It’s not easy to know how exactly you want to get started when it comes to Facebook Ad design.
And when we say design, we don’t just mean the image itself.
We mean the big picture: copy, images, videos, and CTAs, the whole shebang.
There’s so much to take into consideration and it’s no surprise that brands and marketers alike feel stumped when it’s time to head to the drawing board.
With the right tools and strategies at hand, though, this process gets a lot easier and a lot more efficient.
To do so we invest our money and the brainpower of our experts to experiment and find out what really works and what doesn’t.
After managing almost 300 million dollars of ad spend in Facebook Ads worldwide (and wasting lots of our own money making every conceivable mistake), we still learn new, surprising things with every new campaign we create.
In this post, we’re going share what we discovered in 10 years of hard work: The 22 Facebook Ad design secrets that will give your campaigns a boost.
Secrets the Pros Use to Create Great Facebook Ad Design
Facebook Advertising can be tough. And it’s getting tougher every day.
As more advertisers realize the potential and jump on board, the increased competition can quickly turn a winning Facebook advert into a money-waster.
In the end, however, the success of a Facebook Ad comes down to just two critical elements:
- Great creatives, which includes the copy and the design of the video(s) or image(s)
(AKA attracts users’ attention while creating the desire for your product). - Laser-focused targeting
(AKA display your ad only to an audience of potential customers).
You’ll ultimately need these two to work cohesively together. Each ad campaign should be designed specifically for niche segments of your target audience, with copy, images, and even placements carefully selected based on that buyer persona.
We’ll discuss this more in a minute, but it’s so crucial we wanted to mention it upfront, because if either targeting or audience-driven creatives aren’t in place, your campaigns will suffer even if everything else is in order.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #1 – Always Test Multiple Designs
I can not stress this enough. Never assume anything. Always test everything. No matter what your level of expertise is or how long you’ve been advertising on Facebook, always test both your ad’s design and its targeting. Even if you think you’ve discovered the ultimate design hack to drive sales through the ad platform, remember that consumer behaviors change, ad formatting changes, and new ad placements roll out constantly, affecting otherwise stable results.
Every time you’re creating a new campaign, take the time to come up with at least 4 different Facebook Ad Designs and then split test. For example, you might test two different images with two different copy texts (2 images x 2 texts = 4 variations).
As you might have guessed, here at AdEspresso, we love illustrations. Every post has a unique design and we use them for advertising as well, but we have discovered that that strategy was somewhat off. While illustrations perform pretty well and are great branding, an ad with a picture of a person performs far better when it comes to driving certain actions like downloads:
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Look at that! The Ad showing a person performed nearly 2x better than our beloved mascot. This is a great example of why you need to test; different audiences will respond to different images, as will users at different stages of the digital sales funnel. There’s no way to know until you try.
So, remember: test everything, even the craziest ideas. Then mix it up to keep things fresh: vary both copy text and images to reduce Ad Fatigue and steer clear of high ad Frequency, which can decrease ad effectiveness.
Want to make this easy? Facebook and AdEspresso both offer native split testing options, allowing you to upload multiple text and image options at once to a single campaign. As the campaigns run, both platforms will automatically optimize your campaigns based on the results, automatically increasing the likelihood of success for you.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #2 – Create Buyer Personas
Most businesses have different sorts of customers with different needs. By creating Buyer Personas, you not only improve your Facebook Ad Designs, but you serve your customers better, overall.
For each potential customer type, create a detailed persona. How old is your target audience? Profession and job title? What’s the biggest problem she/he’s hoping to solve by using your product? Understanding your audience segments and their unique pain points is key to understanding what images will inspire and motivate them to take action the most.
Once you’ve created your buyer personas, design a Facebook Ad (paired with laser-focused targeting) for each one, directly addressing their pain points. Here’s an example of two potential AdEspresso Ads, one aimed at Startups and one aimed at Media Agencies:
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There are very different value propositions here, each of which appeal to different audiences. For Startups, we highlight their desire to grow as quickly as possible. For Agencies, we address managing Facebook Ads more quickly and with better results.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #3 – Add Social Proof
Do you know what the most influential emotion in a purchase decision is? Fear.
People resist buying your product because they’re scared of losing money, which is rooted deeply in the psychological phenomenon known as loss aversion; people are more afraid of losing something than they are excited about gaining something.
This is why offers of free products, discounts, free shipping, and free returns are so effective. And it’s not just about the money. Free = No Risk = No Fear.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that you should give your product away for free (although sometimes you should). I’m just suggesting that you need to address customers’ fears by adding social proof to your Facebook Ad Designs. Social proof is visible acknowledgement that plenty of customers that came before were excited about your content, product, service, or brand. It can come in the form of likes and shares, but it can also take the form of testimonials.
Effective social proof reduces fear are testimonials from famous people. Having a VIP endorse, your product immediately gives you credibility and removes a level of fear. It can also be expensive, of course.
Let’s take a look at two examples. Both use social proof in the ad copy, but you can also feature the same information in the image or video itself (just remember to keep the text to less than 20% of the image”s surface area).
This example from Brass mentions that their pants are worn by “more than 5,000 women.” That alone is a big statement of social proof, and they then show multiple women in different body sizes in the video wearing the pants to show their versatility.
