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09/11/2023 • Marisa Crimlis-Brown

The perfect creative recipe for your meta ads

Paid Social Article

INTRO

It’s a war for attention out there. Take a look: 1 in every 4 posts on my Instagram and it’s about the same for Facebook too. The problem for marketers is most of those ads are going by your audience unnoticed.

Take a think of the last time you noticed an advert that caused you to take immediate or delayed action? My bet is you can think of a product or two you’ve impulse purchased after seeing a social ad, but it’s probably not many. Regardless of the intent, your ads have to actually get noticed to justify the time and money spent across paid social.

Attention and action is just as hard for big brands as it is for small - whether you’re the David of the Goliath there’s loads to be done to harness the power of effective social advertising.

So what is the right kind of creative to capture people’s attention, and best yet, take action while cruising across socials. This article is peppered with loads of ideas and examples from brands that will get your juices flowing.

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First thing’s first

If you don’t plan wisely you’re setting your creative up to fail. The first things to identify are having a clear objective and understanding exactly who you’re targeting.

Clear Objective:

This is a bit obvious, but not to be overlooked! Set a clear and specific goal for your ad campaign. What are you trying to accomplish: are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, generate leads, or boost sales? Your objective will shape the rest of your ad's components so it’s vital to think this through.

Know Your Audience:

Understanding your target audience is just as important. You don’t want to put your adverts in front of the wrong eyes who will have little to no interest in your product. Look to your personas to build out the right ad content and targeting. Don’t forget to harness Facebook and Instagram's audience targeting features to reach exactly the right people.

Ok, brilliant, you’ve laid the foundation; now it’s time to jump in to creating the right creative to get your ads noticed.

Take an enemy

Coming in strong, right out of the gate. This is a highly effective and underrated tactic: highlight what you’re NOT. What is your product/service different from? This is a powerful tool by painting a picture in your customer’s mind, reminding them of when they’ve been disappointed in the past. Now your product can act as problem solver in this future scenario.

What/who are you not. Taking an enemy doesn’t have to mean comparing your product to a competitor either, but instead hinting at what sets you apart.

Two examples I like below; one from LNER and Days Brewing. Both take an enemy; first, traffic. Who hasn’t been parked on a motorway only to see a train cruising past at full speed and wishing you were on there too. Secondly, hangovers. There’s an increasing trend towards sobriety and finding alternatives to alcohol, but a problem remains: people don’t want to miss out on the fun of going out for a drink. Days Brewing does a really good job of selling the lifestyle without missing out on the fun (and bonus: no hangover!).

Social proof

Social proof is one of the most important considerations in your ad creative. With every piece of creative, it should be imbued with signals for your audience that they’re making the right decision purchasing your product - look at all these other people who feel the same way. Let your prospective clients and customers be convinced by all the others who love your products too.

Some effective ways to do this:

User-generated content (different relevant influencers/micro influencers, or just regular customers will do nicely)
Reviews
Testimonials
Partnerships - here, ideally each party involved will gain goodwill and credibility.
Endorsements to build trust and credibility with your audience.
And of course the actual people in your ads - is it the right age demographic, socio economic representation, environmental surroundings. Look at the little details. There’s nothing more jarring than completely missing the mark!
This is where influencer adverts really help - tap into their audiences and bring that social proof.

Striking visuals

Since our audience is constantly being bombarded by an onslaught of adverts, we’ve got to get our ads noticed.

The best way to get noticed and be memorable is to be disruptive in your category. Stand out from the sea of sameness. Take a look at your industry, direct and indirect competitors. You’ll probably start to see that there are similar brand codes being used; similar logo styles, similar colours and fonts. Similar messaging. To get noticed, break out of your category. Be disruptive and you’ll be more memorable in your customers’ minds.

Anything from Monzo bank is a pretty good place to start, as constant disruptor in the banking industry. With their neon cards and digital-only presence, Monzo offers a very different banking experience. And they always deliver creatively (as well as organically) with a cheeky tone and bright bold colours and statements.

Athletic Greens - at approx £79/month, you probably wouldn't want to be spilling a single ounce of this green gold, but Athletic Greens gets disruptive in this advert showing all kinds of splashy visuals while reminding us how easy and healthy their mixture makes our lives.

This should go without saying, but striking visuals should be unique and highly identifiable with your brand. Please forget stock. There’s a time and a place for stock imagery. It’s not here.

Don’t forget to break down your key points visually. Your audience needs to immediately see how this product is going to change their life, within the first three seconds is ideal.

Make. Me. Laugh.

This isn’t as easy as it sounds. But if you can make people laugh in your adverts, this is the fastest way to people’s hearts... and wallets. Comedy helps with memorability and brand salience. It has to be done right for your brand, but it can be done successfully for every category on the market. Virality and shareability are your friend here.

Three very different approaches to comedy below. I can’t get Oatly’s music out of my head!

Make it easy

When it comes to purchasing, help make the decision easy for your audience. From remarketing lists of items you want to purchase to curated round ups of key items to buy, make it easy. The longer people have to think about a purchase, the more likely they’ll click away and get on with their day. Call out what makes this the item for them. This is especially important during the gifting season when people are not only on the lookout for gifts for others, but for themselves too!

Create a world

To give an advert longevity, it helps to have a story threaded throughout. It makes your audience care about this world you’re selling us.

So how do you bring your audience into this world and make a connection? There’s the emotional connection - people remember feelings more than the products themselves. There are few better examples of this than John Lewis at Christmas. They pull on the heart strings with fantastic storytelling; we look beyond the products but instead what these presents MEAN to the characters and their families. Storytelling and creating worlds doesn’t have to be done on huge budgets either, find a way to bring your products to life and make people care.

I like the example from The AA, because it starts harmless enough until we realise this family trip is about to be ruined with a petrol based catastrophe, before the relaxation hits once the dad remembers he’s covered by The AA. And Lidl creates a humorous take on the life of your favourite baked goods. Simple and effective.

Test, Test, Test…. and then test s’more

It’s crucial to keep testing to see what will have best results with your audience. This applies to the copy as well as the creative and for creative formats as well; test video styles, product shots, static and text. I’m always surprised with what resonates with audiences. You think one thing will convert, but your audience may respond to something else.

Hopefully these examples will give you the inspiration to reinvigorate your ad creative. Save this post and examples, you’ll thank me later!