Creativity is one of the most essential components of any advertising campaign. A creatively strong ad is 27% more effective than a weak one. But with just 1.7 seconds to engage a user on a social platform, creativity is more important than ever. With Facebook users clicking on 12 ads every 30 days, brands should experiment with their creative to make their paid social ads distinctive compared to other brands. Additionally, user numbers are increasing rapidly on newer platforms like Pinterest & TikTok. These platforms showcase very visual and engaging content. Brands should experiment with their Creative and data to explore new audiences within these growing social platforms.
Traditional approaches to ad design have relied on opinion, experience and ‘gut feel’. But with the growth of digital, we can now learn more about data and how it can improve creativity. With social commerce becoming increasingly popular, many marketers are fighting for their spot on the timeline. Social ads must be distinctive to engage users. “People think that creativity and data are antagonistic concepts”, Carmen, Head of Creative at Making Science, explains. “Data, analysis numbers vs creativity, ideas and imagination. They feel like opposites! However, these two concepts cannot live without each other if you want your campaign to succeed.”
So how can marketers marry data with creative to design more effective ads for their paid social?
The best way to understand how data can support your creative and the performance of your paid social ad is to acknowledge what you want your ad to achieve. Different brands use their social ad campaigns to entice the user to complete a further action. Analytical tools showcase what audiences are interested in similar brands, products or services and how they react to these certain ads. Data will support the personalisation of the ad’s message, reach the optimal audience and produce a successful social ad campaign. Understanding the brand, product or service and what message you want to convey is very important to simulate the best campaign. For example, if your campaign aims to increase brand awareness, mobile-first videos are twice as likely to enable branding recognition from the user. Understanding user behaviour analytics will strengthen your creative campaign and assist you in reaching your ad goals.
To simulate the most effective ideas, focus on the branding, time, attention, sound and framing of your paid ad; these components determine the engagement rate of the user. Data will support your ad by demonstrating what decision will have the best results. Understanding the commonalities between other effective social ads is very important. The recurring pattern will highlight when engagement is at its highest. Calculating which channels will best support your social ad will also improve the performance of your campaign. Thus, social media users engage well with interactive and visually appealing ads; that’s why applications like TikTok and Instagram are becoming extremely popular. These platforms offer short and interactive videos, also known as stories and reels. Top ranking Instagram stories that are easier to understand are more likely to gain the user’s attention. Experimenting with your creative is very important, but do not over complicate your message and lose the user’s focus and make sure that your brand is imprinted in the first 3 seconds of your ad.
Data supports the campaign, but optimisation sponsors the performance.
Unlike traditional marketing, social ads can be modified and updated with the use of data. As a result, you can learn more about your audience’s likes by testing different versions of your paid ads. A/B testing is a fundamental part of optimising your campaign. 3000 Million stories are posted daily on FB related apps; optimising your campaign will ensure that your content stands out. A/B testing improves content engagement and can provide insight even with low data rate testing. Using this split test method allows you to recognise what can be improved on to better the performance of your social ad, even if you have fewer visitors or conversions. Consequently, the results from A/B testing can lower your ad costs as the data will show you which Ads have the best engagement and then further increase your ROI.
Ultimately, nothing can be labelled as failed if it provides results of how it can be better. Data allows us to create for a purpose and a specific audience. Without data, many campaigns would run, and investments would have gone to waste. Using data, we can ensure that the investments placed into these campaigns are worthy of the sales and customers that our paid social ads attract.
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