Ads With Value
Ok, besides entertainment value, can brands offer valuable developer advertising? Absolutely. When you use a developer experience (DX) mindset to inspire your advertising campaigns, you pay attention to the experience across your entire campaign. The DX mindset means that your campaign inspiration is to provide value. And for developers, value translates to “useful.”
Put the “Use” in “Useful”
Really, this is at the center of any developer-focused campaign. Developers appreciate information they can use to become better programmers. They are naturally curious lifelong learners and problem solvers. Ad campaigns that alert developers to specific information, tools, and experiences that support their professional growth mindset avoid becoming noise because they offer developers value. That means satisfying more than curiosity. It also means offering something developers can use right away.
Give More Than Information
What do developers crave? Code. But you have to deliver code in context. Ads should offer solutions that include the why, how, and what of overcoming obstacles that developers are facing right now. Don’t forget the code, but include the context that helps developers know what value that code has for them. Sure, there can be a learning curve. But it won’t be tolerated if there is no high-value,problem-solving payoff in the end.
Deliver Experience
Ad campaigns that point developers to hard-to-use interfaces, poorly organized websites, articles with typos, or untested code will tank your brand’s reputation. Announce an experience that a developer will value. Campaigns should direct developers to accurate information, tested code, intuitive UX/UI, pleasing visuals, and trustworthy text.
Create Interest
Use clear language in ads so developers know exactly what they will get and why it matters. This makes your campaign interesting! Avoid jargon, overly complicated messaging, and hard-to-interpret visuals. Clarity goes a long way toward delivering an interesting and memorable experience.
Value Is As Value Does
Value to developers means usefulness. And if it sounds useful, they’ll want to prove or disprove utility right away. Advertising campaigns should strive to be as useful as possible — from the ad creative itself to the experience the ad offers the developer. When the developer experience of usefulness is at the center of an ad campaign, it offers value. And vapor? Well, vapor will do one thing — make your developer audience disappear.
