Print Advertising Design, Magazine Ad and Newspaper Ad Design

5 Tips on Choosing Ad Design Services

What should you look for in choosing ad design services for your business? What is needed to get your message across in the best way which saving as much money on ads as possible? Here are a few tips to follow to get the best deal on ad design services for your business which will work on the web and in the real world:

Think about the visual aspect (layout): Consider who you are trying to target to see your ad and to respond to it, whether it online or in print. Regardless of the medium, you want the visual aspects of the ad to catch your reader’s eye and to get their attention enough to stay on the page.
Text integration should be complementary: Consider the message you want to get across to readers and make sure it complements the visual images you have in the ad. It should enhance, not detract from the pictures, and give readers a true understanding of what you are offering.
Integrated approaches: Your ad design services solution should take into account all of the techniques you are implementing for your overall ad strategy and incorporate the best of these to work together in a streamlined approach. Putting website addresses on postcards and in the magazine ads, for example, is a good strategy which implements more than one type of ad together. This approach utilizes the best of both print and online mediums to capitalize on your message across multiple formats.
Attention to timeline: Make sure your ad is also timely and takes into account the season or time you are putting the ad out. You want your ad to be on time and be relevant to the customer’s needs at the time they are reading the ad. If you do not use seasonal content, then you need to choose an “evergreen” ad which will be relevant year round.
Integration with your website: Above all, make sure your print ads are linked to your website. Put your URL in your print magazine ads, and also include a subscription link to your print magazine on your landing page. This cross-linking between your print and online ads will serve you well over the long haul.

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Are Print Ad Design Services Still Relevant In The Age Of Online Advertising?

horse-buggy Did you know that the average Internet user sees as many as 1,700 banners in a month? Internet users between the ages of 25 and 34 see 2,094 banners in a month. It is undeniable that online advertising is an affordable way to draw attention to a product or to increase brand awareness but it has its drawbacks.

Online banner advertising conversion

However, online ads may not be as efficient as you think. It is estimated that 8% of Internet users are responsible for 85% of all the clicks on banners. The click through rate for online ads is only 0.1%. Online banners are seen by many users but a very small percentage of users actually click on these ads and it seems that a specific niche or age group that accounts for 8% of Internet users is much more likely to click on ads than other Internet users. It is also estimated that a significant percentage of clicks on online ads are accidental, which is not a good experience for users and can cause users to see your brand in a negative way. [Read more…]

What Makes Good Magazine Ad Design?

magazine ad samples When a business chooses to advertise in a magazine, they are not only putting their money on the line, they’re putting their reputation on the line as well. To us, it’s clear why a business would need professional magazine ad design, but you might need some convincing. Well then, here are a few reasons to seriously consider when choosing a print advertising design company for your next campaign.

Respect your Potential Customer

Although it makes sense to treat the reader with respect and not insult their intelligence, there are other things that come into play when designing an eye-catching magazine ad that will serve to get the sort of response you desire from your advertising budget. A truly professional advertising design firm has made it their business to reach your customers in a thoughtful manner without turning them off. [Read more…]

Print ad design costs: Calculating your Print Advertising ROI.

One of the first questions that comes up when searching for a print ad designer is how much does my print ad design cost? Print ad pricing is an important part of the decision process when searching for a freelancer or ad design agency. But not the only thing.

With print advertising as other advertising media, you already have a built in cost — and that is the cost of buying your ad space. Add in the cost of your production and you have the total cost of your insertion. Of course you could also add in the cost of your time or an employee’s time to organize your marketing effort. So let’s do a simple calculation on a hypothetical print ad.

Let’s say you are going to run a 1/4 page in a community newspaper. For the sake of argument, we will be running the same ad 3 times. Each insertion is $750.00, so the total cost of running the print ad will be $2250.00. The cost of you design the ad is $395.00 (which is what we would normally charge), and it took you 3 hours coordinate the ad design and work with your paper’s ad sales representative (at $50/hr)

Print Ad Media Costs = $2250.00
Print Ad Design Costs = $395.00
Administrative Costs = $150.00
==========================
TOTAL COST = $2795.00

So your ad costs $2795, right? Well, not really. The reason you’re advertising is to make a sale, correct? So we need to factor how much business this ad will attract, and then factor that into our costs. Let’s say you will get 10 leads per insertion, so a total of 30 leads. Of your 30 leads you have a conversion rate of 20%. Each sale is worth $500 with a lifetime customer value of $2000. [Read more…]

Advertising in newspapers with Free Standing Inserts (FSI’s)

Free standing insert sales sheet While newspaper display advertising (or ROP ads for Run Of Paper) has seen a decline in recent years, the bright spot for many local dailies and weeklies has been Free Standing Inserts — otherwise known as ‘pre-printed inserts’.

If you’ve looked at the Sunday paper recently, you may notice there is more stuffed IN the paper than there is newspaper itself. For many newspapers these ‘pre-prints’ have helped reverse declines in ad revenue, while providing an great vehicle for local and national advertisers to broaden their reach.

Here are some reasons why newspaper inserts should be considered when developing your advertising media plan:

1) More space to communicate your sales message.

While you may have prime positioning in the main news, the space is limited. You may only have a 2 column by 5 inch ad — while with a free standing insert, you could have an 8.5 x 11 inch full-color sheet that’s 2-sided. This provides much more room for sales copy, photos, or coupons.

2) Inserts are more affordable

With digital and online printers, it’s never been cheaper to print 4 colors inserts. Many publications offer economical printing services discounted as an incentive for you to run in the paper. There are also many online printers that can print your job quickly and economically. Two of our personal favorites are PS Print and 48 Hour Print. In each case you can enter your quantities and get an instant print estimate.

Also, in comparison to direct mail, the cost of distributing an insert is usually much less than direct mail that requires a large investment in not only the printing, but the postage. [Read more…]