As a media buyer and advertiser, you are essentially a merchant of attention. Your goal is to capture the attention of a target audience member through a combination of visual stimuli in the form of creative (video/graphic), headline, ad body copy, and CTA button.

It doesn’t matter how great of a product or offer your client has, if you can’t capture the attention of the target audience, nobody will come to the website.

Below is a visual representation of a heat map of how most people’s attention interprets ads visually. It is broken down into 3 points of attention.

When designing ads, it’s important to know what users’ eyes are drawn to first. From there, you can create more effective ads.

1. First, the video/graphic captures the attention of the user.
2. Next, the user will often read the headline and view the CTA button.
3. After that, the user’s attention is brought to the ad copy.

You have to earn each point of attention. This means having a compelling graphic or video that stops the target audience’s scroll. If using a video, it’s extremely important that the first 3 seconds of the video is the most attention-grabbing element.

After you’ve earned their attention by stopping their thumb from continuing to scroll past your ad, the next most important element in ad creation is crafting strong headline copy. This headline copy needs to relate to the visual element while also clearly stating what the user should expect next after they click. The CTA button is also important as it also tells the user what action they can be expected to take after they click.

Lastly, but certainly not least, is the ad body copy. This is where you have the most liberty to explain to the user who your client is, what they are offering, and why the user can’t afford to not click on through.

An ad displayed on the Facebook feed will include the following creative elements:

• Message: The longest copy section; your ad’s core details will be here
  
• Image/Video: Your chance to capture the audience’s attention, where you will display any visual elements
• Headline: The shortest copy section, sometimes the only part of the ad that is read by the ad viewer
  
• Link Description: Not necessary, but can be an option to include a short value statement (“Hurry! Limited Spots” “Free Shipping!”); does not appear on all placements
  • If left empty can default to pull copy on your website; we typically recommend overriding this and leaving the description blank unless there is a strong message to include.
    
• Link Caption: Your brand’s URL (appears in all caps)
• Call-to-Action Button: A pre-set list is available to select from. Available options are here and vary based on the ad’s objective.
  

Next, let’s take a look at the creative elements of an Instagram feed ad.

• Message: The longest copy section; your ad’s core details will be here. Notice though, that this section is underneath the image/video compared to the Facebook feed placement, underscoring again the importance of having a strong, visually compelling image/video to capture the user’s attention first.
  
• Image/Video: Your chance to capture the user’s attention with a compelling and eye-catching video or image.
• Link Caption: Your brand’s URL (appears in all caps)
• Call-to-Action Button: A pre-set list is available to select from. Available options are here and vary based on the ad’s objective. In this example, a “learn more” call to action encourages users to click on the ad.
  

Now, let’s review Facebook and Instagram story ads.

These fullscreen vertical ads appear to viewers between organic Facebook Stories and organic Instagram stories. Image ads in Facebook Stories and Instagram Stories will show for five seconds or until the user swipes out of the Story. The Story placement is the most distilled-down version of the ad, with the least amount of creative elements in the ad creation process on the platform. 

• Image/Video: Your chance to capture the audience’s attention, where you will display any visual elements. We highly recommend including captions, especially with video stories, so users are able to understand the main takeaways of the ad without needing to turn on sound. 
• Call-to-Action Button: A pre-set list is available to select from. Available options are here and vary based on the ad’s objective.

In some instances, you might choose to run the story placement without the creative (image and video) being properly sized as a 9×16 aspect ratio (1080 x 1920). In those cases, the ad would appear as a square or landscape perspective with ad copy automatically pulled from the message. See below for an example:

While we’d recommend sizing your creative to fit each placement for the best results, in some instances we’ve seen little to no difference in ad conversion rate as long as the copy and creative are compelling.

And that’s the anatomy of different Facebook and Instagram ads! Of course, Facebook is constantly changing and tweaking ads, so what is true or standard practice now may change in 2 weeks, 2 months, or 2 years. What’s important to keep in mind during the ad creation process is focusing on the most important elements of the ad in order to increase click-through rate and conversion rate: the image/video, the headline, the call to action, and the ad body copy (in that order). Now that you know what an ad will look like at each placement, you can figure out how to succinctly and boldly get your message across to users.

Agree or disagree with us? Want to learn more? Tell us your thoughts below or message us to connect.