Over the last few years it has become apparent that Facebook expects marketers to present users with a visually appetizing reason to engage with their company’s ad. Nowadays, you can’t just post a boring picture accompanied by a quick “Like Us Now!” and expect results. Creative can be the most difficult part of the ad creation process, however, because of the challenge of creating engaging content. Here, we’ll give you some pointers on making the best ad creative, so you can maximize the value of the time and money you put into the process.

1. Connect to Users with Relatable Content

One of the best ways to generate excitement for your users is to portray lifestyle imagery. For example, if you are promoting a mobile game, you can show screenshots of actual gameplay so that users can picture themselves playing the game and experiencing what a user would see. Alternatively, if you’re promoting a travel company, you can serve images of beautiful scenery that entices users to imagine themselves in those very locations. See below as an example. The creative strategy connects users to content that is not only relatable but provokes emotion of desire. Remember that emotions are triggered from real situations, and people are more likely to experience something based on what they see.

2. Use a Vibrant Image

Remember that Facebook’s background is white, so colorful images are going to stick out most. To make your image even more easy on the eye, consider adding a contrasting background border color. You want to provide your audience with something they haven’t seen before, or you risk them skipping over it. Children and pets tend to work well in this regard, as they are two of the top five most shared image types on social media . And if it isn’t incongruent with your brand, a funny or odd image can also be very effective in capturing people’s attention, and thus increasing your CTR. Of course, don’t forget to update your images periodically, as they too will become old news over time.

3. Give People a Reason to Click

As nice or catchy as your ad may look, it will fail if people don’t have any reason to engage with. It all starts with a clear call-to-action. You’ve got your visitor’s attention, and with a good CTA, you’ll give them the necessary push to make it to your website. People are driven by incentives, so giving them something like free shipping or special discounts will go a long way towards driving conversions. When crafting your CTA, remember to promote your benefit, not the product. Not everyone who sees your ad will have immediate interest in your business, so conveying the value they get from clicking on your ad is most important since that is universal.

4. Test, Test, Test

As valuable as these and other best practices are, you should always test your images to ensure that you are maximizing your response rate. Particularly for longer running ad campaigns, your ad may experience ad fatigue over time, so it doesn't hurt to have alternate images to refresh the campaign. Conducting a simple A/B test by rotating your images and keeping the text constant can drive better results for your campaign.

What kind of experiences have you had with ad creatives on Facebook? Let us know in the comments!