The goal of a Facebook Ad is to stop the viewer scrolling and take action with your brand. If the ad does not motivate the viewer to engage then it’s not an effective ad. The best way to really capture the attention of the viewer is by a well thought-through visual.
In this article I want to share our best practices for creating highly-performing creatives for Facebook advertising. We used those techniques to bring over 350k of new customers for one of our clients, kwiff.
Goals of a Facebook Ad
You might be familiar with the AIDA Formula.
It is a model used in marketing that describes the steps a customer goes through in the process of purchasing a product. The AIDA model was developed by the American businessman, E. St. Elmo Lewis, in 1898 [1].
What it doesn’t take into account, however, is establishing trust. At Blue Drop we focus on the Customer-Centric approach in everything we do. That is why we’ve developed this ideology further to be more relevant in the 2020s. We call it A.R.T.D.A.
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A - capture attention on social “Why should I stop scrolling”?
R - assess relevance & peak interest “Is this something relevant, valuable or interesting for me?”
T - establish trust “Do I, as a viewer, connect with the brand on an emotional level”?
D - create desire “I want and need this”
A - take action “I’m going to buy / sign up”
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The job of the ad creative is to do the first three things:
- capture attention
- assess relevance & peak interest
- establish initial trust
Once you've done that, it’s your website’s and landing pages’ job to create desire and move people to take action.
Facebook Visual Content Types
In short, there are two types of visual content you can choose from when it comes to Facebook ads. Image or Video.
"People spend 5x more time on video content." [2]
People spend 5x more time on video content and are twice more likely to make a purchase from a video ad. [2] Bottomline, videos on Facebook prompt engagement and tell stories.
It does not mean however that you should completely disregard the image format. A well optimised image can outperform a video if it’s created correctly and used right.[3]
An effective paid social strategy uses a mixture of both image & video creatives. Why might you ask? Simply put, there is a variety of social ads setups serving different purposes.
Depending on your funnel, you generally start with an awareness campaign targeted at a cold audience and then you move into the middle & bottom of the funnel alongside with the retargeting. Each stage has different objectives and requires a specific visual & copy.
