Design Facebook Ad Graphics That Don't Get Ignored (7-Figure Ad Designs)

Summary

This video educates viewers on crafting effective Facebook and Instagram ad graphics to overcome 'banner blindness.' It explains how our brains filter out ads and suggests strategies to create attention-grabbing ads. Tips include using unique and interesting elements for the target audience, avoiding common ad patterns, and blending in with organic content. The video also advises on leveraging current trends and native formats to enhance ad visibility and engagement.

Takeaways

• 🔍 The primary goal of ad graphics on Facebook and Instagram is to capture attention, halt scrolling, and encourage users to read the ad.
• 👀 'Banner blindness' is a phenomenon where users subconsciously ignore ads due to being overwhelmed with information.
• 🧠 Our brains naturally filter out what's not important, leading to ads being often overlooked unless they stand out effectively.
• 📊 Studies show that users tend to ignore the top and side areas of websites where ads typically reside, focusing more on central content.
• 📈 To overcome banner blindness, advertisers must create unique and engaging graphics that don't blend in with typical ad patterns.
• 🚫 Avoid using overly polished stock images or common design styles that users have learned to filter out as ads.
• 📱 Utilize native formats and styles that mimic organic posts on social media platforms to increase the likelihood of engagement.
• 🎨 Incorporate visuals that represent specific challenges or struggles of the target audience in an exaggerated yet relatable manner.
• 🌐 Keep an eye on current trends and popular formats on various platforms to adapt and incorporate them into your ad graphics.
• 📈 Use native formats like square or portrait images that align with the organic content style of Facebook and Instagram.
• 👍 For further improvement, combine effective ad graphics with compelling headlines to increase the chances of user interaction.

Q & A

What is the primary goal of ad graphics on Facebook and Instagram?

The primary goal of ad graphics is to grab people's attention, stop them from scrolling, and encourage them to read the ad.

What is banner blindness and why does it affect ad graphics?

Banner blindness is a phenomenon where people's brains filter out and ignore ads because they are trained to subconsciously detect what an ad looks like and then automatically disregard it.

How do people's brains filter out ads based on placement?

People's brains have learned to ignore areas where ads typically appear, such as the top and sides of websites, because ads generally live in those places.

Why do ads in Facebook and Instagram newsfeeds need to be different from traditional web banners?

Ads in Facebook and Instagram newsfeeds need to be different because they are integrated directly into the feed, unlike traditional web banners that are placed separately.

How do design patterns contribute to banner blindness?

Design patterns contribute to banner blindness because if everyone uses similar design styles and patterns, ads start to look the same, making it easier for users to identify and filter them out.

What is the issue with using stereotypical stock images in ads?

Using stereotypical stock images can be problematic because they are easily identifiable and often get filtered out by users who have learned to associate such images with ads.

Why do ads with landscape format images stand out in the wrong way on Instagram?

Ads with landscape format images stand out in the wrong way on Instagram because most organic photos in the feed are square or portrait, making the rectangular ad images easily identifiable.

What is the key to creating ad graphics that stand out in a good way?

The key to creating ad graphics that stand out in a good way is to include elements that are uniquely interesting and specific to the target audience, rather than just being bright or loud.

How can advertisers use visuals to represent challenges or struggles faced by their audience?

Advertisers can use visuals to represent challenges or struggles by creating exaggerated images that are attention-grabbing and then using text to provide context and relevance to the specific audience.

Why are memes effective in ad graphics and how can advertisers use them?

Memes are effective in ad graphics because they have become popular and are easily recognized. Advertisers can use memes that are specific to their industry to create highly effective ads by catching onto current trends.

How can advertisers get inspiration for ad graphics from other platforms?

Advertisers can get inspiration for ad graphics by looking at what's working on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and adapting those trends and formats to their Facebook and Instagram ads.

What is the recommended format for Facebook and Instagram ad graphics?

The recommended format for Facebook and Instagram ad graphics is to use square images or portrait type, which is 1080 by 1350 on Instagram, to blend in with the organic content.

