action

What good is copy if it doesn’t bring about some sort of sales action? Now, that said, I’m not insisting that a CTA be overly aggressive or sales-driven, but it should at least be present within a piece. 

Providing more information on the value of a CTA is Paul Cheney of Marketing Experiments, saying, “It’s not about the action itself, it’s about the value they’re going to get as a result of taking that action. Getting that right in your CTA can give you dramatic lifts with very little effort.”

Sound a bit tricky? 

No need to worry. Understanding will come in time. For now, just know that it’s your job to always include some sort of CTA—no matter how big or small.

3) Saying Too Much or Too Little

Copywriters are either long-winded or too succinct. The goal is to find that ever-elusive balance. 

As far as I’m concerned, I tend to say more than I should. That said, when I try and fix things, I often take it to the opposing extreme. Though I already have a couple of years of copywriting experience under my belt, I continue to struggle with this.

While you might be an outlier, chances are high that you’ll need some experience to understand where a reader is in the buying process. 

Yes, piece type and industry play a part in this, but that’s where experience comes into play. When you’re just starting your copywriting career, you wont’ have much of it. 

Hang in there. It’ll come.

4) Unfitting Tone

Depending on the setting, this can actually pretty funny, even if your client struggles to find humor in the situation.

Think about it—you wouldn’t speak to a full-grown adult like an infant, would you? Well, when a new copywriter is faced with writing for a client whose industry he or she knows very little about, oftentimes the subtle nuances of an audience’s preferred editorial tone are overlooked.

The result? Awkward reading.

To avoid this, take an extra half-hour or so to read up on other industry-specific publications. This will prevent you from sounding naive or ignorant.

Try as you might, at one point or another, you’re going to fall flat on your face. Copywriting isn’t for the faint of heart. 

Because of this, when you make a mistake, it’s key that you dust yourself off and get back to work. Soon enough, you’ll have a firm grip on things.

Now, let’s see what you have to say about the life of a new copywriter. You seasoned copywriters, how were you able to deal with each of the aforementioned obstacles? What other challenges weren’t mentioned here that should’ve been? 

For those who are currently just getting started, what have you noticed about the experience? Take to Twitter and tweet your thoughts and feelings at @EchelonCopy. In no time at all, you’ll get a response.

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Lucas Miller is the Founder of Echelon Copy. When not writing, editing or running, he's working tirelessly to perfect what he claims is the "World's Greatest Pompadour." Additionally, for what it's worth, his editorial works have been featured on Social Media Today, Business2Community, Ragan's PR Daily, Spin Sucks and many other top-tier PR publications.