Paid Social Creatives - The Do's & Don’ts

Paid Social Creatives - The Do's & Don’ts

Paid Social Creatives - The Do's & Don’ts

Social media is chock full of advertising these days; if you want to prevent your message from getting lost in the mix you need eye-catching creatives. In this article, we’ll guide you through the creative specifications you need to know and we’ll share some do's and don’ts to help you create effective imagery/videos for advertising.

However, before you start creating scintillating content for paid social advertising, stop to consider the marketing funnel. By separating your creatives into three categories you can start to build a customer journey that will result in more conversions. 

  • Top of Funnel - Advertise to a wide audience to capture attention
  • Middle of Funnel - Provide further information on your product or service
  • Bottom of Funnel -  Offer discounts or incentives like free shipping to convert users

Once you’ve considered your marketing funnel and the type of message you want to convey at each stage of that funnel, you’re almost ready to create. But, not quite. Before you start the design process, pause to consider a few more important points:

Mobile First:

People use their mobiles more than desktops and gone are the days of landscape rectangular creatives. It’s important to format your social creatives to a 1:1 ratio, or in the shape of a square. Usually, this means that your size should be 1080x1080px, so ask your designer to format the ads to this measurement. This format works best for your social feed but can also work on stories. However, we recommend that you also resize the creative in a story format to better utilise the screen space. The 1:1 will work for stories but you’ll miss out on some of that prime real estate by not formatting it to the story dimensions of 1080x1920 or 9:16 ratio.

Video Content:

The jump from static creative to video content can be a challenge for companies as the cost and time involved in producing video content is usually significantly more than the investment necessary to produce static content. However, we always recommend having at least two or three creation variations whether that is static, carousel or video content. For video content, it’s always best to keep it short and sweet, grabbing the attention of the audience within the first 5 seconds of the ad. We would keep the video to fifteen seconds maximum as the watch time gradually decreases. With Video content it’s important to remember that a lot of the time users have their volume off so including subtitles is important in this instance. 

Use Less Text - Shorten Where Possible:

Your creative should keep text to a minimum, leave that for your headline and primary text where you can give the user more information. If text is a necessity make sure it’s not overpowering the creative and taking away from the design itself. 

Get creative with carousels:

in our opinion, Carousel is one of the most underrated creative types at your disposal. If you think outside the box with this format it can do wonders for your conversions. The usual carousel layout is several pictures in a row, usually showcasing different products, which is a great way to show the user what you have to offer. But we have some other suggestions that you might want to consider: Create a story using several that all connect to one another. This works really well for a before and after or a step-by-step guide. Our personal favourite takes a little more time but is really eye catching. To achieve it, split one image into several segments that join to reveal the whole picture.

Test and test again

Now you have the tools to create an uplift in your paid advertising. Follow our tips and then test, test, test. Always A/B test creative and CTAs to see what is optimal for your brand or business. What works for one sector may not work for another so make sure to test everything all the time to optimize your advertising. 

Best in Class Creative Examples

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