With all of the information and “noise” constantly coming at us, what makes us stop and look at one ad over the other? Yankelovich, a market research firm, estimated that a person living in a city sees up to 5,000 ads daily. But wait, that NY Times article was from 2007! The number of ads that one may see in any given day in 2019 is likely much higher. Those statistics beg the question: what makes us actually notice and click on an ad and find out what it’s all about? 
We’d be lying to you if we told you that any single factor causes a viewer to stop and take notice. In fact, as we will outline below, high-performing ads are successful for a myriad of reasons. So, without further ado, what takes an ad from just average to GREAT?
Scroll-stopping
It’s no secret that in order for an ad to be effective, it has to cause the viewer to do one important thing: stop scrolling. With how short attention spans are in this fast-paced world, this is no small feat. According to Wyzowl, “the average human attention span has shrunk by nearly a quarter in just 15 years, and we’re now lagging behind the humble goldfish in terms of being able to focus on a task or object.” Yikes! 
Dimensions
Testing different dimensions is an important aspect of getting an ad just right. Some audiences may prefer the original “rectangle” Facebook layout, while others may prefer the more modern square layout that is so hot with Facebook Mobile and Instagram right now. The only way to know which dimensions are going to perform best is to, you guessed it, test, test, test! 
Text, or no text?
In the same token as above, another extremely important aspect of finding what will perform the best in your ad, is A/B testing images with text vs. images without text. There is no algorithm to which will perform better, it is simply something that can only be discovered through vigorous initial testing. Make sure that you find a Facebook agency that is willing to do A/B/ testing with your campaign. 
Videos are King
From TV commercials, to Snapchat, to YouTube, it’s no secret that videos are a craze that are NOT going away. If you are only using still images in your ads, you are missing out on a huge potential for bigger returns on your ads through videos. As we have said before, video ads can transform your campaign and are an integral part of any campaign’s success.
A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words
The human brain is clever when it comes to recognizing and glazing over a lot of stock imagery. This is why at TDM, we go to great lengths to choose stock images that are edgy, trendy and sure to grab your viewer’s attention! With that being said, campaign’s that perform the BEST are often the ones who also have polished and professional product photography to test. It’s important to A/B test both stock imagery and your own. A photo can make or break the success of an ad. 
The Importance Of Having A Strong Brand
Portraying your business's brand identity cohesively and accurately is extremely important when it comes to Facebook advertising. When an agency is able to reference a brand style guide, it helps to establish your content with a strong brand voice that resonates with your target audience. Strong, cohesive branding allows your ads to be more quickly recognizable to your audience. *Please note that most agencies will do their very best to ensure their adherence to your brands specific guidelines. However, there may be some instances where they should reserve the right to use their expertise and discretion in content creation when they feel the success of your campaign is at stake. An example of when an agency may choose to create some ads outside of your branding, is if your predominant colors happen to be too close to “Facebook blue.” As a rule of thumb, ads with primarily blue color palettes tend to get lost in the newsfeed, or simply overlooked. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that is something your agency wants to help you avoid!
Trust The Pros- It’s Why You Hired Them!
It may seem obvious, but the final and most important thing you can do to ensure wild success with your ad graphics, is to trust the experts you hired to create them. Hopefully you have done your research and made sure to hire a highly-skilled team of experts; which no doubt includes professional graphic designers. We know it’s hard to keep your closet design skills out of the picture, but as a rule of thumb, when clients tend to interfere with graphic creation, it can cause hiccups with the campaign. Trust the agency that you hired; they have likely been around the block a few hundred times when it comes to ad graphics!
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