When it comes to your Facebook ad creative, you’ve got plenty of options:

Image, video, or both across various ad formats — single image ad, single video ad, carousel, dynamic product ads, and more.

This only goes to show how versatile Facebook is. As an advertiser, the platform offers you creative freedom.

Now, I want to ask you:

How do you use that creative freedom to your advantage? What are ways to ensure that your Facebook ads catch your prospects’ attention in a good way —  and hopefully, make them convert?

That’s what we’re going to discuss in this article.

?Bonus Material: Our Ultimate List of Facebook Ads Case Studies>>

Try These 6 Facebook Ad Creative Tips for Impactful Campaigns

Before you get started with your ad (or fix the one you already have), check out these strategies. They might just increase your conversions.

1. Use a relevant, high-quality image.

Let’s start with the basics. The image is an extremely important part of your Facebook ad since it’s the first thing that your audience often notices.

The stats don’t lie:

• The brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. (Source: Neil Patel)
• 49% of marketers consider visual content as very important to their marketing strategy (Source: Venngage)
• Information that’s accompanied by a relevant image is likely to be remembered up to three days later. (Source: HubSpot)

When choosing an image, always make sure that it’s relevant to the product or service you’re offering. The ad below is a perfect example. It shows a woman wearing workout clothes in a gym environment, which depicts athleticism.

Bottom line? Choose your image in terms of context. Think about it this way: Would a fitness brand use an image of zoo animals? Most likely, no.

In terms of quality, Facebook recommends that you upload the highest image resolution available that meets ratio requirements. This applies to all ad placements. (See more Facebook ad creative specs here.)

Stock photos vs real photos: What should you use?

There’s no doubt about it, taking your own photographs makes your brand look more authentic. This would be especially important if you sell your own products.

But Facebook also gives you access to its Shutterstock library. You can access it inside Ads Manager > Ad > Media.

Just select Stock Photos from the dropdown and type your desired photo in the search box.

Stock photos are beneficial when you’re advertising a guide, workbook, or course. Women’s Health uses a great stock image in one of its ads:

2. Avoid too much text in your ad images.

One thing you can do to grab people’s attention is to add text to your Facebook ad creative. It could be the name of your offer, enticing words like FREE or LIMITED TIME, or a call-to-action.

Take the example from HubSpot’s ad below:

Note that under Facebook’s guidelines, ads with no more than 20% text perform better. Because while text draws attention, too much of it creates a bad experience.

Text in your ad image includes the following:

• Text over a photo
• Text-based logos
• Watermarks
• Text in thumbnail images for videos

To increase the chances of your ad getting approved by Facebook, don’t throw in a lot of text to your images. Instead, incorporate the rest of the information you would like to convey in your ad copy.

Luckily, Facebook provides an Image Text Check tool. All you need to do is upload your ad image.

It will check how much text it contains so that it meets Facebook’s image text guidelines. You can access the tool here.

3. Tell a story with carousel ads.

Facebook’s carousel ad format allows you to display up to 10 images and videos in a single ad.

You can link each image or video to a separate landing page. Carousel ads look great on desktop and mobile devices.

Best of all, using this format enables you to tell stories that engage your audience… stories that focus on your brand, customers’ success, or the benefits they can enjoy from your product or service.

In the example below, Fitbit UK & Ireland uses a carousel ad to show their audience different ways they can benefit from and use the new Fitbit Charge 4. It includes relevant images of people wearing the product.

Here’s another example of a carousel ad. It tells the results that business owners can achieve by using Connectio.

The ad appeals to potential users with different needs — those who want to get more leads, increase their sales, or boost traffic.

4. Show off your brand with video.

Wondering whether you should be running video ads on Facebook? Here’s a fact: Video helps you achieve higher engagement than a single image ad.

HubSpot did some testing on this:

To drive traffic to its blog post, 27 Companies With Really Catchy Slogans & Brand Taglines, HubSpot experimented with two versions of the same ad.

One version used a video teaser of the blog post, while the other version used an image from the blog post. The result? The video got 20% more clicks.

Sweat is well-known for its home workouts for women with different fitness goals.

To encourage its audience to sign-up for a free trial, Sweat runs a Facebook video ad (see the screenshot above). The ad shows some workouts performed by its trainers.

How can you make effective video ads? Check out these best facebook video ads and the reasons why they worked.

5. Capture attention fast.

People scroll quickly through their Newsfeeds. With that, your Facebook ad creative has to capture short attention spans.

These tips will help you design an ad that stands out and creates an impression in a short period:

Highlight a challenge

Do a deep dive into your audience’s pain points. Monday.com does an amazing job by featuring a common frustration that its audience experiences:

“Before and after”

Before and after pictures quickly demonstrate the impact of your product or service on the lives of customers. Something used to be this, but now it has become this — thanks to your company.

Get crazy once in a while

Do something unusual to make your audience laugh. Humor is an amazing way to connect with people. In my ad below, I’ve had some fun jumping out of a box.

Obviously, you can experiment with other crazy concepts.

Here’s how to play it safe: Steer clear of sensitive or controversial topics. And keep in mind that the best humor comes naturally!

6. Optimize for mobile.

If you look at the stats, 96% of Facebook users access the platform via their mobile devices. This tells us how important it is to optimize our ad campaigns for mobile devices.

Furthermore, Facebook’s study reveals that people put more attention to video content.

Get your Facebook mobile ads right with these strategies:

1. First off, make sure that you’ve chosen your ad to show on Mobile at the Ad Set level of your campaign.

2. Shorten the duration of your video ad. Shorter video ads tend to have a higher ad recall, return on ad spend, and completion rate.

Here’s how to do it: After uploading your video, select Customize Video to open the Edit Video window. Trim your video to 15 seconds or less. Make sure that your video gets your message across within the first few seconds.

3. Design for sound off because not everyone on mobile prefers watching video content with the sound on. In Ads Manager, you can let Facebook generate captions for your video or you can add them manually.

4. If you’ve already used images in the past, why not turn them into a slideshow this time? A benefit of slideshow ads is their ability to load fast regardless of your audience’s internet connection speed.

5. Use vertically formatted videos (instead of the horizontal format). 79% of novice vertical video consumers consider vertical videos more engaging. Furthermore, a vertical format offers brands multiple ways to get creative.

Pure Gym, a leading UK gym chain, ran vertical Facebook and Instagram video ads to raise brand awareness and attract new members.

This strategy boosted Pure Gym’s ad recall, favourability, and preference.

?Bonus Material: Our Ultimate List of Facebook Ads Case Studies>>

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this blog post gave you actionable ideas for a great Facebook ad creative — whether that’s photo or video.

While we didn’t mention about copy, remember that it matters too. Be sure to tie your copy to your creative, keep your message clear, and speak to your target audience.

Lastly… If you want to take your Facebook advertising to the next level through better targeting, retargeting, and automation, try Connectio. At Connectio, we offer five Facebook Ads tools that help you run smarter, more profitable campaigns!