Social media is an ever-increasing source of information and entertainment, with a heavy emphasis on the latter. If your social media content isn’t instantly engaging, people will just scroll right past it, never giving it a second glance. Conversely, if your content looks interesting but lacks authenticity, it will have the same basic effect.
Today, I would like to try to answer the question, “How does one strike balance between authenticity and high engagement potential when creating social media ads?” Since there is more than one social platform, I’m going to go over a few different elements that I think you will find useful to implement across platforms (with a few minor adjustments along the way).
The Basics
The key to developing great social media ad copy is knowing who your audience is and how they interact with various social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, even Snapchat and Instagram. Yes, copy is an important part of all of them if you are creating ad content for those platforms.
Keep in mind that copy isn’t just long-form articles and sales letters. It’s the captions you use on Snapchat. It’s the folder names you create in Pinterest. It’s every tweet and status update. If it involves words, you should be at least collaborating with a custom writing service or copywriter with extensive, verifiable experience in social media about how to best present your written ad content to your audience.
Social media ads have different elements and presentation methods based on the platform to which they are being posted. The neat thing about social media ads (that many PPC/CPC operations just don’t offer) is the unique ability to zero in on the exact audience you want to reach. Facebook still does this better than any other platform, but the others are catching up rapidly.
I don’t have time to explain all the different platforms individually, but there are tons of valuable resources out there that will help you with the mechanics. As you explore your options, note both the similarities and differences between platforms. Certain similar approaches will work on similar platforms. An ad you post on Instagram might also work great on Pinterest, but you will have to make adjustments to the presentation of your copy between the two.
The Specifics
Now, let’s have a look at some of the most important elements of any social media ad. These are not necessarily in order of importance, just things that you will need to consider regardless of where you’re posting your ad.
Headlines – All the major platforms allow for headlines at some tier of the service. Facebook ads can often look like other posts and also borrow from blog post titles when you share content directly from your site. This gives you something interesting to think about: When creating titles for blog posts, ask yourself how they would read as a headline on a social media ad. If you are boosting posts on Facebook, this really, really matters. The blog title is the most prominent thing in the ad, so it’s the second thing people are going to notice. What’s first? I figured you were going to ask that…
Visuals – I have given my opinion on this many times before, so to spare you the redundancy, I’m just going to tell you that your images matter. Don’t just toss up any stock image and expect it to get anyone’s attention. Your content – all of it – has to be unique. This is the first thing that people will notice. Whether they stop or keep scrolling hinges on how well you learn to use pictures as the primary source of communication in your ads. It’s visuals first, copy (preferably written around the visuals) second. Remember that.
A Persuasive Voice – Try to steer clear of, “Click here for an exciting offer,” and navigate your copy more toward, “You won’t believe the deal we have for you. Click here.” You want to create a sense of urgency wrapped around a little mystery. People don’t like being left with lingering questions if they think they might actually want to interact with your brand. If they like you and like the idea of getting a good deal on something, the second approach will work way better. It’s also way long enough. Which segues nicely into my next suggestion…
Short, Succinct Messaging – Resist the urge to expand too much on your message even if the platform you’re on allows more text than the average tweet. Your ad copy should not go beyond a couple lines when displayed on a smartphone. Let the pictures do most of the talking in your ads. My next suggestion allows for a little breathing room and lets you be a little more candid.
Captioning/Using Status Updates as Ads – Particularly useful on Facebook and Twitter, you can boost posts and promote tweets and even create custom ads. Both platforms offer an impressive list of demographic parameters to work with, making it easy to target the right audience, right down to minute specifics. Your ideal avatar will love you for your efforts. With that in mind, take a leaf from Twitter’s book with your captions and keep them short. Use a URL-shortening service to create succinct, personalized URLs for a little added branding.
A Direct Conversation with the Reader – Talk about the product with the reader; don’t talk to your reader about the product. It’s all about the experience. Make good use of pronouns like “you” and “your.” Steer clear of “our” and “it.” It’s not about you or your product. It’s about getting people to feel good about buying your product. That leads to my final suggestion…
A Clear Call to Action – If you want people to do something, particularly in the area of sales, you need to tell them to do it. Weaving a call to action into your ad copy, particularly in your captions or status updates, will increase engagement and conversions. Not convinced? Split test two captions formatted like these and see which one does better over the course of a week:
A) Love fishing? You’re going to love these lures: http://yourURL.here
B) It’s trout season! Time to grab some new lures: http://yourURL.here
Final Takeaway
Social media ads are a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal when used properly. Short, persuasive messages that reinforce powerful visuals are the best way to ensure that people engage, and develop a good relationship, with your brand. Don’t overdo it with the copy and steer clear of shadowy tactics, like clickbait visuals or headlines. Those last two can permanently wreck your credibility.