#53: Our Top 4 Ad Creative Optimization Tips to Increase Conversion Rates

Alison Smith: [0:58]

Welcome to the Umai Social Circle, where we talk consumer goods tips to help business owners and marketers grow. Alison here, and I’m continuing our series on all things Facebook and Instagram advertising. So let’s jump in.

 

[1:17]

Today, we’re talking all things Facebook and Instagram advertising creative best practices guaranteed to help you get a better grasp on how to optimize your creative, and therefore your ad game. Whether you are a seasoned media buyer, or this is all new to you, today’s episode will hopefully leave you with some actionable best practices. So once you’ve set up the right campaign structure that will work harder for your brand growth, it’s time to start crafting content that speaks to your audience. You have to ditch the stock photos and generic copy type of creative. It’s time to start embracing authenticity and your creativity. High quality visuals, catchy hooks and compelling ad copy are your secret weapons to Facebook and Instagram ads success.

 

[2:17]

Something that we say here, all the time, at Umai is that creative matters most. It’s what the end user, your consumer, actually engages and sees. So we want you to tell a story, spark your consumer’s curiosity, and make them stop mid scroll. Remember, you are competing for attention as people are mindlessly scrolling and scrolling through their phones, so it’s so important to work on standing out from the crowds. Now, there are a few key aspects that make up a great ad creative. We’ll talk specifically about video creative today. As we all know that video is queen and generally will result in the highest conversion rate for your brand. However, this being said, it’s important to test multiple ad formats. Now let’s dive into our key ad creative video tips.

 

[3:16]

Number one is to focus on your hook. Your hook is what hooks your audience in the first three, five seconds of seeing your ad. This is the most important part of your ad creative as this gets your potential customer to stop the scroll by doing things that relate to them, or answering, or speaking to a critical problem that they have. So upon first sight of your video ad creative, you are relating to them in three to five seconds, which can be quite tough. A great way to create a good hook is look at your most frequently asked questions to see what your customers are asking before buying your product, and then agitate this problem or question that they have in the first few seconds. For an example of this, a hook could be maybe a gifting service or your product is a great gift for moms. So your hook on your ad creative could be tired of endless research trying to figure out the best gift for the mom who has everything, and then you go into your product from there. So that’s a hook I could definitely relate to because my mom is very hard to shop for.

 

[4:41]

Okay, tip number two is to test your video link. So we test video links generally anywhere from five to 60 seconds. So the shorter links from what we’ve seen through years and years and hundreds of thousands of dollars of testing is that short, generally best performs for retargeting. So those five second ads can be really great if you’re having a promotion or a sale or you’re simply retargeting people who have already visited your site, maybe added products to their cart. They just need a short, simple reminder to go back and purchase, and that these longer ad creatives are better for top of funnel. So people that have never heard of you before, you can do a lot in 60 seconds to introduce your brand, your mission, establish that no like trust and sell towards the end, but that 60 seconds has to be engaging the whole way through.

 

So to keep that video ad creative engaging, try changing videos every five or so seconds. So different clips every five seconds. And then you can also use different on ad copy speaking about different benefits, or solution your product offers at the same cadence. So every five or so seconds talk about different value props and benefits or problems of your product that it solves. You can also add in different pieces of social proof and testimonials as well. So every five seconds switch it up. We have very short attention spans. Now if you nail every five second clip and it’s corresponding copy by relating to your customer avatar, it’s not going to matter how quality your video ad is. It doesn’t have to be some high production shot. It just has to really relate to the consumer. So don’t overthink it. Just really dive into what this person needs to hear and needs to see.

 

[6:54]

The third tip is human elements. Always try to add in as much human elements into an ad video creative as possible. That’s why we love using UGC or User Generated Content to show who our customers are and also show the product and use. It establishes a lot of social proof. It shows potential buyers that people are already using and loving this product. And then other human elements that we’ll often use is just any other product shots, short clips of any aspect of a human, their hand grabbing the product, them using the product obviously, or just someone speaking at the screen is generally going to outperform just a product shot. Even if it’s a beautiful Studio 360 shot, it’s likely not going to outperform someone speaking to the camera.