Outlines

00:00

👀 Overcoming Banner Blindness in Ads

The first paragraph discusses the challenge of creating Facebook and Instagram ad graphics that stand out amidst the phenomenon known as banner blindness. This cognitive filtering process causes viewers to subconsciously ignore ads that fit common patterns. The speaker explains how our brains are trained to filter out ads based on their placement and design, and how advertisers can counteract this by understanding these tendencies. The key is to create graphics that are unique and interesting, avoiding common design pitfalls like using overly polished stock images or standard ad formats.

05:02

🎨 Crafting Engaging Ad Graphics

The second paragraph delves into the specifics of creating ad graphics that resonate with the target audience. It emphasizes the importance of using visuals that are uniquely interesting and specific to the audience, rather than just bright or loud for the sake of standing out. Examples are provided, such as using a photo of a public speaker for an audience interested in public speaking, or a screenshot of a familiar platform like Upwork or Shopify to grab the attention of those familiar with it. The speaker also suggests using visuals that represent specific challenges or struggles faced by the audience, exaggerating them for effect, and leveraging current trends like memes to make ads more engaging.

10:03

📈 Riding Trends for Effective Ad Graphics

The third paragraph focuses on leveraging current trends from various platforms to enhance ad graphics. It suggests looking at successful visual strategies on platforms like YouTube, Reddit, and Instagram for inspiration. The speaker encourages using native formats that blend in with organic content, such as square or portrait images, to avoid immediate ad detection. The paragraph concludes with a call to action for viewers to apply these strategies to create compelling ad graphics and improve their ad effectiveness.

Keywords

💡Banner Blindness

Banner blindness refers to the phenomenon where internet users ignore visual elements that are commonly used for advertisements, such as banners. In the context of the video, it explains why most ad graphics are ignored, as people subconsciously learn to filter out what looks like an advertisement to focus on more relevant content. The video discusses how to overcome this by creating ads that don't resemble the typical ignored banner formats.

💡Ad Graphics

Ad graphics are the visual components of an advertisement, designed to attract attention and convey a message. The video emphasizes the importance of creating ad graphics that stand out and are effective in capturing the viewer's attention amidst the clutter of social media feeds, where banner blindness is prevalent.

💡Newsfeed

A newsfeed is a continuously updating list of personal updates, news stories, and ads that appear on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The video script discusses how ads are often ignored in newsfeeds because they are not as interesting as personal updates or news articles, and it offers strategies to make ad graphics more noticeable within this context.

💡Organic Content

Organic content refers to posts that naturally appear on social media platforms, typically from friends, family, or followed accounts, without being paid for or promoted. The video contrasts organic content with ads, noting that ads are often filtered out because they do not resemble the more personal and engaging nature of organic posts.

💡Stock Photos

Stock photos are pre-made, licensed photographs that can be purchased and used in various media. The video points out that while stock photos are convenient, they can be easily recognized and filtered out by viewers, which is why it's crucial to select stock images that do not fit the stereotypical ad look to avoid being ignored.

💡Native Formats

Native formats refer to the shapes and sizes of images or videos that are naturally used by a platform's users. The video suggests using native formats like square or portrait images for ads on Facebook and Instagram to blend in with organic content and avoid the appearance of traditional ads that are easily ignored.

💡Carousel Ads

Carousel ads are a type of advertisement that allows users to swipe through multiple images or pieces of content within a single ad unit. The video gives an example of how to use carousel ads to show a 'before' and 'after' transformation, which is a technique borrowed from video trends and adapted for still images on social media platforms.

💡Trends

Trends refer to popular or widespread patterns of behavior, style, or ideas in a given time or place. The video encourages advertisers to catch on to current trends, such as the popularity of memes, and incorporate them into ad graphics to make them more relevant and engaging to the target audience.

💡Visual Elements

Visual elements are the graphical components that make up an ad, including images, colors, and text. The video emphasizes the importance of using visual elements that are uniquely interesting and specific to the target audience to grab their attention and make the ad stand out in a meaningful way.

💡Target Audience

The target audience is the specific group of people that an advertisement is intended to reach. The video script provides examples of how to create ad graphics that are particularly interesting to the target audience, such as using images that resonate with their experiences or challenges, which helps the ad to stand out and be noticed.

