How to Create Ads That Don't Suck
Having trouble finding the right types of customers? Not seeing enough clicks and visits from your ads on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Follow these digital marketing tips to bring your ad game to the next level.
1. You're a Human, So Be Human.
It's very easy to forget about authentic branding because we're so focused on finding the mix that works for our marketing cycles, sales and metrics. It's time to do the opposite: Cut the marketing bafflegab and use terms that relate to your customers. Flowery language may look great on paper, but it may be lost on many - or worse, it'll completely turn them off. Be HUMAN, dammit.Make your copy clear. Tell the viewer why they should care, and what your value is. Give them a compelling, honest reason to delve deeper into the relationship.
2. Get "Ballsy" (for lack of a better term)
We've all heard of "click bait" - the sneaky trap to get you to read top ten lists and pop culture think pieces. I'm not saying you should trick your potential customers - BUT - give them something that will grab their attention, tap into their emotions and motivate them to visit your social channels.Challenging the status quo can be a good thing. When we said that "cinemagraphs are the future of photography," you can image what photographers had say to that. As it turned out, those ads performed incredibly well and received a lot of engagement. It gave us a chance to communicate with our potential customers and start a meaningful conversation.One of our most read blog posts is GIFs vs HD Cinemagraphs, which performed well because we responded to a popular conversation amongst our direct audience. Think of something that can stir up some interest, and go from there. It could be a video indirectly explaining the differences between your competition and you, or even a whitepaper with powerful information to back that up. Whatever your "get ballsy" is, I dare you to try it out. Don't let them call you boring.
3. Just keep testing, testing, testing...
In homage to Finding Dory, this tip couldn't be more accurate. It's rare to see ad performance skyrocket on the first try. There are often many, MANY iterations before it becomes successful. Sometimes you'll strike gold with a new concept, but often, you'll end up doing a lot of tweaking with the copy, the call-to-action, and of course the creative before you make the most effective ad.Because of all this ad testing, it's good to have one person in charge of analysing the ad data, and using their insights to direct the creative team. If you're an all in one shop, well, listen to the metrics.As someone on the content and creation side, I've learned to never get phased when you get the news that your ad really does suck. Instead, look into the metrics and find out why. If it's a Facebook ad, take a look at the activity in the comments section. What is your audience feedback? Moral of the story: be Dory. Test until you get it right.
4. Stand Out: Be a Thumb-Stopper
We live in a visual world, and because of that, getting your ad noticed can be extremely hard. People are bombarded by photos and videos, not only from their friends and family, but also from advertisers like yourself. So, how do you differentiate online? What can make your creative content a thumb stopper?Well, we have something that may.... WILL, do the trick. I know, that was a bit cocky, but we've seriously got the data to back it up. Just check out this case study on how Microsoft used cinemagraphs in Facebook advertisements, gaining a 110% lift in engagement, among other benefits!Cinemagraph ads are outperforming still ads, and that's a fact. You may not have the time, money, or resources to go out and create a professional video ad... but you know what you do have time for? Creating cinemagraphs. You can even make professional quality cinemagraph ads, right on your iPhone, with Cinemagraph Pro.
5. Identify and Agree on Social Metrics
This one is fairly straight forward, but is important to keep in mind when creating your ad. What exactly do you care about measuring? Is it the amount of engagement (likes, comments, shares)? Or the amount of trial downloads? Set goals for your social media marketing. This will keep you on track, and make sure you're optimizing your ads to achieve these goals.Hopefully these tips have given you some information that you can take when creating your next ad! These are just a few things we live by, and I wanted to share them with you, our beloved community.If you have anything you'd like us to write about, shoot us an email at support@flixel.com. We're always looking for new content to share!
