2021 Creative Ads Guide

When was the last time your organic social media post went viral? It’s probably been a while because, unfortunately, reaching a new audience is becoming harder and harder organically. There’s a lot of appealing user-generated content, and it can be challenging to get your message heard. 

As such, brands are turning to social media advertising to boost their digital presence and convert customers. The following creative ads guide will explain the different types of ads you can use to get the most out of your advertising budget on each social media network.

Image Ads

With engaging Facebook image ads, you can drive traffic to your website or app. Facebook gives you the option of using your own photos or using stock images. You can also create a quick photo ad by simply boosting an already published post that contains an image. 

Remember, when you’re making an engaging photo ad, you want the image itself to shine. A few ways to do this are accompanying the product with a person, having minimal text surrounding the image, and maintaining consistent themes across ads. Your photos will also pop when they follow Facebook’s recommended image specs, such as a resolution of at least 1080 x 1080 pixels and a 1.91:1 to 1:1 ratio. And don’t forget that all-important call-to-action button that gets users to “Shop Now” or “Download.”

For stunning Facebook ad videos that engage customers, ensure your videos include sound, are high quality, and are full length. The resolution should be at least 1080 x 1080 pixels and have a 4:5 ratio. Facebook reports that users typically watch the video ads all the way through, so wowing your audience from beginning to end should be a primary goal.

Facebook is a mighty tool marketers can use to optimize business growth. With the platform’s 2.8 billion users, there’s no way you shouldn’t be able to reach your intended audience. And see conversions happen as a result.

Facebook has beneficial features to help make the marketing process easier and more helpful for you. Plus, it can also be a more cost-efficient way to advertise. Every day more businesses are growing a presence online to reach more consumers in a social media-influenced world. And these businesses are achieving great success from that decision. Learn more about Facebook advertising in our Facebook Ads guide.

Photo and Video Ads

Your business’s Instagram photo and video ads will appear in your target audience’s feed like a regular Instagram post. The only difference here is that it’ll be marked as “Sponsored.” You may also be able to include a CTA button, depending on your ad type. 

Pay close attention to the design of your photos. Make sure the resolution is at least 1080 x 1080 pixels and that the image’s ratio is 1:1. You’ll also want your photo and video ads to follow the same style and theme of your feed posts so that users will identify the ad as related to your brand.

Stories Ads

A fun and quick way to grab a user’s attention is an Instagram Stories ad. These ads display between people’s stories and are full screen. You can target ads by reach, video views, conversions, and more.

Because stories are so short, you need to be creative in relating your brand’s offerings and personality. For best performing ads, include interactive elements, such as polls, quizzes, or question boxes. 

Advertising on Twitter

If you want to go for a more subtle way of advertising on social media, consider implementing Twitter Ads, which appear like normal Tweets in your target audience’s feed. These ads allow you to run objective-based campaigns that can increase awareness, influence consideration, and drive conversions—all at an affordable price. 

No matter your objective, Twitter has targeting tools to help you reach the most influential people in your industry. Target by demographics, interests, geography, users similar to your followers, or keywords. Within the Twitter Ads dashboard, manage each ad and track impressions, engagement, and cost-per-result.

Twitter offers a few different ad formats to help you reach your audience. The Promoted Ads are simple to set up and can be used to target users in various marketing funnel stages. Similar to Facebook and Instagram, Twitter supports media formats such as image, video, and carousel ads. Promoted Ads are enticing because you only pay when users interact with your ad—liking it, replying to it, retweeting it, clicking it, or following your account. 

Advertising on YouTube

During the global pandemic of 2020, YouTube views boomed. People were searching for everything from gaming channels to workout videos to makeup tutorials to guitar lessons. Even as life returns to normal, people still enjoy digesting content on YouTube. Brands can take advantage of the number of users flocking to this social network by making creative ads, such as the following:

• Skippable In-Stream Ads: This form of ad is skippable after five seconds, and many viewers will click this option, so make sure your message is communicated quickly.
• Non-Skippable Ads: These videos can only be 15 seconds long, so make every second pack a punch.
• Discovery Ads: These ads appear next to related videos. You’ll be able to include a thumbnail and a bit of text that informs viewers what the video is about to entice them to watch.

Advertising on Pinterest

Pinterest is a social network that people use to visually discover new ideas, crafts, projects, styles, products, and more. Since many users intend to make a purchase when browsing this visual search engine, brands can benefit from advertising on Pinterest.

Promoted Pins 

Pinterest allows brands to create Promoted Pins that appear in a target user’s feed. You can include up to 500 characters in a Pin description, but users only see the first 50 to 60 characters, so make sure the attention-grabbing information is presented first. Use text overlay on your Pin to entice customers further.

With Pinterest, you can choose various ad types, including photo, video, and carousel Pins, which appear like regular Pins. You can also create shopping Pins by uploading products from your catalog. If your business has an app you want to promote, make an App Install Pin. Whatever your advertising objectives, Pinterest ads can generate awareness, clicks, traffic, leads, and conversions.

Ensure your Pin follows the recommended dimension of 2:3, which is about 1000 x 1500 pixels. This dimension works well on mobile devices.

Creating Unique Ads for Social Media

Just as important as the imagery and language of your ad is the social network on which you put it and the type of ad you use. Analyze where your target audience spends their time—is it Facebook, Pinterest, or YouTube? Then, do research and test different ad types to determine if your followers would be more intrigued by photos or videos. 

It can seem daunting starting and managing social creative ads. If you’d like help leveraging social media channels to drive traffic, consider working with an experienced eCommerce marketing agency. They know all the best practices for making powerful creative ads. Don’t be intimidated by social network advertising. With focus, care, and inventiveness, social ads can work for your brand.