💡YouTube Thumbnails

YouTube thumbnails are the small images that represent videos on YouTube and are crucial for attracting viewers to click on them. The video suggests that the strategies used to create effective YouTube thumbnails, which are designed to grab attention, can be adapted for use in Facebook and Instagram ad graphics to overcome banner blindness.

Highlights

The importance of creating Facebook and Instagram ad graphics that capture attention and avoid being ignored due to banner blindness.

Banner blindness is a phenomenon where our brains filter out ads because of their repetitive and predictable nature.

Our eyes naturally track to the center of a webpage, often ignoring top and side areas where ads typically reside.

People on Facebook and Instagram are more interested in updates from friends than ads, leading to a tendency to filter out ads.

To overcome banner blindness, advertisers must understand how the brain filters information and identify ads.

Using unique and interesting elements in ad graphics can help grab the attention of the target audience.

Avoiding common design patterns and stock images can prevent ads from being easily identified and ignored.

Using native formats and avoiding outdated ad formats like landscape images can help ads blend in with organic content.

Incorporating current trends, such as memes, into ad graphics can make them more relevant and attention-grabbing.

Using exaggerated visuals to represent specific challenges or struggles that the target audience experiences can be effective.

Drawing inspiration from other platforms like YouTube for ad graphic design can lead to innovative ad strategies.

Applying video trends, such as before-and-after transformations, to image carousels can create engaging ad experiences.

Using native formats like square or portrait images on Instagram can help ads appear more organic.

Creating ad graphics that are uniquely interesting and specific to the target audience can increase engagement.

Highlighting and using text on ad images can help guide the viewer's attention and provide context.

The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to apply these strategies to create more effective Facebook and Instagram ad graphics.

Transcripts

- In this video, you're going to learn

how to create great Facebook and Instagram ad graphics

that actually work.

The job of your ad graphic

is to get people to pay attention,

to stop scrolling,

and to actually read your ad.

But the vast majority of ad graphics

actually just get ignored.

This is due to a phenomenon known as banner blindness.

Now, our brains can only take in

and process so much information at a time.

So in order to manage

all of the different things coming in at us at once,

our brains filter out what's not important

and focus on what actually matters to us.

And that means that we train our brains

to actually subconsciously detect what an ad looks like,

and then automatically ignore it.

What's interesting in the Facebook and Instagram newsfeeds

are generally updates from friends,

and posts on what friends and family

and acquaintances are doing,

possibly even news articles.

But what isn't interesting is the ad,

and that's why we've trained ourselves to filter them out.

So as an advertiser, how do you overcome banner blindness

and create graphics that actually grab attention?

Well, that's exactly what we're going to talk about now.

First of all, we need to understand

how our brains actually do this filtering.

So on the web, this is where banner blindness,

or that term came from.

We automatically filter out based on placement.

So we kind of learned

that banners normally appear at the top of websites

or in the right rail on websites,

and so we tend to ignore those places.

Studies have been done that show

that our eyes naturally track to the center of the webpage

and ignore what's at the top and on the side of websites,

simply because we've learned over time

that the ads generally live in those places.

On the Google search results page,

studies have also shown

that we tend to naturally just ignore

the first couple of results

because we know that those results are generally ads.

And so we skip down a little bit

and go straight to the organic search results.

But with Facebook and Instagram ads,

we can't really do that,

the ads live directly in the newsfeed,

so there must be another way,

something else that our brains are doing

in order to identify and filter out those ads.

One of the ways we do this

is by identifying patterns within designs.

As advertisers, we're all guilty of this,

we look at our own newsfeed

and we look at the ads that are there,

or we go and look at our competitors

and see what they're doing,

and we tend to use a similar design style

and design patterns to them.

And now logically, that makes sense

because we see what our competitors are doing

and we try to do something similar except go one better.

But what that does is that creates a situation

where if everybody's doing that,

then everybody's ads end up essentially looking the same,

and that rapidly accelerates the onset of banner blindness

within our target audience.

Because it's very easy

for them to learn what an ad looks like in your industry,

and then start to filter that out.

Maybe you've noticed ads

that have a person with a smiling face,

they might even be pointing,

with some nice text next to them on the ad.

That's a very common design style,

but because it's used so heavily now,

often it's not as effective.

This same principle

applies to stock images and stock photos.

