Spec Ads and Ad Design
As we talked about earlier, after you've sold an ad, you send the layout, art, and copy, with the attached ad request form, through to the production department and they produce it and put it in the newspaper. Their job is primarily to work with ads that are already sold, or as some people say, "live". But as you'll find, many potential advertisers won't feel comfortable enough to run an ad in your newspaper until you show them a well designed ad first. These ads made in advance before a business might have any desire to run with your newspaper are called ads made on speculation, or more simply, "spec ads".

At many newspapers, the production department won't make spec ads, making only the ads sold and reserved in the newspaper. Instead, they have a separate art department with artists who's primary job is to help you make up ads for you to sell on speculation before any commitment is made. If there is no art department to do spec ads, then usually the production department is willing to produce spec ads during their less busy times.

Whoever helps you create the spec ads, spec ads are the foundation of selling advertising. In fact, our most successful on-site training program called Response Oriented Selling, is based on creating and selling more effective spec ads to get an advertiser into your newspaper, running larger and more frequently while getting a profitable response each time the ad runs. However, it's a two-day training program, so we'll just cover the basics here. If you're interested in our more advanced training programs, you can call us or e-mail us. So let's talk about how to go about creating a spec ad.