It is always easy to criticise than it is to create, and there is nothing worse than being faced with a blank page and a looming deadline.

One of the best places to start is to think back to why you started the business in the first place. My guess is that http://www.searchenginecollege.com came about because you saw a gap in the market for SEM training. To fill that gap you put your extensive SEM knowledge and contacts into developing high quality courses that are easy for students to access and study at their own pace, but have industry ‘cred’!

The benefit to the students, and their employers, is that the knowledge and skills they gain from the courses help them to improve the performance of their site without having to rely on (sometimes) expensive external consultants.

If so, then this gives you some direction for the ad.

A headline could be:
“Improve the ROI on your website without paying huge ongoing SE consultancy fees”
“Unchain yourself from ongoing SE consultancy fees – turn your staff into Search Marketing experts”
While question-style headings are good, the key is to make sure your target audience will clearly see the benefit and answer ‘yes’, then read on.

The body of the ad is the place to reinforce these benefits with clear examples, rather than list features – so short descriptions on each course, and most importantly the benefit they will bring to the target audience, would be relevant.

To help get them to act ‘now’ rather than put it in the ‘I’ll do it later’ basket, some kind of time based offer could also work as an incentive.

What ever any advertiser does, so long as they can measure an ad’s effectiveness, and can apply what they have learned to improve the success of future campaigns, no ad should be a total failure – maybe just an expensive lesson!