And here’s another example that uses social proof in a different way. UrbanStems uses a testimonial in their description, quoting a customer and then signing off with the customer’s first name and last initial. They stress several pain points that their audience is likely to have: quality, service, and efficiency are all great. (Pro tip here: Avoid using the star emojis in your ad copy on Facebook, it can get your ads rejected.) 
Users want to know the others are excited about the product and have had positive experiences, and social proof is the best way to comfort users, reducing their fear while getting them excited about the product at the same time.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #4 – Use Call-to-Actions
Every ad campaign needs a call-to-action (CTA). This can be featured in the ad copy and a video if applicable, but it should also always be reinforced with Facebook’s clickable CTA buttons.
The reason why is simple: You want to tell users what action they should take, and then make it exceptionally easier for them to do so. The right CTA can absolutely increase CTR and conversion rates significantly, so you don’t want to pass up the opportunity here, and you’ll also want to test different options when relevant.
For the most powerful impact, include a CTA in your copy text and/or headline, and make sure that it’s aligning with the clickable CTA button that you add to your campaign.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #5 – Choose Images That Stand Out
If advertising is a war, then the Newsfeed is your battlefield. And this battlefield is ridiculously crowded.
If you want to get your ads clicked on, you have to grab the users’ attention so that they read your ad. This will come down to your ad’s image. The right image can immediately attract the eye and earn you a click.
Therefore, carefully select an image that will stand out from the crowd. You might also try to add in visual contrast, using contrasting colors to help the focal point of the image stand out. You can do this without it looking spammy, just ensuring that whatever you viewers to see immediately directly contrasts with the environment if possible. You’ll also want to make sure that the image isn’t too cluttered, or else people will lose attention quickly.
Let’s look at an example of why this is so important. Over to the left, we have ads from Crate & Barrel. The images are clean and crisp, and the products immediately stand out. You’re able to see what’s available for purchase, so relevant potential customers won’t accidentally miss this. In the ad campaigns on the right, however, the images are overly cluttered and the colors blend in together; it’s hard to make out what exactly is being sold, meaning that users are more likely to skip over the ad all together.
Keep in mind that the image composition doesn’t need to be complex. This example from Tieks is relatively simple, but it still jumps out at you. You can use drag-and-drop graphic design tools like Snappa or Canva, or be intentional about your photoshoots to make sure that you’ve got what you need up front.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #6 – Address The Logical & Emotional
We think we’re intelligent animals who always act rationally, but that’s only partially true. Our emotional side has a lot to say when it comes to buying, though our rational side may hold us back. Ultimately, appealing to features and benefits with your ad campaigns can help you appeal to both the emotional and logical aspects of a consumer, increasing the likelihood of a conversion.
Features will detail what makes a product or service unique, and benefits detail exactly why those features are so beneficial to consumers.
The ad below does a great example of this, explaining how different features benefit the customer directly. Wrinkle free means no ironing, and 4-way stretch means more comfort. This is emotional and logical at the same time, encouraging user to improve their morning routine and to save time. Few things could appeal to logic and emotion like that.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #7 – Keep the Landing Page Consistent
Like Call-to-Actions, consistency will reduce friction and help your users complete the desired action. If someone clicks on your ads, it’s because they like the image, your message, and what you’re offering.
After clicking, they should end up on a landing page that reinforces what they saw in the ad. Use the same images and wording, just go into more depth describing your product and why they should buy it.
People decide if they like a website in seconds. If you don’t hook them immediately, you lose them. Imagine what would happen if, after clicking an ad for red sports shoes on Facebook, you ended up on a generic page with hundreds of sports shoes without one that is red. You’d leave immediately, right?
This is a crucial thing that so many advertisers overlook! After looking for a good example for more than half an hour, I gave up, and quickly found a typical error:
Look at that; I click on a very specific ad with a pink shoe… and on the landing page, there’s no trace of it. And no mention of the 55% discount promised.
Keep in mind that if your landing page doesn’t align with the ad campaign, you won’t just lose potential conversions; Facebook may not approve your ad at all, forcing you to restructure things later on and losing potential advertising time.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #8 – Choose the Right Placement
Correct placement of your Facebook Ads is critical and, ideally, you want to optimize your design for each placement. Different ad placements have a tendency to perform differently, and you want to know which are best for conversions, which are low cost, and which may be great for targeting cold audiences that you can retarget later.
- Desktop Newsfeed: Great for engagement and generating sales & leads. Supports longer copy and link description.
- Desktop Right Column: Less effective but cheaper. Images are smaller and text less readable. Works well for retargeting users who already know your brand. Use an image they’ll recognize to catch their eye.
- Mobile Newsfeed: Great for engagement & Mobile app installs. As we saw in a recent post, mobile users tend to click “Like” a lot. The Copy is shorter, so be careful. While conversion rates on mobile are often deceptive, mobile is great for discovery. Users will discover your product on their phones… then buy it the next day on their desktop.
- Marketplace: Customers in the marketplace are already looking for something to purchase, so they may be in the buying mood. That being said, they don’t seem to have much different performance from standard newsfeed ads.
