The Difference Between a Winning and Losing Campaign: The Angle

One of the most important, or dare I say, the most important aspect of a successful campaign is the Angle.

Now, what exactly is an Angle? We know that in geometry an angle is defined by the two rays intersecting at a common endpoint. In advertising, however, an angle can appear to be much more abstract and complicated than its geometric definition. But I assure you this is not the case. Let’s look at what marketers mean by an angle and strategies to captivate your audience.

What is an Angle?

In a few words, an angle is the story behind the campaign that helps the audience connect with your ads on a deeper level. It is the “big idea” that brings life to your headlines, copy, images, what have you, and produces customers who are itching to purchase your product and/or service.

Why is it important?

When you have a clear angle, it’s much, much easier to define a headline, copy, and images that should be used to tell a story that actually converts.

“Why can’t I just list out features of a product?”, you might ask. The problem here is that it’s only useful when someone is already interested and is searching for your specific product. If most people do not know about your product you will need to tell them they need it and convince them why they need it.

At the end of the day, an advertisement disrupts a user’s day-to-day, so you have to give them a good reason to stop and interact with your advertisement. It is only after they have been hooked by an angle that they will start caring about things like features of your product or service.

How do you develop an Angle?

There are tons of methods found online and offline for you to develop angles, but here’s the simplest process I’ve seen and tested without fail.

Questions you need to consider

What are your target market’s pain points?
What solution can you provide them with?
How can you connect the above to evoke emotion?

Let’s go through an example of a feature-focused ad campaign vs. an angle-focused ad campaign.

Campaign 1: Get comprehensive life insurance from a popular insurance company. Click here to learn more.

Campaign 2: Love your dog? How would you feel if you couldn’t pay your vet’s bills? Click here to protect your loving dog for a small monthly fee.

What’s the difference?

Let’s evaluate each campaign based on the three questions above.

Campaign 1

Does this campaign speak to a specific pain point?
Does this campaign provide a clear solution to a problem?
Does this campaign evoke emotion?

Campaign 1 does not speak to a specific pain point and, thus, does not have a clear solution that is targeted to that pain point. The ad is simply stating the company in question has comprehensive pet insurance available, but it does not communicate WHY the audience needs it. If someone is not actively looking for pet insurance, they will not blink an eye.

Campaign 2

Does this campaign speak to a specific pain point?
Does this campaign provide a clear solution to a problem?
Does this campaign evoke emotion?

Campaign 2’s specific pain point is the financial struggle with vet bills. If you do not have a pet insurance plan, the bills can get extremely expensive. Thus, the clear solution to the problem is getting a pet insurance for a small monthly fee. People make small payments for large expenses all the time, so it should be no different for pet insurance.

Emotions are evoked throughout the ad by making the connection between pet insurance and the pet owner’s relationship with their own pet. The call to action displays this connection well: “Protect your loving dog” emphasizes the strength of the relationship between the pet owner and their dog. At this point, a small fee is worth every penny if it means potentially saving your loving dog’s life.

If you’re not convinced yet, here are more reasons why an angle is so important.

Decrease costs!
Finding the right angle and solving the right problem will decrease your ad cost significantly. Instead of shooting in the dark and testing 20 different campaigns until something sticks, you can test, for example, five campaigns with well-thought-out angles that you know will likely capture your audience’s attention and tug at their heartstrings.

Get more insights!
On top of that, it provides you with insight while you are testing. If you test the angles first, it gives you insight into why a specific image or design element works or doesn’t work. It gives you a way to replicate successes and prevent failures.

Thus, bringing us full circle: the angle can truly be the difference between a losing campaign and winning campaign.

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