social media ads

How to Create Successful Social Media Ads: Purpose, Creative & Audience

Picture it…

You’re scrolling through social media, you’re pressing “like” on your coworker’s newest photo of their 2nd grader, double tapping on the cute picture of your friend’s dog, mindlessly scrolling past ads— wait, what? Those social media ads you just scrolled past, maybe even liked, were meant for you. Yes, you! Those ads were designed to blend in enough to seem organic but catch your attention. Did they do their job? Let’s assess…

Deciding on the Social Media Ad’s Purpose

Social media ads can have all kinds of different purposes. Let’s walk through a few examples of different purposes for social media ads. 

Ads for Local Restaurants: Purpose

Your favorite local restaurant wants to promote a new menu item to attract potential customers while also targeting returning customers. The call to action for this ad would be Visit Us with a button to “get directions” or “call now.” 

Ads for Retail: Purpose

A clothing store with options to shop both online and in-store wants to attract a younger demographic. The call to action for this ad would be Shop Now with a link to the website and directions to the store. If the store did not have an online component, the call to action would be Shop Now with a link to directions to the store.

Ads for a Service: Purpose

A software company wants to promote its services to business owners. The call to action for this would be Call Now with a button to call the business, or a different CTA would be Learn More with a link to the business’s website. social media creative, graphic design

Brainstorming Social Media Ads Creative

Now that we know more about a social media ad’s purpose and CTA, it’s time for the creative process. Ads can include an array of photos, videos or infographics. Some ads do their job as stand-alone posts while others may do better as a carousel with an option to scroll through several photos.

Ads for Local Restaurants: Creative

A good creative for this ad would be a carousel post starting with the new menu item then including the restaurant’s most popular items and an overview of the menu itself. 

Ads for Retail: Creative

Styled mannequins and fully stocked clothing racks would be the best creative for a retail clothing store. Other retail stores may want to try bright, eye-catching graphics or photos and videos of their products being used.

Ads for a Service: Creative

Informational videos may be just what businesses who sell a specific service need to attract clients. Any type of content that displays the service being used or provided, or even an infographic, would suffice for service-based companies.  social media ads, yellow

Choosing the Right Audience for Social Media Ads

You could have the best-looking social media ads out there, but they wouldn’t make any difference if no one saw them. Before publishing a social media ad, it’s important to pin down what kind of audience you want to attract (this is a step you should have done before choosing a creative, too). If you curated your content to a younger, active audience, you would want to target, for example, males and females ages 18 to 25. If your business is trying to sell something specific like a beard trimming product, you would target males ages 25 to 50, or, for an eyelash extension service, you would target females ages 18 to 40. The creative and message of your social media ad should always be tailored to your chosen audience. 

Now what?

You’ve defined the purpose of your ad, developed a creative and narrowed down a target audience, now what? You’re ready to publish! Assuming you’ve come up with a budget, you may now be ready to submit your ad for Meta approval. Every ad run through Meta (Facebook or Instagram) goes through an approval process that can last anywhere from 2 to 24 hours.  Think back to the beginning of our time here today…remember that social media ad you so mindlessly scrolled past? Did it do its job? If that ad caught your attention and made you click into the specific CTA, then that makes you every marketer’s dream! If it didn’t, the ad may have failed. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean that ad is a complete failure.  You may see this ad several more times in the near future, and eventually, you may take action on it. Or, maybe next time you’re discussing dinner options with your significant other, you remember that ad you saw about a new menu item at a local restaurant. Or, you recall a bright, colorful ad you saw for a bathing suit when you’re packing for your beach vacation. Or, maybe, you realize you really do need a side hustle and that new dog walking service seems pretty legit— afterall, you did see several posts about it.Whatever it may be, your business needs to be active on social media, not just organically, but on the paid ads side as well. The marketing pros at 898 Marketing are able to help with any and all social media marketing needs. Contact us today for more information on how we can take your business to the top.
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