Now, there's nothing necessarily wrong

with using stock photos,

but it's very important to select ones

that don't naturally get ignored and filtered out.

If you think about the Facebook newsfeed,

it's full of organic native photos

that people have often taken on iPhones

and just post it up on Facebook and Instagram.

Now these aren't polished or professional looking.

However, if you contrast that

to a lot of the stock images that you see

which are extremely polished,

extremely professional looking,

they've got posed actors and actresses in those photos,

it's very easy to identify a lot of stock images

because of the general style they use.

And because of that,

if you choose a stereotypical stock image or photo,

it's very easy for users to identify that and filter it out.

The other common way

that people can identify an ad in the feed is the format.

If you look at Instagram, for example,

all of the photos are pretty much square,

or they're in a portrait type format, slightly taller.

Now, the default for ads for a very long time

was a landscape type image.

And so when Instagram ads rolled around,

a lot of Facebook advertisers

simply kept using their landscape images.

Now, that meant it was very easy

to identify an ad in the Instagram newsfeed

because they were the ones that were rectangular.

Every other image in the feed was square or portrait.

The same thing happens today still,

if you scroll through your newsfeed

and look at the organic photos that you see,

you will notice that most of them are square

or maybe a portrait type,

there are a few that are landscape,

but if you look at the ones that are used for ads

they are very specific dimensions,

and so it's still very easy to identify an ad

that uses the old landscape format for their ad graphics.

And finally, something else

that people often get wrong with their ads

that make it very easy to identify them as an ad

is they use these overly bright, loud graphics.

And the reason for that

is they think they're doing the right thing

and trying to make something that stands out, and it does,

however, it stands out in the wrong way,

it stands out and screams, "Hey, I'm an ad, ignore me."

And the reason for that

is because it doesn't look anything

like what somebody would post organically.

So the key is to stand out,

but doing it in the right way,

and not standing out as an ad,

but standing out as something that grabs attention

and doesn't instantly flag itself as an ad.

And now we're going to get into the nitty-gritty details

of how to do that.

The key to standing out in a good way

is to create graphics that contain elements

that are uniquely interesting and specific

to your target audience.

So you want things in there

that don't just stand out for the sake of standing out

because they're bright, or because they're loud,

or because they're unusual,

but you wanna put things in your graphics

that are something that are particularly interesting

to your target audience.

For example, and this is a really simple one to start with,

if you teach people how to become public speakers,

putting a photo of you or somebody else

on stage speaking in public is a great way to do this.

Most people are going to skip over it

if they're not in your target audience, which is fine,

but for somebody who's actively looking

to become a better public speaker

or to learn how to get on stages,

if they see a photo in their feed

of somebody speaking on stage,

it's going to grab their attention.

Now, have a quick look at this example.

This is somebody speaking on stage,

and it doesn't look like a professional or a stock photo,

it's literally taken on an iPhone,

and that's what makes it so effective.

It's a combination

of something that's particularly of interest

to your target audience,

and it blends in as an organic looking photo,

it's not something that looks like an ad

when you immediately see it.

Now, let's look at another example.

Now this image actually shows a screenshot

of the Upwork platform,

and only people who have actually been on there

and tried to find work on Upwork

will recognize this image.

So for anybody who's outside

of this person's target audience means nothing,

but for people within the target audience,

this is not something they see everyday on Facebook.

So when they see this,

because it's so recognizable to them,

it's going to grab their attention.

And this really simple use of highlighting

and texts on here,

it then takes them that next step further

and grabs a little bit more interest.

So they stop because they see this screen,

and they think, "Hey, I recognize that, what is that?"

And then they see this little bit of text on the photo,

and then they think, "Ah, okay, this is something

that I'm definitely interested in," and they keep reading.

So that's a great example

of how you can use these type of visual elements in your ads

that are very specific to only your target audience.

And one more example that we've got here is this chart.

So somebody who uses Shopify

is going to recognize this backend screenshot

of a sales chart inside Shopify,

and they're going to stop and probably have a read.

And now they've actually put some texts

at the top of the graphic as well

to sort of continue that journey,

to get them to stop with the image,

read the text at the top,

and then hopefully read the ad copy.