- In-stream video: You can have your video ad play before or during high-visibility video content, much like YouTube’s ad campaigns, essentially giving you a custom audience. These campaigns may be more expensive in some cases, and customers have torn feelings about these ads.
- Instagram: Instagram has a particularly highly engaged audience, and these ad campaigns may cost slightly more (though the higher costs have been decreasing over the last year). That being said, they perform exceptionally well and should be considered.
- Stories: This is a whole new feature all of its own, but it’s proven to be effective for driving brand awareness and brand message recall along with conversions. These need their own full-screen, mobile-friendly creatives, and videos can’t be longer than 15 seconds.
- Facebook’s audience network. These ads aren’t quite as high converting, but they’re a much lower cost, so they can keep your acquisition and CPCs low.
Check out this ad below. It was in my right column, but it was clearly meant for the Newsfeed.
The text is simply too small and, therefore, unreadable. The copy has the same problem. It’s just too long, and I don’t even know what the ad’s about! Keep in mind that you’ve only got three lines of copy even in the newsfeed before Facebook cuts it off on mobile, so you want to front-load the most important information towards the beginning of your copy.
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Facebook Ad Design Secret #9 – Showcase Credibility
Trust and credibility are fundamental. Without them, you’ll never convince a user to buy your product, give out their email address, or establish any relationship.
While this should be common sense, I see ads all the time that do not appear credible and so immediately jump turn me off as spammy. Point #6 above describes how you appeal to the emotional side of your users by highlighting the benefits of your product, but this does not mean you should over-promise or, worse yet, lie outright.
A self-improvement course can surely help your career. A service like AirBnB can help you earn extra money from an unused bedroom. But would you advertise either with a picture of someone driving a Ferrari or having fun on a Yacht? That would be far too much of a reach, right?
Check out these two ads:
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I can easily believe that a new start-up can guarantee me $100 per month – or even up to $1,000 per month. But when we start getting into very large numbers, this can lead to doubts about your brand or company’s credibility. It’s like the posts we see swearing “You can make $10 million dollars just from sitting on your computer a few days per week!”
We’ve got a great example of this above; the “$25 Million Dollar Swipe File” ad implies that the file you are receiving is worth, or will lead to, 25 million dollars. I can almost guarantee that this will not be the case for at least 99% of customers who download them. You don’t see offers like these quite as often anymore, partially because users don’t fall for them as much and partially because Facebook is shutting them down, but the principle still holds strong; your claims must be valuable, but they also need to be believable.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #10 – Consider the Psychology of Color
If you’re not harnessing the psychological powers that different colors can have, then you’re missing out on a vital creative force that every top Facebook ads pro is using.
90% of all the snap judgments that we make about products can be traced back to color, according to a study in Management Decision. Here are some of the major science-backed trends in how people perceive colors that you should keep in mind:
- Older people like blue, purple, and green, while younger people are more into yellow, red, and orange. As we age, our preferences tend towards the darker and cooler colors of shorter wavelength over the excitatory, long wavelength colors.
- Most people heavily dislike the color orange. Purple, yellow, and brown pull up behind orange as the least liked colors, according to research done by Joe Hallock comparing color preferences across 232 people from 22 countries.
- It comes down to appropriateness and fit, not a silver bullet. The truth is that if you have a crappy product, you’re not going to turn things around by throwing a blue logo on it. Most of our tendency to appreciate certain colors in marketing actually appears to do with how well that color fits with the product that we’re looking at.
When planning out your ad creative and deciding on a color to use, think about the market you’re selling to, what they like, what they expect, and then you’ll be thinking along the right lines. For an example of how this works in the real world, we’ve taken that classic image of different brands organized by color and drawn some connections:
The gas companies here—BP, Shell, Gulf, ExxonMobil—may produce an identical product for consumers. But these companies, part of the legendary Seven Sisters of petroleum production, are heavily differentiated in the brains of consumers thanks to their incredibly distinctive colors. If you had to start an oil company today, I might say, “Go gray!” Be the Apple of gas!
The same kind of color psychology can be seen in the tech companies on the chart (outlined in blue). Apple represents neutral, calm, design sensibility. Yahoo represents wisdom… or at least, they did, at one point—originally, Yahoo set out to organize all of the internet’s information into one home page, and they did a pretty good job.
Don’t take this chart as gospel—“My product is exciting, so I must use red in my Facebook ads”—but do check out what your competitors are doing. Look at what is working. Subtle changes in color can influence how we see advertising, so take your time and make your decisions count.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #11 – Utilize Location-Specific Imagery
One of the great things about Facebook advertising is that it’s so easy to set up multiple campaigns all targeting different geographic regions. But you’re not fully capitalizing on the power of Facebook ads unless you’re also changing the content of your ads to match the geographic region you’re targeting.
