In this post, I will be talking about how to craft engaging and highly converting ads.
The number one secret of creating engaging and highly converting ads is “Empathy”. This is because empathy allows you to connect and relate with your consumers at an emotional level. Why is emotion so important to creating a Facebook campaign? Almost every decision we have made in our lives has stemmed from an emotional need or reaction. As such people evaluate purchases based on facts and features but, they buy because of emotions and how your product makes them feel.
Features are basically what your product can do and it’s describes what your product can do while the benefits are written from the consumer perspective and it is what they will gain from using your product. What do people feel about the outcome of your product/service? Does your product or service make them happy, relieved, excited, etc. These are the factors that drive your audience to engage with your ads.
Example of benefit statement in facebook ad
The above Facebook ad examples show you what benefit statements can look like. In the 1st example the 1st line “Spend time doing the things you love, rather than the things you don’t…” is something that most of use can agree upon because it saves our time and can give you the feeling of being liberate or relief from wasting your time. While the second example asks a questions that triggers you to think about the frustration of losing your valuables, again it’s evoking an emotion.
When you create visuals and write content you must always start with what is in it for them or what the audience will gain by using your product, only then will you grab their attention. Your number one goal in marketing is to give them a reason to care about your product.
Here is my strategy in creating killer ads that engage and convert. To be honest it’s not my strategy, just the stuff I have learnt, tested and what has worked for me. This technique applies to just about any social feed based platform but here I am going to be talking specifically about the Facebook feed.
As users who consume content on social media what we do most is scrolling or flicking through endless content in our newsfeed. Now let’s try to imagine this action in real life. A user is on his or her mobile phone and the thumbs are flicking through his Facebook feed. This action is happening so fast that it’s almost a subconscious pattern. According to Facebook, on average a user spends about 1.7 seconds on any given post in the Facebook feed.
The only time the flicking stops is when something ‘catches’ the eye of the user. A user evaluates the need to stop based on two questions, first, what’s in it for me? and secondly, why should I give this post my valuable time? If you can answer these questions with your visual and copy, you have their attention.
In your feed, you must do two things; you must create something unique and engaging yet, relevant to your audience. What you show must evoke an emotion and capture their attention in order to stop the scrolling.
Other factors such as color and relevant objects in visuals can also help to break the thumb flicking action on feeds.
Here are 2 example we can draw from. In the 1st example, immediately the vibrant colors will stand out and capture your attention and if you are into yoga, the yoga post will signal that this could be something you might be interested in. In the second example, a big image of smiling baby is sure to stop most people. If your target audience are parents this would be relevant to them.
Examples of ads in facebook that capture attention
So you managed to capture their attention for the next few seconds, now what? The next step is to make them care.
Use the headline to define the benefits of your product or service. This is where you tell them why they should spend the next few minutes checking your ad out.
A headline in Facebook may not necessarily be the big bold title like the one you would get in newspapers. Headlines in Facebook can be the first line in your description. In fact to make the most of your headline, place it in the visuals. This way users who are already engaged with your visual can immediately understand what the ad is about and how it can benefit them.
Writing headlines for facebook ads
The 1st example uses an attractive visual with the benefit stated directly in the headline. While, the headline gets the user to imagine the feeling of having lesser meetings. Both ads do a great job at using the headline to sell the benefit, thus answering the question of what’s in it for the audience to pay attention.
This is the single most important purpose of the body copy. This involves using imperative words that are crafted to get people to take actions. It involves using actions words like “get”, “sign up” and other actionable words. When creating ad copy, think about it like having a normal conversation. Since your headline has shown why they should care, what happens next is showing them how you intend to achieve the benefit you mentioned in your headline.
For example, if I go to someone who wants to buy a property and I tell him “hey, would you like to buy a property without having to pay a 10% down payment”. I will get his attention and the next question he will ask me is, how can I do that?
So learning from the example above the next step after making them care is, telling them how the audience can achieve the benefit your spoke about.
The final goal of this step is to craft a call to action (CTA), this is what you are trying to get the user to do. It can be something like “sign up now” or “buy now”. The type of call to action you use depends on the type of product you are selling or the service you offer. For example, If you sell an educational product, people will want to know more, so the best type of CTA to use is “learn more”.
In the example above, the ad explains how you can spend more time together by using their service. In the closing text, the ad uses a combination of trigger words such as ‘Free’ and imperative verbs such as ‘open’ to get the audience to take action.