Facebook Ads Not Converting? Your Creative Strategy Needs an Overhaul

Your Creative Strategy Needs an Overhaul

Are your Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns giving you a headache? Do you spend too much time staring at Business Manager and thinking, “It shouldn’t be this hard. Why can’t I just figure this out?”

We hear you – getting those lacklustre campaigns to finally convert can be crazy-making, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing wrong.

Now, we’ll let you in on a secret: the most likely culprit has nothing to do with luck, the algorithm, or your ability to launch a decent ad campaign.

It’s your creative strategy – or lack thereof – that’s letting your brand down.

Humans are visual creatures. Did you know our brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text? Insane, right?

Given the amount of information we consume on a daily basis, brand creatives play a huge role when it comes to cutting through the noise.

Yet, shockingly few brands who advertise on Facebook get their creative strategy right.

But it’s not always for lack of trying – it can be super tricky to decide what makes a good photo, graphic, video or GIF.

Many brands spend a ton of $$$ on elaborate photoshoots that produce stunning creatives. Sadly, while they may look perfect, they’re not always the right fit for social.

Why is that? Three reasons:

1. The most important job of a creative is to stop the scroll

The main purpose of your Facebook ad creatives should be to get users to stop scrolling through their newsfeeds. If you can grab their attention, they’re more likely to click on your ad, browse your website, add product to cart… you get the gist.

So, to assess the scroll-stopping power of your campaign, ask yourself:

• If you’re using a photo, are there people in the image? Do they look friendly? Humans respond well to photos of other humans, especially if they’re smiling.
• Have you picked the right size? The more space your creative takes up in the newsfeed, the higher the chance your target customer will process it. Go for portrait images instead of teeny tiny landscape pics that are hard to spot.

2. Storytelling is everything

Now, speaking of powerful visuals, there’s one secret ingredient that gives them extra strand-out power.

That ingredient is storytelling.

According to the Harvard Business Review, storytelling can be used as a strategic business tool. In one experiment, participants who were asked to watch an emotionally loaded movie were found to be way more likely to give money to complete stranger, compared to those who hadn’t watched the footage.

Come to think of it, that’s exactly what advertisers are trying to do.

How can you harness that power?

Prioritise video, as it gives you the time and space to tell your story in a compelling way. (It’s no surprise that video now accounts for 11% of all Facebook posts).

But keep in mind: 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound – so don’t forget to add those all-important subtitles!

3. The rules are NOT there to be broken

Extra important note: before you invest heaps of $$$ creating beautiful creatives for your ad campaigns, familiarise yourself with Facebook’s rules,

For instance, Facebook doesn’t dig “disruptive ad creatives like flashing lights or rapidly changing bright colours”.

There are other things to keep in mind too, like copyright and proper use of logos.

If you break the rules, you could find yourself in hot water with Facebook (which could even get your account banned).

To wrap up…

Nailing your visual strategy means creating amazing creative that’s tailor-made for social media.

Working with an agency or marketing partner can help you achieve this (they’ll also know Facebook’s advertising rules by heart, saving you the trouble of figuring things out on your own).

At Evocative Media, we rate visual strategy so highly that before we launch a single campaign, we work with our clients to compile a bank of creative that ticks all the right boxes.

Book a call with our team now to get in on the action.