A Blast of Ad Creative Inspiration!
We’ve all had ad fatigue, where we keep churning out really similar ads, telling ourselves these bad boys always get the good results. And if you have a format which works, that’s brilliant, but nothing is a winner forever, and when you’re running ad campaigns it’s important to keep testing new creative so you can
keep pushing your results up
and your audience doesn’t start to glaze over your content.
Recently we polled our Instagram audience to find out who kept a stash of new creative at the ready to feed into campaigns. The overwhelming response was…. “Not me!”
The problem with not keeping a bank ticking over in the background is that you need to turn new creative around on the spot (when you really need it)…. and that’s not when you’ll dig the deepest.
If you need a bit of inspiration to kick start a creative creation run, consider some of these:
Video, video, video - we like it best top of funnel to grab the attention of cold audiences, and to retarget from video views.
User generated content - nothing speaks volumes like your customers endorsing your product. Testimonials are always worth using, but video testimonials, unboxing, action, consuming, chatting can all work particularly well. These don’t need to be beautifully shot and edited, but should have captions and audio, and be optimised for mobile.
Detail carousels - great for fashion or interiors, use carousel tiles to focus in on the smaller details.
Really. Damn. Clear. - imagery which puts your product and/or your offer front and centre, with little distraction. Test creative where an image of your product takes between half and two thirds of the ad.
Colour - popping out of the feed is important, as is being loyal to your brand palette. The impact of colour can be even stronger with a monochromatic style. If you’re selling socks, for example, try bunching your blue ones together and shoot them on a contrasting blue background.
Cheeky and humorous - this clearly has to fit with the brand, and needs to be judged whether it will hit the right note with your audience… but a funny ad is a fast track to brand awareness.
Product stats - these can be really impactful, particularly if favourably compared to the wider market. We prefer to test stats in videos.
‘Five things…/Three things…’ - highlighting things your audience will love about your product.
Addressing the pain point - putting the pain point in your creative can be really eye catching. Frizzy, unmanageable hair, multi-bottle beauty routines etc. There’s also the option for ‘before and afters’ with these.
Press testimonials - if you’ve been featured in a well known publication, test it in an ad.
Ad creative is arguably the most important element of any campaign, and deserves time and attention. Watch what the brands you love are doing; what sort of ads catch your attention, make you smile, or inspire you to take action?
Could you replicate that response for your brand?
Providing inspiration and guidance on ad creative is something we help out with on our ‘Ask Nutshell’ service.