Yokel: Ad Best Practices

As you consider your advertising strategy for next year, I suggest you do some research on hyperlocal advertising. It can be a great way to reach your San Antonio audience quickly, easily, and affordably. But what makes for a good hyperlocal ad?

Businesses, meet Yokel

Yokel is a hyperlocal indoor digital display content network that allows companies to advertise directly to their local San Antonio audiences. Business owners deploy simple ads promoting sales, happy hours, upcoming events, etc. to indoor screens placed throughout the city, reaching their audience in real time.

What makes an effective Yokel ad?

It might help to think of Yokel as a network of small, indoor billboards — and like billboards, better Yokel ads will incorporate strong imagery and few words.

You only have a few seconds to engage your audience, so your ad has to be well-crafted. Obviously you must follow the basic ad spec rules (image size and quality, format, etc.); however, if you want your ad to stand out — and be able to track whether or not it worked — you must:

1. Include a call to action - What do you want those who view your ad to do: call you, stop by your shop, complete a form on your website? Make the viewer’s next step obvious.
2. Use large, clean fonts - Use a simple font type (like Sans Serif instead of Edwardian Script) and make your letters big (anything less than 28-point font is hard to read from a distance).
3. Keep it short and sweet - Larger letters mean less room, so keep your ad’s message short and focused.
4. Watch out for leading and kerning - Note the spacing between lines (leading) and between individual letters (kerning) in your ad text. Do things look crammed together and hard to read? Give text extra breathing room.
5. Leverage custom URLs and phone numbers - Create a custom URL and/or purchase a trackable phone number and include it as part of your ad. Knowing that anyone who visits that specific URL or calls the number could only have seen it on your Yokel Network ad helps you track whether or not that ad was effective.

Other best practices to keep in mind

• Make use of bold but simple images - Your image should be eye-catching, and not so complex that a viewer can’t “take it in” in a few seconds.
• Use lighter text on a darker background - This is easier for potential customers to read on a television screen.
• Don’t use pure white - Pure white can cause vibrancy and image ghosting on television displays, which makes your ad harder to read. Use #F1F1F1 (hex) or 240/240/240 (RGB) instead.

Advanced advertiser? Consider a .GIF

Most ads on the Yokel Network are static images — but those more comfortable with ad creation or interested in a potential higher return on their investment should consider an animated (.gif) ad.

These ads allow you to loop a series of individual frames within a single image, creating an animated ad that attracts the eye in ways a static image can’t.

Need help with Yokel ad creation?

Yokel offers a basic ad creation service for a minimal fee. However, if you’re looking for more in-depth assistance, look no further than Digett.

Our team can help you develop a custom Yokel advertising plan, create effective ads, track those ads’ performance, and make strategic decisions aimed at further improving your return on investment. Get in touch with us for assistance.

Help me succeed with Yokel!

(Ed. note: Yokel is a Digett client, and Digett is a Yokel Agency Partner.)