Keep the digital simple. Keep the checkout easy, the website intuitive and the reporting clear enough that you don’t need a minor in data science to read it.
Your creative? That’s where we have concerns.
Simple creative has a habit of becoming safe creative. Safe becomes familiar. Familiar becomes invisible. And invisible gets expensive when you’re paying for every impression.
Perfectly fine advertising is everywhere
We have more data and testing tools than ever, and yet so much marketing looks the same. Same stock photos. Same three-word headline. Same smiling person, suspiciously delighted to be discussing business insurance.
It’s all perfectly fine. The problem is that nobody remembers perfectly fine.
Better creative makes your budget work harder
Kantar and WARC found the most creative, effective advertising generated more than four times the profit of low-quality creative. So you can shave dollars off your cost per click and have a very serious meeting about the button. Or you can look at the ad itself and ask the uncomfortable question.
Is it any bloody good?
Weak creative means you keep paying to give it another chance. Another impression, another retargeting ad following someone around Instagram like a needy ex.
Where simple belongs
Your customers should understand what you do, and your checkout shouldn’t feel like applying for a mortgage. The trouble starts when “simple” becomes the creative brief, and every interesting edge gets sanded off until the work is technically correct and emotionally beige.
“Stain-resistant fabric” is information. A toddler, a blueberry and your new cream couch is a story. If your audience winces, you’ve won their attention before mentioning the product.
So, should you keep your digital marketing simple?
Make the experience simple. Then give the creative some teeth. Make them laugh, make them curious, or be beautifully restrained. Just make something happen.
When you’re paying for every chance to be noticed, forgettable gets very expensive.
If your ads are being remembered by nobody, let’s talk about your marketing.
