As search engine marketing becomes fierce in competition and more expensive by the day, social advertising is experiencing a resurgence of popularity.
Facebook, Instagram and now TikTok are excellent avenues to discover customers old and new who will love what you sell. (Side note: need to know which social shopping avenue is best for your business? Read our handy guide here.)
There’s a catch, though. It can be fairly tricky to nab user attention in the first place. Users look at a lot of content daily, with the average user spending 2 hours and 27 minutes a day on socials. That’s a whole bunch of scrolling.
Designing your ads to capture these fickle eyes is therefore crucial. Read to discover how to win those clicks.
How to Optimise Your Paid Social Ads
1. Focus on Video Content
Pretty much every social media platform is moving in the direction of videos.
Video app TikTok is the fastest growing social platform worldwide. Instagram rolls out updates for Reels constantly now, to the chagrin of many users.
Facebook now hosts Reels at the top of its News Feed, so even your parents and grandparents are getting in on short form video.
2. Optimise that Video for Mobile
Most social users are on a smartphone. In fact, 99% of them are. If your ads don’t fit the feed, they’ll be promptly swiped out of the way.
Export your video ads to a 9:16 ratio to keep them full-screen friendly.
3. Let the Product Shine
Seems obvious, but many make this mistake. Ensure that your product is the main focus of your ad. Take a look at a simple video ad we created for fashion label Adorne:
That ad achieved a 13.39 return on ad spend (ROAS) in its first two weeks. We’ll let those results speak for themselves.
In Facebook’s own words, featuring branded products in the first three seconds of a video ad is “correlated strongly with conversion lift.”
4. Keep it Short ‘n’ Sweet
15 seconds max. We’re talking about the internet here. If you’re using TikTok, you have approximately three seconds to grab scrollers’ attention (gulp). So make sure your marketing message is clear straight away. Speaking of which…
5. Ensure Your Value Proposition is Clear
If it isn’t made obvious by the product image, make sure your messaging states clearly what your product does for the users. Take the below, for example:
Sure, we know the product name, but what’s the benefit of using it? Why should we try it? It’s not immediately clear, making this ad very skippable and not ideal for social.
Pro Tip: Try overlaying static text on your video. This is an easy way to get your value proposition across fast while your audience is entranced by a pretty video clip.
6. Highlight Your Brand
Make it clear from the start. Brand colours, logo, fonts, products, whatever – bring them into the mix early for better retention in your customers’ brains.
7. Fast Cuts, Tight Shots
YouTube’s joint Creative Directors recommend digital advertisers cut “faster than you think” with video ads.
Your customers are scrolling fast and you need to be faster, keeping tight shots on your subjects — whether they’re products or people — to reinforce beautiful, bold messaging as quickly as possible.
8. If All Else Fails, Get an Agency to Do It
Don’t stress out about your ads. That’s what we’re here for!
Reach out to enquire about our social media ad services.