 

[7:51]

And then tip number four is to keep it native. Native ads means that your ad isn’t meant to look like an advertisement. It’s best to make it look like something an influencer or content creator made on TikTok or Instagram, as this is going to not flag people right away that, “This is an ad. I’m just going to keep scrolling.” Instead, it’s going to help people actually watch and engage with your ad. We also like to use lo-fi type videos. So videos that you film on your phone, your iPhone camera often can outperform a high produced video. Obviously test both, but don’t underestimate iPhone filmed ads. Because it looks super relatable, it looks like something a friend or family is posting, it’s going to generally help relatability and help people get engaged with that ad. Also, always think mobile first when you are creating your ads from the start. Remember that it’s going to be a vertical screen. Think about how to fill that screen. Think about how that copy is going to fit within that ad screen of 1920 by 1080.

 

[9:10]

And then we also like to use videos that are already performing organically. So say we posted something on TikTok or we posted a reel on Instagram and organically it got a ton of views, a ton of engagement. That is a great test that this post is going to perform really well as an ad creative. It related to your organic audience, it should relate to your targeted ad audience as well. So don’t reinvent the wheel. You don’t always have to be making tons of content. One for organic, one for paid. Use what’s already working on organic and pull them in as ads. And then other scroll stopping tips for your video ad creative is to focus on what’s trending. If you have the capability to crank out some ads, go check TikTok, go check Instagram. And see what the trending audio of the moment is. See what the trending memes or other styles are and hop on that trend as fast as you can.

 

[10:14]

It’s also important that you add captions to all of your videos, so that when people are, say on the bus, or work, who need to have their sound off, they still understand the general idea of that ad and are still able to engage with it even with their sound off. We also recommend using for the onscreen copy using TikTok native captions and Instagram’s native captions. So to do this after you’ve made your ad, upload it into Instagram or TikTok and add the caption straight from those platforms. They’re not going to be your brand typography, but they are going to look native to that platform so that when they are being published as an ad, they don’t look like they don’t belong on the platform. So generally, we’ve tested this a lot. It’s generally better to use the native captions that that platform provides you.

 

[11:16]

And then finally make that ad creative as flashy and as high contrasting as possible. So once you’re finished with your ad creative up the contrast, up the brightness. If you can add trendy, flashy transitions between clips, really trending music or upbeat music. that’s going to all help people stop the scroll and actually pay attention to what you have to say. And then as a bonus tip, don’t forget to utilize Facebook and Instagram’s ad libraries for inspiration. So see what other brands are doing, analyze what their successes are, see what your competitors are up to, and adapt their strategies to your own niche.

 

[12:05]

Just remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as long as you add your own creative twist, so not copying, taking as spongin. And to do that, you can go to Facebook’s ads library. I believe it’s facebook.com/ads/library, and you can type in any brand that you want to see the ads that they’re currently running. 

 

[12:34]

So I hope this episode provides a fun and informative way to explore Facebook and Instagram, add creative best practices. Feel free to adapt it to your specific style and your brand voice. And let me know if you have any other questions. We’d be happy to chat. Just send us a DM on social and stay tuned for our next podcast episode as we’ll be talking more Facebook and Instagram ad strategies to help you keep scaling profitably.

 

Karin Samelson: [12:57]

Thanks for listening to the UMAI Social Circle. Y’all. We’re here to support you in your CPG journey, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any new podcast episodes. And while you’re at it, please leave us a review on your listening platform of choice. Shoot us a DM at UMAI Marketing on Instagram, if you have any topics you want us to cover on new podcast episodes.

 

Alison Smith: [13:16]

And don’t forget to access our Free masterclass where we’re showing you how to create a solid marketing strategy. You can access that at umaimarketing.com/masterclass and we’ll meet you back here for the next episode.