What is Ad Science?

The study of how advertising works. Years of academic study have looked at thousands of advertising case histories and discovered some fundamental rules that guide the decision-making of advertisers.

What kind of advertising creative does my business need?

Ad Science says that every business needs 2 different kinds of advertising creative that work together to attract customers. That’s why OSSA will always provide you with ads in pairs.

The first kind we call Awareness Ads. The objective of these ads is to give your business some visibility and saliency in your category for future buyers.

They may not click on your link straight away but they are ‘primed’ to recall or recognise your brand when they need your service in future. The creative needs to be well branded and clearly associated with your category.

The second kind we call Call to Action Ads. The objective of these ads is to prompt people towards your specific service eg by clicking through to your website. So, when people are looking to buying a service right now, your ad is there as a sign-post to your offering.

The creative needs to clearly represent your specific service and offer a ‘nudge’  to encourage people to act. These nudges are based on Behavioural Science that has understood what encourages people to act.

Who should see my ads?

Ad Science tells us that it is important to target a broad audience of people who buy in your category, because anyone of these people can be your potential customer. For example, anyone in the UK who wants help with their tax returns is a potential customer for an accountant.

OSSA is trained to know what is the right audience for your category so you don’t need to worry about that decision.

Obviously, there might be a specific geography that your customers will live in. For example, a shop may only draw from the locality so you want to only show your ads to people locally. Equally, a Lawyer might have customers across the country and so you will want nationwide exposure of your ads. You can make this decision when you make your ads.

What social media platform should my ads appear on?

There is a mix of factors here. Obviously, you want your ads to be on the platforms where your customers are. But you also want those people to be in the right mindset to hear about your business. For example, people on LinkedIn are much less likely to be receptive to an ad for a Hairdressing salon than they are if they are on Instagram. There are cost factors at play too which can determine which what mix of platforms to use.

OSSA is trained to know what categories are best suited to what platforms and what should be the right mix. You will see a recommendation but are able to edit it if you wish.

Right now, OSSA is currently able to publish your ads to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram with other platforms coming soon.

How much money should I spend on advertising?

If you do not spend money to promote your posts on social media, they will reach very few people - they will appear to less than 3% of your followers.

As a general rule of thumb, businesses should invest between 3-15% of their annual revenue on advertising. (The average marketing budget in the UK is currently 9.5% of annual revenue).

So, for example, a business with £100k revenue should have an advertising spend of between £3k and £15k per year.

Our ad budget calculator helps you determine what is a low, average, and good campaign budget based on the size of your business.