Kisi, a keyless-entry startup that helps offices take care of employee access to buildings remotely, is available all over the United States. But if you’re in New York City, you’re not going to see a generic Kisi ad on your Newsfeed. You’re going to see a targeted ad that looks like this:
If you’re in New York City, it’s all but guaranteed that an ad with an “NYC” plastered over it is going to draw your attention better than an ad that could have been shown anywhere. This is something strangely lacking in most people’s Facebook ads, but it’s something that traditional advertisers have definitely caught onto—check out this Haagen-Dazs ad from the BART in San Francisco:
Pandering or not, this ad got the tech world’s attention. If you’re going to spend the money to target customers in expensive urban areas like New York City and San Francisco, it’s worth capitalizing on that specificity to drive home a more personal, targeted message in your advertising.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #12 – Leverage The “Power of Free”
We’re always on the lookout for free. It’s one of those trigger words that renders just about everything around it more attractive—free beer, free money, free food, you name it. We love free. It ties into that loss aversion we discussed above.
When used in advertising, it can be an incredibly effective technique. It definitely sets you apart from the majority of the ads on peoples’ Newsfeeds—which are asking people to pay money for products—but capitalizing on the psychology of free does not mean you have to give away your product for free.
For example, you could make free part of a special offer that comes along with buying your product:
Or, you could simply use free as a lead generation device. Content marketing is a powerful way to grow your business, but you can’t have a great lead generation magnet unless people actually read it and get value out of it. Giving away helpful information for free is the easiest and most effective way to spread your content and show people that you’re a trustworthy source of information.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #13 – Use Customer Testimonials
We all love the feeling of being a part of something. When you see other people talking about how much they love a picture of a cat on Facebook, you feel like going and expressing how you feel too. When you see something that you’re outraged by, you join in by liking the relevant statuses and posting some words to show that you agree.
When you see customer testimonials, that same part of your brain lights up as if to say, “Buy this product. Join the club.”
Use your customers to make your Facebook ads compelling. No one can be a better sales representative when you’re trying to get people to click on your ads in their Newsfeed since Facebook is already such a massive social medium. And as we’ve mentioned before, the best sales don’t come from direct sales but recommendations.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #14 – Intersect Interests
Targeting intersections of interests is one of the most powerful techniques out there for getting people to stop scrolling and check out your ad. Here’s how it works:
- Pick two broad ideas—they don’t have to be highly related, and it may be better if they’re not—and input them into your campaign manager when you’re setting up your ad
- Select the “all of these” interests option—you only want your ad to be shown to those people who like both of the different interests you’re intersecting
- Design your ad around the intersection
We did this before, targeting those people who were fans of college football and also liked tacos. In this example from Dr. Pepper, you can see what you might do if you targeted fans of college football and Dr. Pepper:
Or maybe you’re Toyota targeting people who go on outdoorsy adventures:
Interest intersections are powerful for the same reason that localized ads are powerful. When you show people an ad that feels like it’s just about them, they’re way more likely to stop, click, and share because they feel a personal connection to it. The returns, if you do it right, will be awesome. Just check out how much better we did when we targeted college football fans and taco fans:
Facebook Ad Design Secret #15 – Include Faces in Images
According to a 2005 study out of Caltech, there’s even a specific group of cells in our brains that fire only when we see a face. And then there’s the well-known psychological effect called pareidolia that causes humans to look for faces in everyday objects like stoves and toilets. The takeaway here is that people love to see faces. It’s a phenomenon that’s deeply ingrained in our brains, a vestige of our primal beings—so use it in your Facebook ads!
Ever wonder why the mascots on cereal boxes are always cute animals or cartoon people staring right at you? Well, according to a lab at Cornell studying consumer behavior, the reason is that it is effective.
When the Trix rabbit glances into our young, impressionable eyes every time we go to the supermarket as children, we start gradually developing a preference for Trix. We humanize the product and get attached.
Make your customers feel the same way and put some faces in your Facebook ads.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #16 – Create a Sense Of Urgency
There’s nothing we hate more than losing out on a great deal because we were just a little bit late. It’s the principle of loss aversion: we feel bad when we miss out on getting something, but we feel even worse about losing. And when we see an urgent opportunity arise, we do not want to let it slip through our fingers.
One of the biggest problems with advertising today is that urgency can be difficult to trigger in people. Since we can get items in less than 5 hours off Amazon and virtually every other e-commerce platform offers some 1-2 day shipping options, people feel as though they can probably get whatever they want whenever they want.
Inducing scarcity and urgency could mean grabbing hold of your audience’s attention with an eye-catching deal that they just can’t pass up. You want to create a deep sense of FOMO—fear of missing out, as in this ad from Watch Junction advertising a hot deal for 60% off.
There are many different urgency-evoking phrases that copywriters use in their headlines and ad texts to create excitement.
Try some of the following words with the next special offer that you put on Facebook:
- Limited time!
- Only!
- Today!
- Hurry!
- Act now!
- Rush!
- Last chance
All of the above tips belonged to our original post (and have been updated to reflect any necessary changes based on Facebook updates since). They are all still directly applicable to designing new ad campaigns, so don’t write them off; every single one is valuable, and we’ve even covered them again in recent posts and webinars.
That being said, there have been some big changes to Facebook ads, which gives us more options for how we use the platform and the types of campaigns we can create.
Let’s take a look at a few more design tips that will either be more important in 2020 or that are now available based on these new updates.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #17 – Use Multiple Ad Formats
There are so many more ad formats now than there used to be, which can be more overwhelming but it also means there are more design options so we can really get creative. Carousel ads, Collection Ads (which are shopping and product-focused), Canvas Ads, and even Story Ads are all exciting options that keep things diverse and can help you to capture user interest.
