When you decide to have an ad made the advertising representative will bring you a “proof” of the ad. It is usually your ad on a piece of paper surrounded by white space. It looks great on paper but how will it look in the paper with other ad and stories next to it?
The best way to tell is to cut your ad out and get a recent copy of the newspaper. Paste your ad over an existing ad of the same size. How does your ad look on the page? Does it stand out? Is it easy to read? Do you have too much information? Too little? Is the message lost among the other ads and stories on the page? Sometimes an ad that looks great by itself is horrible in the finished newspaper.