What Visuals Work Best for Facebook Like Ads?

It is hard to comprehend the impact a good Facebook advertisement can have. With an average of 1.5 billion daily users, the marketing value of the platform is increasing every week. However, this is hardly new, and there are millions of businesses and personal pages battling it out to have their ‘like ads’ seen. Whilst throwing money at your adverts may seem advantageous, you’re not guaranteed to be successful.

Why? Many adverts just look the same. You can scroll and scroll, but unless something jumps out at you, it all blends into one.

This is where you can set yourself apart. Great visuals can take your like ad from the ordinary to the extraordinary. If you can capture someone’s imagination whilst they’re mindful – or mindlessly – scrolling, then you’re much more likely to have greater engagement and a better-looking ROI.

Though it may sound complicated to improve your visuals, it really isn’t. Having said that, in this article, we’ll be looking at the best visuals for Facebook like ads.

What is Facebook like ads?

First, it’s important to note what Facebook like ads actually are. Facebook like ads is paid advertising campaigns that are manufactured with the aim of getting your page more likes. This differs from the standard advertisement of trying to redirect to a sales page or a particular website.

A campaign of this nature is targeted at those who are likely to be interested in your brand, product or service so that they’re persuaded to like your page. Having Facebook likes increases your reach, engagement and long-term success as a business.

Why you should use them?

Facebook like ads is worth using because they really work. Firstly, people tend to be more loyal towards this ad type, since they see there pages their friends liked. It’s a social proof phenomenon at work.

Secondly, like ads are easy to set up, even if you do not have much experience and haven’t yet mastered sales techniques.

And the third reason – they mostly cost you the least.

Still and Animated Images

There is no successful Facebook like ad without a proper visual. One of the most obvious, yet most effective visual is that of a still image. However, there are businesses for which animated ads work better. Although you can find the results other people have got from tests, run your own to find out the best option for you.

If you’re a gifted graphic designer, you can go ahead and produce your own visuals. But for people who are not (and who cannot afford hiring one), it’s somewhat complicated – unless they use online visual editors with templates (which are usually made by professional graphic designers). Some tools like Crello give a possibility to create both animated and still image Facebook ads, which is very convenient if you decide on using all features available.

Copy

Everybody knows that they need a persuasive copy to see great results, but very few actually capitalize on it – especially when we talk about building the textual information in a visual way to make it look smooth.

Facebook allows up to 125 characters (or up to 20% of the image) actually overlaying their like ads…

This provides the perfect opportunity to incorporate emotional compelling copy into your visuals. Copy that involves an emotional, or direct response element, is likely to deliver excellent results. You cannot differentiate textual and visual information in this case, since copy also becomes a part of an image.

Spotify is an excellent example. Many of their adverts use emotional call-for-actions within the copy, leading customers towards their page. For example, an advert saying “You know there’s a playlist with your name on it, right?”, entices the customers into clicking through, or liking the page. It’s worth speaking to an advert production company to produce some great copy if you plan to spend a lot on advertising.

Why?

Because they are combining their text with their visuals, speaking to their audience, and including an indirect call for action.

Video

Video communication is one of the more advanced, yet more successful forms of visual advertisement. By 2021, up to 78% of all mobile data will be video, and for most, the video is the best method of communication.

On Facebook, you get between 1 second and 240 minutes to get your point across. However, in the internet age of short attention spans, you’d be better off sticking to something short and snappy.

Generally, video ads convert better than their text or image counterparts, and you’re much more likely to get a better campaign out of one.

So, why are videos so effective?

Because they’re interesting, they’re captivating, and they tell a story. People like to get information this way – that is why Facebook live videos have gained so much attention.

Let’s look at Airbnb, for example, they use video as their visual medium to tell meaningful, emotionally compelling stories. Their “#WeAccept” video campaign was award-winning and gave their ads great success.

The same goes for popular Facebook page Beautiful Destinations. Using Facebook like ads to tell short stories about different places around the world, they’ve tallied up 1.2 million likes so far. It appears that the average consumer, scrolling through their feed, is likelier to stop and watch a video on the sites of New York City, than stop and be compelled by a photo of New York City.

The Verdict?

To answer the question in the title of this article, it’d appear that video is the visual that works best for Facebook like ads. However, that is not to say that there isn’t a place for image and written visuals. They are all effective in their own ways, you can use visuals to improve your campaigns today. In any case, you will see that the results are rewarding for your business.

Now, you can go and use your newfound knowledge to run your successful Facebook like Ad campaign.

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