Standing out in the newsfeed (or the Story feed, or the right column) is crucial to getting results, and when you use these different formats and placements correctly, you’ll be able to deliver your desired effect in a powerful way. Imagine wanting to showcase the excitement of an upcoming event you’re hosting and utilizing Canvas Ads to share videos, announcements, and lists of different speakers, ending with a CTA to register now.
If you want to switch things up but aren’t sure where to start, carousel ads are typically a safe bet. They have higher-than-average CTR and engagement rates, which is automatically a plus, and they give you more room to either demonstrate value or tell a story.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #18 – Automate the Designs
Sometimes the best Facebook Ad designs are the ones that make your life a little bit easier. Facebook’s Dynamic Ads allow you to create templates and upload product catalogs, which will then automatically generate an enormous number of ads that automatically pair up the correct product with its description, price, and other relevant information.
The concept is simple, but it’s so effective. And since these ads are often shown during retargeting campaigns to users who have recently viewed the specific product pages, there’s an increased chance of CTR and conversion. This is a great way to market a lot of products in real time without needing to manually create an ad for each one. Businesses who have large product catalogs should use this feature to their advantage and create interesting templates and descriptions to make them as effective as possible.
Interested in learning more about dynamic ads? See how to set them up here.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #19 – Incorporate Video
I feel like video is to marketing what cheese is to pasta; you can never really have too much. Video marketing is so important, and when it comes to Facebook Ads, videos are a particularly strong design choice.
There are several reasons for this.
First, users love video, and they respond well to it. This gives you the chance to convey more information to users in a shorter space than a text-based ad ever would allow, complete with background theme music to enhance the effect you’re going for.
Videos also stand out in the feed, and automatically give you an edge at getting users to stop scrolling, which is a huge advantage.
Videos are also natural vessels for storytelling, and really let you elaborate on your point in a way that will help your brand and product stand out.
Posted by Blue Apron on Monday, January 28, 2019
Ideally, your ad campaigns marketing videos should meet the following criteria for best results:
- Use closed captions always, since 85% of videos are watched without sound on Facebook
- Use the ad’s headline in order to entice users to watch, but keep it short. Most of the impact should come from the video itself
- Keep the video itself as short as possible, because even engaging videos will lose customers quickly. Keeping it under 30 seconds is ideal, and under 15 seconds is crucial for Stories.
- Remember that the video doesn’t need to complex or cost a lot of money to make. Even stringing together a few high quality images and adding text, music, and CTAs can go a long way. Tools like Shakr and Animoto can help with this.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #20 – Offer Value
When you design your ads in a way that immediately demonstrates and offers value of not only the offer itself but of your brand and/or product, you’ll be in good standing. Value, after all, is going to explain to users why they should purchase, and often ties in with the logical appeals we discussed above. It also explains why they should choose your products over a competitor’s, and why they have a need for it in their lives.
There are several ways to design your ad in a way that will demonstrate value. This includes:
- Show the product in-use in the visual component, either with a single image or a video that shows how easy it is to use or what kind of results you can get.
- Explain the benefits and value propositions clearly in the text and headlines, keeping your specific audience in mind.
- Get creative, and use video tutorials or carousel ads to feature more benefits or elaborate on the value of a product.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #21 – Go Vertical
We’re living in an increasingly mobile-first world, where users are on their mobile devices at heightened levels and slowly shifting towards leaving desktops behind. This is not only important to understand for what types of content to create, but also how to literally design it.
At this point, you pretty much need to go big or go home by incorporating more vertical content (especially vertical video) into your ad campaigns. Note that not all of your campaigns need to be optimized for vertical, but that you should consider optimizing all video ads for the vertical format and to test out Facebook and Instagram Story Ads. Users who click to view a video and realize they have to turn their phone sideways, for example, may be just turned off by the experience enough that they’ll leave the ad where they otherwise may have stayed.
Facebook Ad Design Secret #22 – Tell an Actual Story
Storytelling is an exceptionally powerful tool for marketers, and incorporating short stories in your Facebook Ads will yield exceptional results. Stories can often help merge emotional and logical appeals, which we discussed earlier, while giving users something memorable to grasp onto.
You can use single image ads to tell a story by setting a scene with a picture, and enhancing the effect with your descriptions. In the example below, for example, Plated uses a video featuring a family cooking and laughing together to really set a scene and establish that emotional connection. Carousel ads are another good option for storytelling, as each image and video slide can set a different scene, and video ads are unsurprisingly incredibly effective for this purpose, too.
When it comes to storytelling, keep it simple and go for a single effect. You don’t want to try to make people happy and scared and feeling a sense of adventure; instead, just pick one, or everything will get a little muddled and users will scroll away confused.
It’s Up to You Now…
There are so many factors that go into creating strong, high-performing Facebook campaigns.
The targeting, the copy, the offer, the bids, and even the placements all have to be right. Even if they are, however, your ad can still fall short if they lack strong, motivational, cohesive designs.
Combined, these 22 tips are the most effective ways to design killer Facebook Ads that we’ve learned over the last 10 years.
