The Anatomy Of An EdTech Ad

Part 1 of 3: Ad Texture

Feb 22, 2024

Do you remember the last time you stopped what you were doing to consider an ad? What compelled you to halt your scroll impulse?

You may not realize it, but a lot goes into that simple rectangle to make you stop.

In this mini-series, we will unpack the art and science of how EdTech companies go to market. More specifically, the levers successful EdTech companies use in acquiring customers.

Our first topic is the anatomy of an ad — the tried-and-true way to persuade a potential customer to enroll in a class, download an app, or subscribe to an educational product. The anatomy of an ad can be broken down into three parts:

Ad Texture: Captivate the audience enough to pause their scroll [The focus of this issue]
Emotional Resonance: Persuade the audience to stay a while
The Hero: Nudge the audience into taking an action

Today, we’ll talk about Ad Texture. Subscribe below to make sure you see our follow-up posts on Emotional Resonance and The Hero.

What is Ad Texture?

People scroll through billions of education ad impressions each year. And the thumbstopping rate on the average Facebook ad is 20%. In EdTech the average is often lower. That is, more than 80% of prospects scroll right past your ad without considering its message.

To solve this, you need to disrupt a prospect’s visual and emotional pattern to get them to even read your ad.

Here’s a good example of what that looks like.

Example 1: Striking an emotional chord while sparking curiosity

The following elements stand out - they provide texture - in this ad:

Unexpected language: The ad uses text sparsely, which allows words like “weird” and “billionaires” to stand out as unexpected language in an ad.
Emotional range: The kids in the image have a range of emotions that make you pause and assess “why?”
Curiosity: This ad piques curiosity as a parent wonders how the game and the kids’ engagement create the “real magic” the ad refers to.
Last attempt: Notice, at the end of the ad, as a prospect may be thumbing past it, there is a final plea with “There’s a better way…”.

These elements create a rich texture for the prospect to process visually. The ad intentionally takes you on an emotional roller coaster.

Example 2: The power of clarity without the frills

Now that you have seen a compelling, visually disruptive ad, you may be tempted to ask your creative team to make all your ads more “edgy.” But simple, straightforward ads can work too.

Take this Pluralsight ad as an example.

While this ad’s texture is a little more sedate, it still compels the prospect with the following elements:

“Need”: The value proposition in the ad - a raise or promotion - is considered a need for many. This ad intensifies that need with the word “depend.” It asks “Do your 2024 career goals depend on better cloud skills?”
Emotion: In contrast to the Synthesis ad, this one does not show people with emotional expressions. However, it still invokes emotions with “We’ve got you” in a different, bold color to grab the prospect’s emotional interest.
Show vs. Tell: I find it compelling that this ad does not say they provide skills in 10+ technologies. Instead, ⅓ of it is devoted to well-known technology logos. An even stronger storytelling device.
Reward: The rounded rectangle in the middle with “save now” and 50% off provides multiple visual cues that there is a reward for acting now.

How you can use these two different ads to inform your creative strategy

Most ad creative sessions anchor on the tactics, with a focus on the 3 C’s: Copy, Creative, and Call-To-Action.

Instead, a powerful ad should start with the texture which can be informed by asking human-centric questions. Some of my favorite ones are:

Emotion: What is the prominent emotion you are trying to elicit? And how strong is this emotional need?
Expectation: If a prospect expects to scroll past 80% of ads, what was unexpected in your ad that made them stop?
Reward: What is the expected reward for clicking on an ad? For example, in the synthesis ad, the product is for my kid, but my reward for simply clicking is learning what billionaires do for their kids.
Show vs. Tell: Does the visual show our value, or are we solely relying on the text to describe the value proposition?

What’s coming next?

Our next issue will cover the myriad strategies growth teams use to emotionally engage prospective customers.