Creative Is The New Targeting – Five Tips From Meta To Maximise Ad Performance

AI-powered ad tools, such as Meta’s Advantage+ solutions, are increasing campaign efficiencies, giving advertisers more time to focus on strategy. The next big lever to pull is creativity.

Creativity plays a critical role in driving performance and business outcomes. However, attention spans are getting shorter and shorter – a recent study shows that Gen Z loses active attention to ads after just 1.3 seconds. So, how can advertisers create unique content and combat creative fatigue?

Diversify your creative to reach new audiences and inspire action 

Creativity plays a major role in ad delivery – who an ad reaches is tied to what the ad features. Henry Kelly, Head of e-Commerce at Meta explained that “Creative is targeting – it gives you the opportunity to start building content and stories that you want to tell a specific audience; the story is going to be different for you than it is for me”. 

Creative diversification is having a variety of ad formats and concepts in your campaign to reach new audiences, combat fatigue, and inspire action. While ads with similar creatives may be delivered to the same sets of audiences, ads with diversified creatives show up to 32 per cent improvement on CPA and 9 per cent improvement on incremental reach.

“Creative is the vehicle to authentically engage with your audience… You have to fight fatigue, you have to focus on differentiation, you have to make sure that you understand your audience, so that you’re creating the asset that’s going to resonate with those people in the first place,” says Kelly. 

When advertisers personalise their message for diverse audiences, they widen their reach and improve campaign performance. Here are five ways to achieve this with Meta. 

Five ways to establish creative differentiation 

1. Build visually distinct assets to attract a wider audience 

Start thinking about people you don’t normally reach and consider the motivations behind their purchase decisions. Tailor your creative for these audiences by showcasing diverse people and product shots. Adjust your messaging by speaking to emotions and highlighting different features that may appeal to these different audiences. Experiment with design and incorporate bold colours, motion graphics and animated text overlays to capture attention.

2. Produce authentic content to connect with people 

We’re seeing a massive cultural shift with the growth in popularity of short-form video such as Reels. This has also influenced audiences favouring relatable and authentic content over polished ads. More lo-fi assets have been making their way into Meta’s top performing campaigns. 

Ride this trend and ensure you’re producing user-generated content (UGC) and lo-fi creative, in addition to your polished brand assets. 

Fashion Brand, Princess Polly, using a mix of UGC and polished creative.

3. Work with creators to generate demand

Creators have original and relatable perspectives that resonate with audiences. They are able to tell the stories brands can’t tell themselves. 63 per cent of 18–34-year-olds trust what a creator says about a brand more than what the brand says about itself. 

Partner with creators and leverage their originality and authenticity to gain access to new audiences. Carlton Dry had an ambition to increase relevance with Gen Z. They ran a creator-first, Reels-First campaign to authentically connect with younger audiences via diverse creators and saw a 5.5-point higher incremental lift in affinity and 1.6x longer average watch time, compared to a usual campaign.

4. Try different placements to increase impressions

74 per cent of the 3.8 billion people on Meta discover new brands through its platforms. Fully utilise Meta’s platforms with different ad placements – this will get your brand in front of more people. 

The most efficient way is to use Advantage+ placements and let Meta’s algorithm find all available placement opportunities and get the best results for your budget. 

Another approach is to customise your creative for different placements. Consider audience behaviour and best practices on each platform – use different assets, aspect ratios, video edits, copy, headlines and links – to help your ad run in as many places as possible. 

5. Use Reels to supercharge results 

People watching Reels are actively engaged and open to discovery, and therefore more likely to take action. It is a highly versatile tool proven to improve campaign outcomes. 

Make your Reels entertaining, digestible and relatable. To increase positive responses, adhere to Meta’s best practices for creating native Reels ads:

• Build or adapt your assets to a 9:16 aspect ratio – that’s portrait instead of landscape;
• Include sound – 80 per cent of reels are viewed sound-on; and,
• Adhere to safe zones – leave space at the top and bottom of your Reel free from text, logos, and other key creative elements – so your messages are not obscured by the UI.

Text overlay recommendations for ads in Reels and Stories.

Gain a competitive edge

Gain a competitive edge with diverse creative experiences that offer visual variety and multiple opportunities to attract. Incorporate these tips into your upcoming campaigns, while taking an always-on creative testing approach to determine which ads are working best.