It’s time you spend more time on your creatives — especially in dynamic product ads

Have you ever wondered why an ad or a post of yours isn’t getting any traction?

Or maybe you’re just out of ideas and tired of copy-pasting the same generic creatives into the same boring ads over and over. Or maybe you’re never quite sure what to put in an ad?

If you haven’t, then by all means move on. You’re golden.

If you have, however—and to be honest, chances are you have—maybe there’s a tip or two you can pluck from this article.

More specifically, if you’re looking for insight into or inspiration for using creatives to make your ads more target-specific, you’ve come to the right place.

Imagine you’re standing on a crowded street. You’re in a jolly mood, and you want to share that mood with the rest of the world.

"Hello, everyone!" you yell.

No answer. All you hear is the footsteps of busy people passing you by. Maybe a pigeon eyes you curiously from a nearby lamppost.

But why the silence?

You’ve probably guessed it by now. Because you weren’t specific enough.

Imagine if instead you’d yelled, "Hi! Any lion tamers here?"

Most people would still ignore you, most likely.

But lion tamers? Odds are you’d have their attention in a heartbeat.

And while you needn’t be as specific as lion tamers (you could limit yourself to circus performers, say, or entertainers), the likelihood of you getting a response increases exponentially as your message grows more targeted.

This much you probably already knew. When you try to attract everyone, you end up not attracting anyone.

But you need to have the same mindset when it comes to your ad creatives. They are how you best distinguish both your brand, your message, your product, and the ad overall from the other riffraff on the platform.

And this is where DPAs enter the picture—because they’re exceptionally good at reaching a wide audience while (with a minimum of effort) targeted the message to specific audiences.

Targeting & automation

Consider Dynamic Product Ads as a template in which to fit all your products.

Facebook helps you get the right products in front of the right people, but it can only take you so far.

You have to step in along the way and make some decisions. For one, you have two (in reality more) choices when it comes to audience segmentation.

You can target people who have previously visited your website
You can target a broader audience where Facebook’s algorithm attempts to display the most relevant products in your product catalog

This also means that there may be different USPs (Unique Selling Propositions) depending on the target audience.

Examples of relevant USPs may be specific product benefits, prices, delivery time, customer service, free shipping, or free returns.

Never forget to make your creatives and content relevant

And by relevant we don’t mean relevant to the times or with the current fashion.

Relevant to the audience. Always and forever relevant to the audience.

With this in mind, don’t be afraid to:

Make the product image stand out
Create something unexpected
Feel free to use color spectra that contrast with Facebook's blue, white, and gray shades
Highlight your brand and relevant ad copy
Split-test till your hair turns gray

Often you won’t know what works until you’ve tried it out. And there’s no shame in that.

Creatives and design are inherently subjective area. There are best practices to consider, and there is color theory and a long list of other factors to keep in mind—but ultimately, you won’t know till you know.

If this weren’t the case, we wouldn’t have been able to send subscribers five examples of outstanding ads every single week—because effective ads and creatives depend on so many factors.

Sometimes it’s not possible (or inadvisable) to make the product itself stand out. This is where you make the background stand out instead. Or focus on creating contrasts. Or design a killer splash. Or maybe you have the perfect message.

Or, most likely, you’ll do a combination of all these things.

The point is, your creatives are not limited to the color and shape of the design. The effect of your creatives are as much a part of and contribute to all the other elements in your ad.

But when is what relevant?

See, now you’re asking the right question.

Pro-tip

Consider testing all DPA ad formats. At the time of writing, there are three different formats, all of which have their strengths and weaknesses. We recommend using at least three ads in each ad set to allow Facebook's algorithm to prioritize what performs best.

Customize your ads to the target audience

It's essential that you address the target audience in a potential buying process with a customized message and display products accordingly.

Moreover, it’s important that your creatives are tailored to the exact audience you are targeting and the time they will appear in the ad.

How to weigh one element over another and what to focus on more than something else varies greatly according to more factors than we have time to get into here.

But for a start, consider these two.

While perhaps obvious, it’s nonetheless important to mention.

Take advantage of the opportunity to show previous visitors products that they have already shown interest in along with products that relate to those they have shown interest in.

When a customer looks at an item, they’re displaying a strong signal of interest—something about that specific product has caught their attention.

By reminding them of the products that aroused that interest, you are taking advantage of the first attraction.

But what if the item didn’t quite match their needs?

This is why it’s important to include related products—to remind them that you also offer alternatives.

Do be mindful of the period and frequency with which previous visitors are retargeted. It’s easy to annoy them if you keep pushing your ads on them.

It can be worth it to target a wide audience

By targeting a broad audience, based on location or demographics, for instance, you can reach people who have expressed interest in your products (or products similar to yours), even if they haven’t visited your site or even know you exist.

For this, of course, you’ll need a completely different message and design, since your goals are different.

You’re not trying to conjure up conversions out of the blue—you’re trying to catch people’s attention and let them know you have products they might be or might later become interested in.

If you are interested in Dynamic Ads, you can design your Dynamic Product Ads for them too.