Remember to keep your specific audience and goals in mind when designing your Facebook Ads, and to thoroughly test these different design strategies and tips to see what your audience is most responsive to.
What do you think? Which of these Facebook Ad design secrets have you put to the test? What strategies have worked best for you? Did we miss any of your favorites? Let us know in the comments below!
This is gold, thank! I’m circulating this post within my agency, all my colleagues will benefit from it!
Quick question, in your opinion, what’s the best length for the post’s text ?
Thanks Lucy, glad my post was useful. Let me know your colleagues’ feedback!
The length is a tough one. We tried analyzing our internal data but could not find any relevant correlation between length and performances. From my very personal point of view, the shorter, the better.
Perhaps the best thing that I learn after reading your article is that we must definitely focus on audience persona while we creating facebook ad design. This will very valuable for me when I promote my blog guides and blog posts.
Massimo, well done. It’s taken me about 5 years to learn what you summarized in a few 1000 words.
Clear, complete and useful post. Thanks and best regards.
Thanks Davide!
So is it better to boost a post as opposed to boosting the page on Facebook?
Desktop Newsfeed: Great for engagement and generating sales & leads. Supports longer copy and link description.
Desktop Right Column: Less effective but cheaper. Images are smaller and text less readable. Works well for retargeting users who already know your brand. Use an image they’ll recognize to catch their eye.
Mobile Newsfeed: Great for engagement & Mobile app installs. As we saw in a recent post, mobile users tend to click “Like” a lot. Copy is shorter, so be careful. While conversion rates on mobile are often deceptive, mobile is great for discovery. Users will discover your product on their phones… then buy it the next day on their desktop.
Yes, with organic reach nearing 0%, I’d not advise to advertise to get more page Likes unless you have a VERY GOOD social media manger. If you care about ROI use Facebook Advertising to generate traffic, leads and sales!
That depends, do you want more Fans or more Sales/Customers? Boosting posts will get more engagement but there’s no real ROI there.
Very good thank you. Allow me to quote you on my blog.
adconceptdesigner.blogspot.ro
Sure, no problem 🙂 Just link back to the original article please!
Thank you for this fantastic post, Great advices. I am gonna print it out to keep it and re read it.
Great post.
I am very curious about next step of testing design process.
Should I keep change the design, Even though I found most performed one?
In your opinion, How long is the longest life span of the design?
How often should I change the design?
Thanks
Yes. I would like to know about this as well. Care to explain Massimo? I tend to do this as well. When find a performed ads, I pumped more budget on it & let it online for months. How long should an ad be used for a campaign?
Hey Joe,
Short answer: As long as the ROI of the Ad is ok for you.
Longer answer: It really depends on the audience size and your budget. Overall I’d keep an eye on the frequency. When the frequency is above 5 you likely want to refresh the design because most of your audience have has already seen the ad 5 times and either they’ve clicked or the current ad is not appealing for them and they’ll start to hate the ad 🙂
Hi. It has really very useful tips to create successful ads in Facebook. I am very happy to here about get great tips. Thank you.
I agreed with you.. really awesome post!
I think mobile advertising is the most important mode as 95% or more browse on their mobile phone.
Great post!
Excellent. The entire facebook marketing suggestions from A to zee. I will definitely put it into practice. Thanks
I’ve run a few ads with no success at all so far – just built a new ad around these tips, so hopefully I can get something out of it this time!
Good Luck 🙂
Massimo,
correct me if i’m wrong, but don’t those ads in your number 2) section break Facebook’s 20% text rule?
Jim
Great post, it definitely helps, but I found it somewhat inconsistent with your own teachings (see no. 9, always be credible). Your article mentioned 9 secrets and I believed you will reveal to me some “secrets” that no one know but while your article sums up a lot of best practice examples, I can hardly call some of them “secrets” given anyone interested in marketing would know what they are (the CTA for example).
Hey Oana, great point. Personally I think there’s a fine line between writing engaging titles and loosing credibility.
These of course are not “secrets” but I can assure you that for most of the marketers who are getting started with Facebook Advertising, are great advices. The word Secrets of course attract more traffic and shares and I think it’s overall fine.
What I’d never do is use titles such as Follow these 3 easy tricks to earn $20,000 a month… those are claims usually with no basis 🙂
Thanks for this quick yet comprehensive post! I already shared it on all my channels!
Some great tips but your final bad example, which uses the “hypey” language (breakthrough, billion dollar etc.) is from one of the most successful internet marketers of the last decade and I’d be willing to bet that advert you point out actually generated £10,000’s in income for him.
It’s about context – this language appeals to his audience. He knows his audience better than anyone else (the get rich quick gang) and if you speak to any “internet marketer” they will know who Frank Kern is.
Thanks for the comment Bob. Of course I know who Frank Kern is and I’m sure that ad was extremely successful for his audience.
That said for most of the advertisers (who are not in the get rich quick gang) I’d never suggest using his strategies or most of the affiliate marketing strategies. Every day I receive like 100 mail promoting every kind of BS claiming it’s BreakThrough technologies (it never is) that will make me rich in few days with just $10 investment.
It may work the first couple of time and it makes sense in a get rich quick business. But if you’re trying to build a long term business I’d try to build trust over unrealistic expectations.
