What does an effective social media ad look like? In a recent series, we discussed social media advertising from an algorithmic perspective. But there is more to building an ad campaign than satisfying an algorithm. Advertising is inherently creative and the real target is a human, not a machine-learning algorithm. An effective ad combines imagery and text to convey a message that captures the attention of a specific audience.

The quality, relevance, and originality of advertising creative are the most challenging aspects to get right. We scroll past advertising that ticks all the technical boxes every day, pausing and clicking only on ads whose novelty and creativity spark our interest. Think about the advertising that you remember months and years after you first saw it; it is the quality of the creative that makes ads so memorable. 

What Is Ad Creative?

Ad creative is the aspects of an ad that make up its visible appearance. It is what you see when your ads load in the Facebook Newsfeed or on Instagram: the images, videos, body copy, headlines, calls to action, and stickers. Creative is the product of conceptualization, design, and implementation by artists, copywriters, photographers, and more.

5 Qualities of Effective Paid Social Media Ad Creative

It’s difficult to define what makes the perfect social media ad creative, but the most successful ad creative has all five of these qualities.

  • Original — We’re primed to ignore the hundreds of adverts we see every day, but the truly original ads break through ad blindness and catch our attention.
  • Engaging — Good ads give people a reason to click. The most interesting or amusing creative is wasted if the ad doesn’t generate engagement. 
  • Relevant — Who do you want to engage with your ads? Creative rarely has universal appeal; it must be tailored to the interests and sensibilities of the audience you want to reach.
  • Data-driven — Advertising is creative, but, unlike art, it exists to elicit a specific action. Split testing and analytics help advertisers to refine creative and make it more likely to achieve its goals. 
  • Strategic — Ad creative is part of a coherent advertising strategy that fulfills the business and marketing goals of the advertiser. The goals of the strategy shape the form and content of the creative. 

Why Aren’t My Social Media Ads Working?

Ignoring ads is our default setting unless advertisers give us a good reason not to. If ad creative makes any of these mistakes, users may scroll on by. 

  • Low-quality imagery and copy — There are a million ways to get creative wrong, from poor grammar and misspellings to shoddy typography and boring photography. 
  • Clickbait and misleading copy — Clickbait may get your ad noticed, but engagement doesn’t inevitably lead to conversions. Modern Facebook frowns on clickbait, which means you’ll pay more for low-performing ads, as we explained in How Does the Facebook Advertising Algorithm Work?
  • Mistargeting — Ad creative should be tailored to the ad’s primary goal. Creative that is suited for brand awareness won’t be as effective in generating leads, and vice versa.

Ad creative is just one component of a successful social media ad, but it’s the most visible component. Ultimately, creative has the power to make or break your advertising campaigns.