17 tips for making your Facebook and Instagram ads more effective

More and more posts and stories on Facebook and Instagram are becoming a form of advertising. And although they flow organically into feeds, some are immediately blocked by users, and many are simply ignored. And just a small part really makes someone go to the advertiser’s profile or even share it with their friends.

In this overview, we’ll go over what’s used by successful advertisers and what attracts an audience. You will find helpful tips for how to style your videos, stories, and images.

Effective Videos

Social media advertising keeps on growing. And as such, it’s becoming more creative, more interesting, and better quality. We’ll explain how not to get fade into the background amongst so many interesting videos.

Don’t ignore subtitles

Facebook and Instagram play videos without audio by default. And a lot of users turn the sound off on their smartphones so they don’t wake up loved ones early in the morning or bother people in public places. The perfect ad video is one that people can understand even without sound. And the easiest way to do this is with subtitles and captions, which, by the way, will increase the viewing time by an average of 12%.

Talk about the brand within the first 3 seconds

If you’re presenting a well-known brand then people should recognize it immediately. If you are just introducing users to the brand, you shouldn’t delay this either. Demonstrate elements of corporate identity at the very beginning of the video. Things like the corporate color scheme, logo, name, fonts can and should all be used to increase brand awareness.

Talk about USPs in the first 5 seconds

The earlier a USP (unique selling point) appears in your video, the more likely someone will be interested in your application. By keeping the USP to the end of the video, you might leave it unnoticed by the audience.

10-15 seconds is enough for a video

Watching a long video to the end is no simple task. A user on any social network is bombarded with a lot of visual content. And the shorter, simpler, and clearer a video is, the more likely it is to produce the desired effect. If you want to convey a large amount of information (introducing the product line, or presenting several new products) then it’s better to make separate videos. For example, when promoting a restaurant account, you can devote separate videos to the kitchen, the team, the menu, and the space.

Attractive and Engaging Stories

Stories quickly won the love of the audience, which creatives could not help but take advantage of. Every month, stories are used by about 4 million advertisers, developing and improving this advertising tool. Here are 5 tips to help make your stories more effective.

Add on to Stories with text

To emphasize the elements or features of a product, you can use short text callouts. Sometimes you can’t do this without text. For example, when you need to say about the price, discount, or a current promotion. In run ads in Stories, we recommend testing different creative options. The most effective ones will help you better understand the audience and further increase conversions.

The More Dynamic, the Better!

Include a few short scenes in the story that will quickly follow each other. This technique is used by many brands like IKEA, Red Bull, as well as car brands that value the performance indicator. The advantage of these kinds of stories is that when users watch short episodes, they are taken in very directly and stories are almost always watched to the end.

Consider the format of Stories

Stories assume the viewer’s full immersion. It uses a vertical format and if you decide to experiment with the position of the picture or video, you need to be careful to not cut off important information.

With stories, people share their daily events without any special editing or preparation. As such, most stories come out spontaneous and lively.

In addition to stylish designs, professional photos, edited videos, researched tests, and corporate fonts, you can try Instagram’s built-in tools like regular video captured in stories, standard fonts, and stickers. But even in this case, it’s important not to overdo it, so that users understand the advertising message and your idea.

Take another look at the goal before making your creative elements

If your goal is brand awareness, introduce your audience to its story or to the people who work for the company. If having an association with a certain place is important to you then show the location. If you need to increase sales, make stories about products: show how they look, how to use them, what they are made of, and other important points. It’s important not to overload the user with information though. Priced posts are less effective in stories than post ads.

Add sounds to your ad

According to Facebook, stories with some kind of sound are more effective. This can be music, sound effects, or voiceovers.

Arresting images

Images are a classic way to communicate something about a product. And with our recommendations, you’ll be able to do it more effectively.

Remember Aspect Ratios

For all images to display correctly, use these aspect ratios:

• 1:1 or 4:5 for an in-feed post.
• 9:16 for stories.

Use a relevant call to action

Advertising posts have to lead to a targeted action. It’s important to correctly show the user what you’re offering them: buy a product, find out more information, subscribe, or install an application. If you are using a carousel of several photos, you can add the call to the last one.

Don’t limit yourself to static images

Use animation. Static images can be supplemented with animated captions, boomerangs, or GIFs. Alternate posts with images and videos. According to Facebook, campaigns that combine video and photo content are 86% more effective than campaigns that are composed entirely of static content.

Be mindful of the text on the photo

If you have a text block under the photo, it’s not necessary to use captions on the photo. But there are times when it’s needed. For example, it shows USP, talks about a unique offer, or shows the advantages of the company. Whether you want to add important information to a photo or just test a new font, make sure that the text takes up no more than 20% of the image.

Show more with a carousel

Don’t be limited to one picture when you can use and show up to 10 images. With the help of a carousel, you can create a whole story, demonstrate a product’s benefits, show several products at a time, and give the user clear instructions for ordering or using a product. In addition, with a carousel you can combine different formats (photo, video, GIF) that will keep your audience from getting bored.

Effective Text

Facebook and Instagram users browse their feed quite quickly, so the following guidelines should be used to grab the audience’s attention.

Be Concise with your Words

When creating a caption under the picture, remember that almost 70% of users manage to recognize information on a smartphone in 0.4 seconds (according to data from the Mobile Marketing Association). In this case, brevity is not just a sign of talent but it’s also an aid for marketing. The optimal text size is 2-3 lines, unless, of course, the publication assumes a detailed disclosure of a given topic.

Remember the importance of the first line

The first line of the caption should contain USP or other important information. Instagram truncates most of the text and few users are willing to expand it to read it.

Ask Questions

Yes, questions are still effective. Ask for the users’ opinion, ask for their advice, ask them to share their opinion, and touch on relevant topics. This will not only help you get to know your audience better but also increase engagement.

If you use these guidelines, experiment, and analyze the performance afterwards, you’ll see just how powerful advertising tools on social media are. Here at Internet Marketing Agency Web-Sci, we wish you effective advertising!