So again, only people who are in this target audience

are going to stop and pay attention to this image,

and that's exactly what you want.

All right, next up, you can use visuals

to represent a particular challenge or struggle

that your audience experiences

and do it in an exaggerated way.

Have a look at this example from scalable.co,

they're using a really exaggerated visual,

which is quite interesting,

and then they're putting the text at the top

to filter out and make sure that it appeals

only to their specific audience.

The text also gives that context

as to why that visual is relevant

to what they're talking about.

So this is something that is attention grabbing

because it's unusual,

and then they use the text on the image as well

to make it contextual and relevant

to that specific audience.

So think about how you could do something like this

for your own ad graphics.

All right, next up,

a great way to create really effective ad graphics

is to catch on to current trends.

So have a look at what's happening organically

inside the Facebook and Instagram newsfeeds,

and also outside on other platforms,

and try to figure out what's trending now

in terms of visuals, and use that in your ads.

A great example of this is memes.

So memes have taken off in popularity

and by recognizing that and bringing that to ads,

a lot of people have done really well in recent times.

So they caught onto the fact

that memes were trending on platforms like Reddit,

they were starting to pop up everywhere on Facebook as well,

and then people thought, "Hey, I'll bring this to my ads."

And if you can find memes

that are even more specific to your industry as well

and catch trends that are happening in your industry

and attach memes to them,

it's a very good way to create highly effective ads.

And another way to think about this

is catching on to trends within a trend.

So memes are a broad trend,

but you'll see certain memes that then trend as well,

so how can you take those popular memes,

turn it into one for yourself, your product, your service,

and then create an ad based around that.

So it's surfing that trend within the trend.

Another great way to come up

with really effective Facebook and Instagram ad graphics

is to look at what's happening

and what's working on other platforms.

One of my favorite ones at the moment is actually YouTube.

So YouTube thumbnails are a great way to get inspiration

for your ad graphics

because YouTube creators rely so heavily on thumbnails

that they have become very, very good

at creating thumbnails

that people actually pay attention to and click.

So have a look

at what your competitors are doing on YouTube,

what others in your industry are doing

with their YouTube thumbnails, for example,

and see if you can bring that across

to your Facebook and Instagram ad graphics.

Think about other platforms as well,

have a look at places like Instagram organic, okay?

Instagram is very, very visual,

have a look at what people are doing

organically on Instagram,

and see if you can bring that across.

Think about other platforms, maybe Reddit, maybe others,

where visuals are used heavily,

see trends that are emerging there

and see if you can bring them across to Facebook.

Another thing I'll say here

is don't limit yourself to images.

I look at TikTok and Instagram,

and there's a trend at the moment

where people will sort of look one way

and they'll do something visual

and suddenly, boom, there's a big transformation, okay?

That's a video trend,

but I think how can I apply that to my images?

Well, I could do a carousel with two different images

where the first one is the before state

and then you swipe across,

and the second image shows the after state.

Here's a quick example for you.

Let's think about if you're somebody

who teaches how to get organized,

you could show a before state image of a messy office,

things everywhere,

and then they swipe left

and look at the second image in the carousel,

and the office is tidy and perfectly organized.

That is how you could take that video trend,

adapt it to images,

and then use it on Facebook and Instagram.

So the key here is to spend time on other platforms,

find trends, see what's working

and see if you can bring that across

to your Facebook and Instagram ads.

Now, the next one, we touched on this earlier

is to use native formats.

For Facebook and Instagram,

I recommend using square images or the portrait type

which is, I think it's 1080 by 1350 on Instagram,

because that tends to be

what people are starting to use organically now.

So make sure when you're creating ads,

follow these tips that I gave you earlier,

and when you do it,

use these organic native looking formats

so that you don't instantly get filtered out

no matter what you do as being an ad

simply because of the format that you used.

Now, if you've enjoyed this video,

make sure you give it a thumbs up.

If you want to hear more from me,

hit subscribe and hit that little bell,

you'll get notified whenever I release a new video.

And I'm putting a video up here now

that teach you how to create better headlines

so that once you use these tips to create better ad images,

then you can go and create a better headlines

to get them to keep reading your ad,

and hopefully click and take action.

Until next time, thanks for watching, talk to you soon.

(light music)