3 Simple & Inexpensive Ways to Elevate Your Facebook Ad Creative

KK Henneghan is MSC’s lead designer. She specializes in branding, website and app design, social ad creative, and more.

Think about how many times a day you find yourself checking your phone and scrolling through Facebook or Instagram. According to a study by global tech protection and support company Asurion, that number should be around 80 times per day, or approximately every 12 minutes.

While these statistics only validate the importance of our jobs as digital marketers, the more time someone spends staring at a screen, the less engaging things appear. In 2019, it’s incredibly difficult for marketers and advertisers to capture attention online—especially in a way that compels web browsers to convert. As MSC’s lead designer, I’m going to let you in on all of the creative marketing tactics I’ve learned when it comes to building compelling Facebook ad creative.

Generally speaking, it’s fairly easy to make an ad. At a baseline, you can add a company logo to the top of an image, or chop up a short video. The difficult part is getting your brain thinking about how to differentiate your brand and produce facebook ad creative that sticks out in a highly oversaturated market. Simple fixes include adding a gradient behind a logo or adding some simple movement to make a gif out of a single image. In my experience, adding simple elements to an already existing asset, like an image or a video, yields great results while costing the client very little.

While the trends of 2019 are moving towards simple and to-the-point designs paired with witty copy, everything you post on Facebook needs to have an element of boldness and flare to ensure that it stands out on the users’ feed. Below, I’ve identified three of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to take your facebook ad creative to the next level.

1. Use videos and GIFs

In the visually oversaturated world of Facebook, video reigns supreme. Engaging videos never fail to get a users attention—seeing something move on your screen as you scroll is much more gripping than seeing a still image that blends in with the rest of the feed. However, video advertisements are just as ubiquitous as image ads, so it’s still a challenge to get yours to stand out from the rest. Adding pops of color or completely switching the frame up results in a drastic viewing experience that will capture your viewers’ attention time and time again.

2. Add compelling CTAs

Adding a CTA to any single image creative makes the user believe that it’s an actual button, resulting in ad clicks. Believe it or not, adding a simple CTA can increase click-through rate by an average of 2.85 percent. When a user sees a button, their brain automatically wants to click on it. CTAs are always a good way to trick the user into engaging with your advertisement.

3. Always stay consistent

When designing anything for your brand—especially an ad—brand identity and consistency are extremely important. Developing a visual mold that your brand fits into creates an experience for the user that is familiar, and by extension, something that they are more likely to routinely engage with. When it comes to my favorite brands, I’m more likely to engage with their ads automatically because I’ve come to know their content at face-value before I even see their logo. The best brands are consistent and strategic with the way they position themselves, while also continuing to push the envelope.