Great tips, Massimo! I especially like #3 and #6.
We run a SaaS too and should include the number of users in our ad as well, for social proof. That’s really a good idea.
And even though I know emotional benefits are what makes people buy, I still forget from time to time.
This post is a good reminder for me to take things up a notch. Have retweeted this as well!
Best,
Welly Mulia
Thanks for this post– it has been really helpful as we develop some ads for our nursing home. The examples that you share are really instructive. We are excited to start doing some testing to see whether stock photos or real images from our facility are more effective. Thanks again!
Glad it was useful Meg!
Meg, I am wondering what you found from testing your ads for your Nursing Home! I am currently trying to do some research for the same industry and would appreciate any feedback you are willing to give me! Thanks
The more attention we get the more we get visitors. If we use negative words in a positive way that will attract visitors attention. What is your opinion.
Negative words are usually very powerful! A title like “7 habits that are destroying your productivity” usually performs better than “7 habits to improve your productivity”.
But how would you use them in a positive way? 🙂
Do you think AdEspresso will ever have landing pages? My landing pages are blog posts. I didn’t find Leadpages templates I liked. I promote different things and my blog isn’t always a great fit for them.
Blog on
Janet
It’s actually something we are considering Janet. We have big plans for 2016 (just doubled our dev team) and Landing Pages may be in our Road Map but no promises yet 🙂
This is truly an “epic blog post.” Not 2,000 words, and not full of BS, but incredibly helpful! Thank you so much. Oh, and nice job calling out Frank Kern 😉
Thanks Lucas … we love to avoid BS 😀
As for Frank Kern… he’s an amazing marketer and a very smart one. If he advertise that way it is because clearly it works for him. However he also has a strong brand and can afford these bullish claims. But overall it’s something we’d not advise to do to any of our customers.
Frank Kern knows his audience. They see “Million Dollar this”, “Seven Figure that” every day – but Billion dollar swipe file? -Now This I Gotta See!
Step 1: Call out your Audience.
“If you are an Online Marketer..”
Step 2: Address frustration or Desire.
“..Looking to Generate More Sales”
Step 3: Social Proof.
This is a “friends of” ad. Someone you know is a fan of Kern. I suspect his cold, newsfeed ads are a bit different.
Step 4: Believable but Insane Claim?
Billion Dollar Swipe file PLUS Tutorial PLUS Case Study = more believable and adds intrigue.
Frank knows for sure his audience. That said Frank Kern is Frank Kern, most advertisers are not and I think using this tactic would actually damage them.
For SMBs who want to grow their business (real business, not “make money only and get rich quick” kinda stuff) it’s more appealing something that promise them a 27% boost in revenue rather than an unrealistic 745% increase
perfect! Thankyou
Hello guys,
unfortunately the most of the images aren’t working on this page 🙁
Hosting issues, but images should be back!
A very interesting article to read.Thanks a lot for sharing this.Good Job.Keep it up.
How are users able to create Facebook ads with images designed for the user viewing the image? Lately, I’ve seen images of T-Shirts with my last name on them, and other types. I’d like to create an image of a birthday party with the viewer’s child’s name on the cake or decorations.
Your article is really awesome…Maybe i will also add some useful tips here
1. Create unique ad sets for each audience
2. Mine audience insights
3. Accompany ads with landing pages
4. Use striking imagery
5. Establish a bid strategy and budget.
Actually I was struggling with my Facebook fan page for design and I am not getting any ideas how to design my ads to get better user experience then I searched in google and read your article that help me to solve my issue with ad design, Now I am getting better traffic and user for my page, thanks for amazing useful information.
Hi – thank you for this post. What tips would you have for creating an ad for a contemporary jewellery designer – I want to avoid anything that could potentially cheapen the perception of our product (prices average around $300 upwards per item). So maybe not offering a discount to get people to click? However, I picked up on your testimonial suggestion (which we have lots of). I get stuck trying to strike the balance between giving the feel of luxe/high end without it appearing too exclusive that people may assume they can’t afford! (When we do have pieces starting at $75). Any thoughts welcome!
Wow. This is super helpful!
I am relatively new to the world of Facebook ads. I have been doing some research and most experts say to make & test different designs. I am wondering, however, does it ever make sense to use the same design, but run & test targeting different groups?
My company is pretty great at design, so that is never an issue for us. Where we get tripped up is getting to the right audience.
Any thoughts?
Excellent Design!
If our facebook profile picture ,cover photo looking so gorgeous .This help us to increase our friend and follower.
So this tips help us a lot.
Thanks
This tips are really perfect to create facebook ad design for any kinds of business purpose. Thanks for sharing, I already bookmark this resources.
Hi thanks for sharing such a nice and informative article with us. I have learnt many things from this master piece. I am going to bookmark this . Thanks and keep it up.
Who designs your images? I like the animated designs. I’m looking to write an ebook so I will need a designer for the cover.
Today, yes: SVG is well supported by all modern browsers, it is rather efficient, it is flexible (you can color parts) and accessible.
Icon fonts are problematic at several levels, starting at accessibility, and with size (download hundred of icons to use a couple of them…), there are lot of articles explaining these issues.
