Advertising on Facebook is a great way to reach a wide audience and build brand awareness while creating demand for your products. Running ads on Facebook is a dynamic decision because you are gaining the potential to show ads on any of Facebook’s family of apps, including Instagram. With one of the broadest audience reaches of any marketing effort, Facebook advertising is a solid investment for your business.
One of the most vital aspects of Facebook advertising is the creative. It’s what catches the user’s eye and brings attention to your brand. Learn some techniques for how to make your creatives stand out on Facebook.
Ad Formats
You can choose from multiple formats in which to run your ads. The format you use determines what type of ad will run and, sometimes, where it is visible on a page. Each ad format has different benefits for different types of advertisements.
Static Image
A static image ad is a single image with text overlays. The best way to make a static image ad stand out is to use clear, high-quality images that focus on the product.
Carousel
Carousel ads are a series of images with text overlays that users can scroll through. They provide brands with more messaging space so that they can educate users on their product or service. This ad type can focus on a range of products or different parts of the same product. The variability of the carousel format allows the company to tell a story. It also provides an opportunity to test different headlines in each carousel card, allowing companies to use more hooks in one concise format.
Simple Animation
A simple animation is a graphic with some small movement to help catch consumers’ eyes. It’s a great way to maintain the conciseness of using an individual image while making it more eye-catching to grab attention and engagement.
GIF
A GIF is a graphic with movement, multiple images, and options for more messaging than a simple animation offers. It’s a combination of a carousel and a simple animation that’s beneficial in storytelling with moving elements. These should stay under 20 seconds.
Video
Use video assets to create ads with text overlays. They are interesting and capture the user’s attention through motion.
Each format can run on its own, or it can run in a dynamic ad through an intro card or collection ad. E-commerce companies use dynamic ads when they need to show multiple products. Dynamic ads change based on the user and showcase various products from a company’s catalog.
Pro Tip: Grab a user’s attention! Focus on what makes them stop in their tracks, and add just enough value to make them eager to learn more.
Creative Types
The type of creative you use makes a big difference in whether they blend in with the advertising noise or stand out to users. Here are the types of creatives that companies can use on Facebook:
- Product images: These are clean images of a product displayed on a simple background.
- Lifestyle images: These show a product in the environment where customers will use it, such as a floss container next to a toothbrush on a sink.
- User-generated content: Users who previously purchased from a company will create this content themselves. This creative looks organic and is very effective in a wide range of industries.
- Video: Videos are beneficial because the movement helps the ads stand out and demonstrate a service or product more effectively.
Factors Affecting Engagement
Engagement is essential in social media, and many factors can affect it. Here are some of the elements to pay attention to:
- Audience targeting
- Creative
- Messaging
- How long ads are live
- How many users the ad reaches
- Comments and company responses to comments
Pro Tip: Responding to comments on both organic and paid posts is a great opportunity to stay engaged with your audience and answer any questions potential customers may have.
What Constitutes a “Compelling Creative”?
A common term in the industry of social media marketing is “compelling creative.” Its definition changes based on different industries and audiences. Here are a few examples:
Older audiences are more interested in learning about a product or service, where younger audiences might be looking for a creative that is more entertaining than informative.
If a user is familiar with your brand or product, they want to see an ad that is simpler and more to the point. If you reach new users with a creative, it needs to stand out much more to catch their attention and bring them in.
Ensure that you understand your audience and use language specific to them. For example, if the audience is woodworkers, it’s beneficial to reference different joint types and tools specific to the industry.
No matter the audience, it’s always advantageous to:
- Include a clear value proposition
- Hook users in the first few seconds
- Use clear images and videos that showcase your products
- Keep GIFs and videos short, to the point, and under 20 seconds
Best Practices
There are many best practices when designing compelling creatives. If you want to make your creatives stand out on Facebook, get familiar with some of these techniques.
Use High-Quality Images
It’s vital to use clear and high-quality images because the quality of your creatives reflects on the quality of your products. It’s also beneficial to ensure that the images highlight the product or service effectively to make it clear to the user what you’re trying to advertise.
Speak to Your Audience
Your messaging should speak to your audience. It’s vital to underscores what sets your product apart from the competition. Focus your ads on the audience it targets, especially when it’s an audience that isn’t familiar with your company. Taking the time to educate them on the product or service is necessary. Explain why the item is something that users need and how it can improve their lives. Add a sense of urgency to the messaging to get the users to make a quick purchasing decision.
Remarketing
If your ads focus on a remarketing audience of people who already visited your website but didn’t make a purchase, ensure that you are speaking to the possible reservations they had that kept them from converting the first time. For example, the user may have thought the price point was too high. To solve this reservation, explain why the item is worth that price.
A great way to identify possible pain points is to look at comments people leave on your ads. Consumers are vocal and will often comment with their questions or concerns. These can be a great jumping-off point to find concerns to address in future ads.
Pro Tip: Social media is a platform where people intentionally choose who they follow and see—users are scrolling fast, even through friends’ and family’s posts. To get them to stop for an ad, it needs to be really compelling!
How To Know Your Creative Is Solid
Solid creatives on social media start with solid branding. Branding increases recognizability across all platforms. Once you solidify your branding, incorporating high-resolution photos and videos highlighting your products is the next step.
To take your creative to the next level, combine branding with the creative, and include messaging that targets and speaks to your audience with a clear and concise call to action.
Pro Tip: The best way to ensure a compelling creative is to test different creatives continuously and evolve with your consumers.
A creative that doesn’t stand out will likely flounder in the sea of ads and posts in a user’s social feed. It wastes ad spend by serving ads to people that are not responding or converting—which is why ensuring the creative is effective should be a top priority.
How Logical Position Can Help
Our creative team has spent years creating best practices through testing and research. As social platforms and consumers change, so do our best practices. We are skilled at making compelling social advertising creative for clients across a range of industries, allowing them to reach and exceed goals. Our team of copywriters and designers work together to ensure that our messaging is on point and our graphics stand out.
We also have best practices for campaign structure and optimizing accounts. On social, we strike an important balance between letting ads run to build up data and testing different creatives to continue to learn about your audience and push performance.
Through our Global Facebook Partnership, we have access to the creative shop team, as well as insights into and access to new features as they roll out.
The entire team at Logical Position is transparent about our processes, and we’ll guide our clients through our strategies and recommendations throughout the relationship. Contact us today for a free consultation on Facebook advertising campaign management.
