Part 4 – Campaign Strategy

Creative Strategy

When you are spending $100K+ month having great creatives isn’t optional - it is a MUST! Facebook seems to be fixated on taking control of a lot of the “technical” aspects of Facebook - which means that sooner rather than later the only thing advertisers will need to focus on is developing great creative strategies.

This section of the case study is written by Nikki Davis who is TFC’s Senior Account Manager and is the mastermind behind our creative strategy.

Testing:

It has been our goal to test, at the very least, one new creative a week. We have a bank of copy, images, and video that we are always adding to and pulling from.

If we do not have new video or images to work with from time to time, then we come up with something new from preexisting videos. This can be done by editing two or more previous videos together, splicing videos and static images, by adding copy to existing video clips, and so on and so on.

Refreshing & Burn Out:

We always want to be refreshing the creatives in the account, as we have seen new creative assets ‘burn out’ in 2-3 weeks. They’ll perform well, but then slowly start to fizzle out after about 3 weeks and then we can get a lot less use out of them.

We can still run those creatives at a small budget, but we typically cannot throw even half as much budget at those creatives.

Custom Thumbnails:

Custom thumbnails are now a must. Back in the day, FB would autoplay video. But now someone needs to stop and click on your video to watch it. Custom thumbnails are now the difference between someone scrolling by and stopping and watching your video.

When making thumbnails, we try to use visual disruption to make our thumbnails stand out in the timeline and get people to click. The principles below will all apply to custom thumbnails.

Images:

Images still work!

We like to take a still image from a video and retarget that to people who have watched more than 50% of the videos. Sometimes we pair that with a discount to sweeten the deal.

We also use images to get cheaper results to ‘win back’ people who have already purchased. They already know CurlMix® and love their products, so there’s no need to target them with more expensive video ads.

Visual Disruption - Standing Out In the News Feed:

We use the following to make our images and thumbnails stand out in the News Feed.

Yellow:

We use yellow a lot in our thumbnails to make them POP out at the viewers in their News Feed. Not only is it bright and attention grabbing, but there’s not a lot of yellow on in the News Feed, so it’s extra attention grabbing.

Plenty of brands want to stay visually consistent, minimal, and beautiful. While we want that, we also want to make sales. And you have to be noticed to make sales.

Yellow is also the opposite to blue on the color wheel, and most brands use blue in their graphics. Therefore, by using yellow alone, we are standing out in a sea of blue logos and graphics on the News Feed.

Primary Colors:

The image to the left is an image we use to retarget purchasers and people who have watched the video that the model was in originally.

The bright primary colors and simplicity allows for a viewer to not only pay attention to it, but also to understand that this gel, plus water, will make your hair curly in less than a second. Sometimes on FB, you only have a second to communicate to your distracted audiences.

Text:

We generally see the best results when we put text into thumbnails, but sometimes we try without it as well.

Arrows and Pointing:

For the thumbnail on the left, the arrow and eye emojis are drawing the viewer’s eyes to her curly hair, and it’s implied that the serum helped her achieve her curls. We made the text yellow so that it will pop out, and overall be more noticeable on News Feed.

Emojis:

Emojis are a universal, easy to understand form of communication.They are easy to process. They also carry with them a friendly, almost intimate feel, as we use the same emojis with our loved ones and friends.

My favorites to use are the heart face and eye emojis.

Make the product glow:

Outlining the product in yellow is a great way to not only make it pop, but also to add in some yellow if you otherwise can’t add an image or thumbnail.

Video

Use Square Video 1080 x 1080

It takes up more real estate on the News Feed, and also works well for Instagram ads.

Vertical Video 1080 x 1920

Vertical video is currently being prioritized by Facebook. I like it because it takes up the most real estate on the timeline, and it’s easy to cram a lot of information into a shorter amount of time with how much space you are allowed.

Banner Text on Top and Bottom:

This allows to transform 1920 x 1080 videos into a square format, and not have to tinker around or cut off any part of the video.