Using numbers in the facebook ad copy will create an appealing ad. I have noticed the image with facts and figure gets more shares and likes on facebook. I think people see the number easily than the written tax.
Find some facts about your product or company and use that in the ad copy. You will see your post is receiving good exposure on facebook.
Thank you
Wow, it was great to know those insights, Willy. It has encouraged me to use numbers and stats in my facebook ad copy as well.
Thank you for giving us useful tips for making facebook ads. I am very impressed by reading this blog. Keep it up.
I like the idea of creating buyer personas. Question is, how many personas can I come up with to make my FB ad more enticing and attractive?
I’d try to go with no more than 3 or 4 main buyer persona unless you’re a large enterprise with huge budgets and many different product lines
fantastic in depth article this will help us manage our ads much better now
I’d try to go with no more than 3 or 4 main buyer persona unless you’re a large enterprise with huge budgets and many different product lines
The 55% discount is mentioned next to Hide & Squeak 🙂 That said, I’d probably want to see the pink shoe if I clicked on that ad!
Thank you for giving us useful tips for making facebook ads. I am a graphic designer thank you.
Nice post!
I rarely comment as post.. ..
This post is GOLD!!
Kudos to the writer!
How are you getting your images with text approved? every time I run an advert with the same amount of text it either gets rejected or I have to pay more to reach the same amount of people.
Ryan
Loved it!
I am going to create an FB ad for the first time so was looking for tips. And I am not from this world, I am doing this to save money (I am a bootstrapping IT startup owner. http://www.anuintechlogix.com)
What I also liked is that everything is to-the-point. Not like those big shot bloggers who write like this “you know you need help with FB ads, but do you know who can help you with the FB ads that you are trying to create. Well, in this blog I will tell you in 10 easy steps using which you can create FB ads. But before that….. ” so we read more than half of the blog without reaching the first point. 😀
I really like the way you share the content… This type of information makes me more knowledgeable…
Thanks for sharing Secrets the Pros Use to Create Great Facebook Ad Designs. I have the website and I am also promoting my website on social media platforms. and Facebook is one of the best platforms where we also create ads. After reading your article I get great information about creating great ad designs which help me a lot. So keep it up and share all this type of information.
This is a very useful post. Thanks for sharing the blog.
Fantaticaly expalined
I really need this kind of information and must share with my circle. Thanks for sharing with us.
Hey, thanks for this blessed article!
Have a nice day.
Really a valuable tips on Facebook advertisement.
Got a bunch of ideas for my campaign..
Thanks.. Keep up the awesome work!!!
Thanks for sharing this valuable article.
An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a coworker who has been doing a little homework on this.
And he iin fact bought me lunch simply because I discovered it for him…
lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thaznk YOU for the meal!!
But yeah, thanks for spending some time to talk about this issuee here on your site.
This is just a fantastic blog which clearly explains how the Facebook ads should look like. The Ads designs matters more because it will urge the people to click on your ads.
Wonderful post! We are linking to this great post on our website.
Keep up the good writing.
Your blog has very unique information for unique topic which you have written. thanks for sharing with us good information.
Thanks for sharing secrets on how to make ad campaigns more efficient. I’ll use it for sure.
Thanks for the wonderful Article. It’s very useful.
Great useful post for me, As I was just started Social media marketing for our firm, Here I got awesome tips to implement in our design. Thanks for sharing.
Excellent guide! Thanks for such great help. This blog helps me out with the knowledge on Facebook perfectly.
Great Share I do have a website that I am trying to boost up rankings too. Thanks for the advice! Keep it up!
Thanks for sharing this awesome information.
thanks for the platform
These strategies are really working. Amazing article.
Thank you for sharing with us.
Amazing article!!Thank you, very beneficial for me to create the best Facebook ads
Amazing article, Thank you for sharing!!
What a great read. I learned something new that can be really useful for future
I always wanted to know the secret behind the good and creative Facebook ad. Thank you for sharing this helpful article with us.
Hi Ana, recently I found a cheap knock off of this article.
Fully translated to Indonesian language https://digitalmarketer.id/productivity/9-rahasia-membuat-desain-iklan-facebook-yang-menghasilkan-konversi/
Shamelessly copied words to words, they even took your images.
I am a long time fans of your blog, my go to blog for Facebook and Instagram ads related.
And this is unacceptable.
Hope this helps.
Awesome Guide. Thanks for sharing
Awesome post! Thanks for writing. Very important topic.
Wanted to throw in my $0.02:
Digital ads on Facebook and Instagram are more competitive than ever before. With eight million companies advertising (up from seven million last year), it’s critical that every piece of your Facebook strategy and execution is stronger than ever before. In order for your creative to convert on paid digital channels, the old way of making ads will no longer be enough.
We believe that if your brand is not optimizing ads toward a primary action based goal, constantly tweaking your message to increase conversion and scale spend profitably, then you might not be spending your time, budget and energy in the most effective way.
Anyway, we blogged about this the other day if you want to learn more:
https://bit.ly/2w2jcn6
Hope that adds to the convo!
See ya
Copy is one of the most important features of a successful ad. These secret tactics give you options for how to approach your Facebook ad.
I got better clarification through your blog, Consistency most important thing in every business this format have a consistent growth for every type of business.