Placing a message here will drive in the point to the viewer as they watch the video of the product working.

Ending Call-to-Action (CTA):

End each video with a call-to-action, and a pointer emoji or arrow pointing to either the CTA button on FB placements, or swipe up for IG placements.

Video Quality - Texture vs. Polish:

You DO NOT need ultra high quality video to sell. In fact, I think high quality video comes off as lacking authenticity and is less credible. People go to social media for REAL stuff, not highly polished infomercial type content.

Video from phones on Facebook come across as authentic and have a ‘phone to phone’ feel to them, as most people who are watching your video will be on their phones as well. I call this ‘texture,’ and we have found that this comes off as very trustworthy and authentic.

Copy:

Questions, make them say yes:

We typically hook the reader in with a question. Sometimes we include a question within the body of the copy. We want them to keep thinking ‘yes!’ to our product.

Make it easy to read:

We use long copy, with plenty of breaks to make it easier to read. People find it harder to read through big chunks of text.

End with a clear call-to-action:

We end copy with a CTA and an emoji pointing to a link. The CTA is usually formed as a question.

For example: ‘Want curls that will last?”

Emojis:

As stated before, emojis are universal and easy to understand. They bring in an extra dimension into communication. They are noticeable. They also invoke a familiar, trusting and friendly feeling.

Points:

We love to list out all the benefits of products in a clear and easily digestible bullet points. It makes it quick and easy to communicate when there are multiple benefits to a product.

We have found the check mark emoji to be the most effective with this.

Here is some sample ad copy that have produced amazing results for us:

Copy 1:

Want AH-MAZING curls?

How about cutting your washday time in half?

We are not playing! ?

Our Pure Flaxseed Gels are handmade with 100% natural flaxseed gel and organic oils. You won't find this high-quality gel anywhere else!

Our collection of Flaxseed Gels can help with:

✅ Repairing damaged hair
✅ Softening hair
✅ Moisturizing hair
✅ Hair growth
✅ Strengthening hair

Copy 2:

One hair gel that makes ALL hair types sha-??????! ?? Plus its 100% natural and handmade. ??‍?

You won’t find quality, organic handmade flaxseed gel in stores.

It’s gotta be mixed by hand, with love - hence our name CurlMix®.

Flaxseed gel naturally leaves you with lightweight, soft & touchable curls.

That means NO c̶r̶u̶n̶c̶h̶, NO c̶h̶e̶m̶i̶c̶a̶l̶s̶, NO f̶l̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶.

Grab yours now, because you’re gonna love running your fingers through your soft, touchable curls ?? bit.ly/lemonflaxseedgel

Copy 3:

Love the look of ultra defined curls, but hate how gel leaves them crunchy and flaky? ??

Flaxseed is nature’s solution! ?

Flaxseed gel leaves curls and coils of ALL hair types ULTRA defined, but without the crunch and flakes of other gels. ➰ How?

? Flaxseed gel is naturally moisturizing and super gentle on the hair cuticle, which reduces frizz and locks in definition. Our pure Flaxseed gel is hand made in small batches, 100% REAL, and natural. ??

Want to get ultra defined, yet soft and supple curls with NO CRUNCH and NO FLAKES?

Grab yours here ?? bit.ly/SoftDefinedCurls

Special Characters:

Creative Summary

Hopefully this section got your wheels spinning about the creative strategy for your account! While following best practices is smart, what’s even smarter is TESTING.

A way to cheaply test the potential of a creative is by throwing it in a Page Post Engagement campaign. We have found out that if you have a video ad in a PPE campaign, the magic number is .005. That means if you can get engagements for half of a penny - that ad has a good chance of winning. If you are looking for some inspiration - Facebook makes it really easy now. With the few clicks of your mouse you can see what ads the most successful brands in your space are running! Just go to their page, click “Info and Ads”, and whoop there it is.

Want to take a look at some of the brands ads that we have in our swipe file? Click here to see →

Success with Facebook Ads will sooner rather than later be dictated entirely by creatives - so make sure that you read over this section a few times.